Custom Search

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Frugal College Cooking: Meet Your New BFF; It's Aseptic Packaging

I just added 18 quarts of soy milk to Lucy Marmalade's pantry for next year. It's good till February 2011. That's because it is in aseptic packaging.

Lucy will be using this in her cereal. Plus she likes to drink the stuff--even plain.

For a carless scholar, running out of milk is a pain. It's a pain to carry milk or to pack it in a bicycle basket. And you don't want your friends to think you are over-mooching rides, do you?

If you live in Europe, you know all about aseptic packaging, because that's how most milk is sold. More and more is available in the USA. I love it! It makes things so easy to store: just line up your goodies on a shelf.

I've been picking up soy milk at Dollar Tree, where--as might be expected--it's $1.00. It's a lot more at the regular grocery or on Amazon, but it may be worth the expense for the convenience.

In fact, it might be worth the extra cost to order from Amazon, which now has a grocery section. There you can find soy milk, milk, soups, and so on. Whole Foods also sells a lot of soup in aseptic packaging.

If you don't know what aseptic packaging looks like, here is a snap from Amazon:

I'll let you know when I find more of these treasures at Big Lots or Dollar Tree.

As a final comment, let me say this stuff is great to have in your emergency food cache for disasters. Those of us in the Katrina-area, now also known as the BP area, were happy to have aseptic milk and soup in days after the storm.

16 comments:

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

That's good to know...I should get some for my emergency kit....hope I never need to use it but it's peace of mind.

Anonymous said...

Lol; yes we do get a lot of stuff in that packaging over here. Amazon do groceries now? Are they trying to take over the world? I have actually just switched back to having my milk delivered by the milkman. Real glass pint bottles of fresh milk left outside my front door every monday, wednesday and friday. You rinse out the old bottles and leave them outside and they are collected and re-used time and time again. The old fashioned way is actually more environmentally friendly and it saves having to lug the stuff home from the supermarket.

I keep a bottle of powdered milk in the cupboard for emergencies- along with the candles!!

Tina said...

Heckuvan improvement on MREs. I have a bunch of canned foods plus some small carboys that I keep filled with water. These would add some variety to the survival mix.

Do they market cow's milk this way in the US? It would be perfect if it came in small amounts. I don't drink it but occasionally want some for cooking. End up wasting half of it, because once the dish is prepared, there's the rest of a quart that doesn't get used.

Funny about Money said...

Oh f'r cryin' out loud! Google had me signed in as my sidekick Tina the Superwoman at the Copyeditor's Desk gmail address. {grump!}

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

The milk I had in Portugal was the creamiest, freshest, most amazing stuff I've ever drunk

It is NOTHING like the "milk" I've had here in Canada

I still dream about it. :\

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Soy has a lot of health concerns so I pretty much avoid it. Rice milk is a good shelf stable alternative.

BG2.0 said...

Hi,

The US has aseptic packaged milk in the NY area under the Parmalat label. Whole, skim, etc.

Good idea to stockpile some. I will add it to the water. Not add to the water, you know what I mean!

Frugal Scholar said...

@hostess--After Katrina, we had aid workers with food and water (and ice!) after just a few days. An earthquake might be a different story.

@Tina/Funny--We still have some of the MREs. You can get 8 oz milks. What I would do for cooking would be to use powdered milk and then add a bit of butter to restore the milk fat.

@FB--aseptic milk or fresh milk???

Frugal Scholar said...

@Cubicle--Your comment--and a few others--have disappeared. What's the problem with soy milk?????

Chance said...

This is a great idea! In grad school running out of cereal milk (when you get up at 4 am to work on dis) was a tragedy and the source of fights with roomies. Then I discovered Parmalat, milk in a box, which they sold in quarts and in juicebox size. I prefer fresh milk, but in an emergency, I could grab a juicebox size from my secret stash in my room, and all was well.

Duchesse said...

Fabulously Broke, I'm in Canada too, have you tried Neilson TruTaste? I find it better than other brands of milk sold here.

Frugal Scholar said...

BG2.0-We used to buy tomatoes packaged by parmalat. I think that company was involved in a big scandal a few years back. Guess they survived.

Frugal Scholar said...

@Alienne--I wish I could get milk delivered like that!

Frugal Scholar said...

@Chance--As you can see, I am thinking this through. I'm having fun figuring everything out.

Shelley said...

I love my UHT (ultra-high temperature) milk - wouldn't buy it any other way. It keeps for absolutely ages even after it is opened and stacking boxes in the cupboard, well, that's part of my pantry stock. We drink about a litre a day. Mind, when UHT milk goes sour it is the worst smell and the taste...indescribably bad. If UHT milk hasn't made it to Utah when we move there, I will definitely miss it. Then again, I'll have a garage sized freezer again! Aseptic? - amazing thing to call it, no wonder it hasn't taken off. Makes you think of bandages and wounds! Yuck!

Frugal Scholar said...

@Shelley--I will now call it UHT. Aseptic sounds far less appetizing.