Jeßus wrote:

On Fri, 9 Nov 2018 23:35:13 +0000 (UTC), danny burstein
wrote:

In "Rod Speed"
writes:

But powdered milk used to be cheaper than fresh milk,
presumably because they didn't have to move it in
refrigerated trucks etc once made, so the question is why
has the price ratio changed now ?

Just confirming your recollection here. Back in the 1960's
we'd use powdered milk in cooking (mmmm, macaroni and
cheese...) and it was cheaper than whole milk.

About 15 years ago (after decades of not using any) I went
to pick up some more, and was surprised that the dry stuff
was more expensive.

There's so much in the way of price controls and minimum
pricing and rules and regulation, that I can't even try
guessing as to the reasons.

Less demand now = lower economies of scale?

Using half powdered/dry milk (+ water) and half fresh milk
was hyped as a big money saver back in the 50s and 60s to
stretch food budgets. Dry milk was definitely less expensive
than fresh back then.

A lot of my bread machine recipes call for dry milk, and
like others, I was shocked at the higher price for the
dry stuff these days. So I just use fresh in those recipes
and adjust the water or other wet ingredients accordingly.

My problem now is that some stores carrying fresh milk
don't seem to know how to handle and store it properly
so it goes bad much faster than it should. As in opening
a new jug of milk and having it already gone lumpy within
it's "use by" date. So I avoid that store and drive to
a farther one whenever I need to buy fresh milk. More
gas burned, but less wasted milk.

Nyssa, who has figured out that keeping a quart of milk
in the freezer for emergencies is more cost effective than
making a trip into town for just milk