Tips and tricks for half and half

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Barabus

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2017
Messages
98
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Cygnus
Vessel Make
Meridian 391
My half and half for coffee keeps turning to butter onboard. Any tricks to stop this? Lasts only about one week then goes bad and turns.
 
We use milk for both our tea and coffee and it freezes great!
 
Or get those vacuum packed single serves like you see in hotels and coffee shops. No need to even refrigerate. Just plain old milk from non-fat to whole for that first cup for me.
 
We get about 6 weeks out of our super sized UHT non organic half and half.
Nice to always have there when we arrive late. Coffee next morning without half and half is not worth waking up for.
I see you are in Seattle. Darigold in paper carton is UHT. Long shelf life.
 
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I don't use milk/cream in my coffee, but I always have cans of evaporated milk onboard for making clam chowder. Until I found out that now you can get powdered whole milk. It seems really rich, flavor is good, and a tablespoon or two in a cup of coffee might get you what you want. Zip lock bag keeps fine.
 
Or get those vacuum packed single serves like you see in hotels and coffee shops.
I use this and unless my guests see me adding it to their coffee, they don't even know the difference!
 

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We get about 6 weeks out of our super sized UHT non organic half and half.
Nice to always have there when we arrive late. Coffee next morning without half and half is not worth waking up for.
I see you are in Seattle. Darigold in paper carton is UHT. Long shelf life.

I use/ love Darigold. Usually take a bit from the half gallon in my house. Night and day difference between the the stuff at home and on the boat. Guess I can go colder and try.
 
Takes a while to get use to black but when you do , you will never put anything in your coffee but coffee
 
I use/ love Darigold. Usually take a bit from the half gallon in my house. Night and day difference between the the stuff at home and on the boat. Guess I can go colder and try.

Barabus, good to hear that you are a Darigold fan. I am one of those responsible for what is inside that carton. Thanks for being a customer!

Arc, I love black coffee, but like many of us who may have run a little too hard for a few decades, I am subject to reflux if I do not watch my diet and lifestyle carefully. The cream in the coffee allows me to drink alot of coffee and still protect myself from reflux.
 
Thanks for the tips, but I drink it black. ;) To make up for that, have a milkshake every several years. :D
 
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Years ago I was sitting in a coffee shop on my walk to the hardware store. I had to get a varnish that was compatible with "stearate" according to the mahogany stain that I had just applied on my boat. I didn't know know (and still don't) what stearate is, but I noticed that the "non-dairy coffee whitener" sitting on the table contained stearate. No plastic milk for me, thank you.

I wonder what they use to get the fake hazelnut flavor? Probably a chemical that I can't even pronounce known by its cute trade name. Fakelnut flavoring?
 
I have been using powdered heavy cream in my coffee. It is a little difficult to mix. I use a small battery powered wisk or if f you use instant coffee and mix the milk powder with the dry coffee before adding water it mixes easily.
 
My half and half for coffee keeps turning to butter onboard. Any tricks to stop this? Lasts only about one week then goes bad and turns.

Buy the irradiated boxed milk. Same stuff as the little squeeze boxes you put in the kid's lunch, but quarts. Good on a boat with limited refrigeration No fridge needed til you open it. Alaskans buy it by the case.
 
I had a similar experience at home recently. I noticed little white clumps floating in my coffee. I investigated further, sniffed and sipped, it seemed fine and the little clumps had the texture of soft butter. I don’t know why the butter separated, it said it was homogenized.
As I recall it was an organic half and half that my wife got from Whole Foods. My wife is a vegan food hippy. I changed brands and it hasn’t happened again.

Waiter! There is dirt in my soup! That’s not dirt sir, that’s Earth.
 
Pasteurized: 5-7 days, if stored very cold up to 10 days

Ultra-Pasteurized (UHT: Ultra High temperature): 30-90 days

Either can be frozen.

I drink my coffee black. My wife drinks her tea black. Neither of us drink milk. We keep powdered milk on the boat for cooking purposes. If we have guests, we tell them if they want that stuff they need to bring it with them........or they're welcome to powdered milk.
 
Help is on the way.
Some industry players in the US, including Darigold, are moving to high tech aseptic packaging over time so these products will soon not need refrigeration prior to opening.
Aseptic uses ultra high temp pasteurization and then fills a sterile container in a sterile environment. Virtually unlimited shelf.
 
Buy the irradiated boxed milk. Same stuff as the little squeeze boxes you put in the kid's lunch...

Heh, my 3 year old asked "is the milk supposed to be CHUNKY?" after I'd given him one of those.

They do go bad. When you've got a little one drinking them all the time you sometimes lose track of which ones were the freshest/oldest. Though the label on the package wasn't past the listed date.
 
An alternative to milk or cream

Irish cream liquor, doesn’t go bad and tastes great
 
Greetings,
Mr. g. So what your saying is IF Mr. B. mixes his quart of half and half with a quart of whiskey it won't go bad? What a novel idea.


iu
 
My half & half or coffee cream always keeps minimum 1 week after date stamped. I've always seen this any time I actually have it that long, as I go through 1L a week myself. Check refrig with a thermometer, 4C/40F max. Freezing will cause cream separation, it can be re-homogenized with a hand held high speed blender (use a tall container!).
 

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