Milk has always been a staple in Americans refrigerators since the inception of the refrigerator. As such, it is assumed that all milk must stay in the fridge or else is spoils. And it spoils in such horrid ways, doesn’t it? The horrible smell arrives, or maybe instead of cereal and milk you end up with cereal and cottage cheese. Or how about some lemon milk with your coffee? All of this scares the junk out of us, so milk is only kept in the fridge, right? Wrong. It is also sold in what is called shelf stable containers. It is able to sit on a shelf in your pantry along with your dry pasta for quite some time, up to six months. After that point the milk is still good but there is a loss in nutritional value and such, but it has been done. Just be wary. Once it is open it must be refrigerated, and will last about 7 to 10 days.

You may be asking, as I did, what is added to my beloved milk to make this shelf stable version? Honestly, nothing. Shelf stable [Read more…]