[Navy salad]

Not mixed together!

I'd heard of Nestle Nido as an alternative source for dried whole milk powder, but never tried it till recently. This stuff is good! And it mixes fairly easily despite this being a typical complaint for most powdered milk that include the cream (possibly helped by using lecithin as an emulsifier), and it tastes closer to real milk that any others I've tried. I got it from Amazon here for $15 for a 56 ounce can. I've been adding it to coffee even at home!

My other discovery is about using uncooked chicken in dehydrator recipes. I had pretty much given up on chicken or turkey sausage because of the way it turns into rubbery disks when dehydrated/rehydrated. BUT these were all the pre-cooked sausage. I recently decided to give it one more try, using uncooked sausage, where you cook it yourself in a frying pan for maybe 4 minutes while frequently stirring. If you keep cutting it into little chunks with a spatula or wooden spoon while sauteing, it results in pieces that dehydrate/rehydrate much better than sliced pre-cooked sausage.

Anyway, YMMV, but I've really enjoyed both of these.

[Frango]

Nido is OK...Peak is better. It dissolves in hot and cold water without clumping and tastes better in my opinion.

[Navy salad]

I've never tried Peak, but thanks for the comment. The Nido I have seems to dissolve fine in both hot coffee and cold cereal, but perhaps Peak dissolves even better. On Amazon, Peak sells for about twice the price of Nido (55¢/oz vs 27¢/oz).

[JonnyQuest]

Memories!  Back in the late 90's I used Nido on home-made muesli while on a month long sea kayaking road trip through Baja.  Much preferred it to the instant milk powders available in the local Seattle mass market grocery stores.  After that, whenever I had a need for powdered milk I would search it out in the more specialty grocery stores in Seattle.  Not too hard to find locally.

Never heard of Peak.  Might give that a try the next time...

[RumiDude]

In general I do like Peak better than Nido. I also note that Peak is more spendy than Nido, but every once and a while I find it at a price closer.

I would advise a sampling taste test to see if it matters to you. A side by side dissolving test might also matter. The reason I suggest that is because most people do not use that much milk. So the expense if not that much of a splurge if you like Peak better.

I mostly use milk combined with hot or cold cereal in the morning. I also use it with protein powder or if I am making a pudding or similar. In those uses dissolving nicely is a priority for me.

Rumi

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"This is my Indian summer ... I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all."

[fairweather friend]

I've never tried Peak, but I've been a long time consumer of Nido and what I've found is that age matters:  the fresher it is, the better it dissolves in water.  This is why I only buy the small cans at Wal-Mart, one at a time.  The price is comparable or better than Amazon, but most importantly, you can read the "best by" date on the can before you buy it.  When you buy a food product from Amazon, you never really know what you're going to get in terms of the "best by" date.  Sure, it will probably be within the date, but maybe not by much.

I quit buying the large cans of Nido ages ago because I don't go through dried milk that fast.  Small cans cost more per serving, but it's much easier to make sure it's a fresh batch.

[Navy salad]

A taste test of Nido vs Peak

Bottom line: the tester likes the taste of Nido best, but the mixability of Peak the best

But good luck finding the large size of Nido these days, even on Amazon.

[Opus]

I haven't found larger cans of Nido, but I have been happy to find the smaller cans in more chain grocery stores. The QFC in my neighborhood carries it. Previously I had to go to Uwajimaya, Viet Wah, or Ranch99.

[Malachai Constant]

Always got it at a Mexican store lots of them around.

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"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn

[Navy salad]

Amazon has large cans of Nido back in stock. 56 ozs for $12.50-ish here

[Slim]

Anybody know of any non-milk powders out there - almond or oat ?

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"Our flapjacks sell like hotcakes"

[Navy salad]

At the risk of sounding like a shill for amazon, they carry powdered versions of most all that stuff. Almond milk powder, Oat milk powder and more. It's amazing the range of things people around the world make milk from.

[Snuffy]

Amazon is great but you can pick up powdered coconut milk at an Asian market or local co-op usually if you aren't limited to almond or oat.

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You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.

[Snuffy]

I've done pork sausage, as well, and it turns out great. Like you said, keep breaking it down smaller and smaller and it rehydrates perfectly!

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You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.

[Navy salad]

Snuffy: Another thing I just recently learned about (via backcountry Chef Glenn McAllister) is to work in about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs per pound of sausage (or hamburger, ground chicken/turkey, etc) before dehydrating. I just did this, but haven't tried rehydrating it yet so I can't comment on how well it works.