Leftover Milk Recipes and Ways to Use Up Milk

If you accidentally bought a gallon but only need a cup, here are some ideas to use it up before it goes bad.

Drink It

• Flavor it:What kid doesn’t like chocolate or strawberry milk. Use up your carton by making homemade versions of these childhood classics. For more grown-up flavors, try a spicy cup of masala chai or turmeric tea.
• Blend it: If your go-to breakfast is a smoothie, use protein- and nutrient-packed milk as the liquid. And if you want to add ice cream into the blender for a mid-day milkshake, we’re certainly not going to stop you.

Cook It

• Tenderize meat: Soaking, poaching and braising chicken, fish or pork in milk is a time-tested way to produce a more tender final dish (see recipe below). You can also add up to a cup of milk to simmering meat sauces, such as Bolognese; the lactic acid in the milk will tenderize the dish without making it creamy.
• Make soup: Recipes such as chowders often get their satisfying creaminess from a hefty dose of milk, thickened with flour or corn starch to keep it from separating.
• Sauce it up: If you are a pasta lover, then milk-based sauces, such as the mother sauce béchamel and its derivative Mornay, are recipes that you will use over and over again (think alfredo sauce and mac and cheese, respectively).

Turn It Into Dessert

• Make dessert: Puddings and custards get their luscious texture from guzzles of milk. So does ice cream! Try making a homemade batch. Don’t have an ice cream maker? With this recipe, you don’t need one!
• Boil it down: Many recipes for Dulce de Leche, the classic Argentinean caramel sauce, start with sweetened condensed milk. But if you want to go ultra-authentic, start with just milk and sugar cooked low and slow, slow, slow.
• Freeze it: The easiest milk dessert come thanks to the freezer: homemade fudge pops, granita, shaved ice. Why not try them all?

Bake It

• Turn it into bread: Japanese milk bread is a soft, tender loaf that’s delicious toasted with butter and jam. Here’s a milk bread recipe for a loaf and one for rolls.
• Eat your cake: Hot milk cake is a traditional fluffy vanilla cake made by adding warm milk to the batter. Served with it’s classic chocolate frosting, it makes a pretty great go-to birthday cake.
• Milk + bread: Pudding! An easy way to use up leftover bread and extra milk is by making bread pudding. Toss in fruit that needs to be used up, and you’re making an ultimate #nofoodwaste dessert.

Preserve It

• Make cheese: Turning milk into brie might seem complicated, but there are some simple cheese recipes which will turn your milk from perishable to preserved. These recipes for making your own ricotta, mozzarella, or queso fresco will show you just how easy it is to whip up your own batch from scratch.
• Ferment it: Milk can also be used to make yogurt and other fermented foods. By mixing yogurt or kefir with active cultures into milk, you can create a new batch of yogurt, extending the beneficial bacteria and using up your milk jug while you’re at it.
• Sour it: Turn your fresh milk into tart buttermilk by combining one tablespoon of vinegar or fresh lemon juice for every cup of milk, then letting it sit for about 10 minutes. Use it in recipes such as cornbread, biscuits and the best fried chicken.
• Freeze it: You can freeze liquid milk, just make sure there is a little room in the container for expansion. Freezing milk alters its taste and texture a bit but it’s still great for use in cooking and baking.