Last Updated October 27, 2024

Making evaporated milk at home is very simple to do. You only need one ingredient: milk!

The evaporated milk you buy from the store is simply milk that has had 60% of its water evaporated.You can make your own by simmering it on the stove until reduced by 60%, or a bit more than half. It takes a bit of time and diligence, half hour or so of simmering, and remembering it’s there so it doesn’t boil dry. And no. of course I’ve never done either of those things, nope. But really, it’s so simple to make you can hardly call this a “recipe”!

Now, knowing how to make evaporated milk is wonderful for various occasions, but it does have its cons. The most obvious being it takes time and is easy to forget simmering on the stove. Second, even when made correctly the milk can cook onto the bottom of the pan over the simmering period and is not the most fun to clean. Because of these drawbacks, I still do buy cans of evaporated milk at times!

On the flip side, the beauty of making your own evaporated milk is that you can personalize to your tastes or dietary needs. To make the closest to store-bought evaporated milk, use whole milk. Otherwise, you can use lower fat varieties or even any plant or nut milks you prefer!

The recipe as written below will give you the equivalent of 1 can of evaporated milk, or 1 1/2 cups. Adjust the recipe depending on how much you need!

Do you want to learn how to make homemade sweetened condensed milk, also? Click here for the recipe!

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Ingredient Substitutions

Homemade Evaporated Milk

Makes 1 1/2 cups / 12 oz (355ml) of evaporated milk

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups / 770g milk

Directions:

Place milk in wide pan over medium heat. When it starts to simmer, reduce heat to low.
Simmer until reduced by just more than half, this can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour, all depending on the stove. Remove from heat and cool.
Strain and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Best if used within 5 days.

Jenny’s Notes:

Whole milk will get you the closest to store-bought evaporated milk, but the beauty of making your own is that you can use whatever kind of milk you please, whether a lower fat milk or a plant-based milk.
While eyeballing may be the easiest way to judge if it the milk has reduced by half, it’s not the most exact. Instead, try dipping a toothpick in the milk before simmering and making a mark on the toothpick where the milk comes up to. That way, as the milk simmers down, you can periodically dip the toothpick back in to see how close to half it is.
When milk is almost ready, it will take on a very light golden color as it reduces and caramelizes.
Mason jars make great storage containers!

Yield 12 oz

Author Jennyblogs

Prep time

2 Min

Cook time

45 Min

Total time

47 Min

Homemade Evaporated Milk

Making evaporated milk at home is as easy as simmering milk on the stove!

Cook modePrevent screen from turning off

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups / 770g milk

Instructions

Place milk in wide pan over medium heat. When it starts to simmer, reduce heat to low.
Simmer until reduced by just more than half, this can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour, all depending on the stove. Remove from heat and cool.
Strain and store in refrigerator.

Notes

Whole milk will get you the closest to store-bought evaporated milk, but the beauty of making your own is that you can use whatever kind of milk you please, whether a lower fat milk or a plant-based milk.
While eyeballing may be the easiest way to judge if it the milk has reduced by half, it’s not the most exact. Instead, try dipping a toothpick in the milk before simmering and making a mark on the toothpick where the milk comes up to. That way, as the milk simmers down, you can periodically dip the toothpick back in to see how close to half it is.
When milk is almost ready, it will take on a very light golden color as it reduces and caramelizes.