Powdered Milk & Eggs

Powdered milk and eggs both have a checkered past, but there seems to be a few new options available lately that taste pretty good. My new favorites are:

Milk

Nature’s First – This is my hands down favorite powdered milk. It’s a full cream milk with the simplest of ingredient lists. Milk. The downside is that because it doesn’t include any additives it can be a little more work to get it to fully dissolve. Now don't get me wrong . . . it's not one of those nasty "clumpers," it's just not an instant dissolve. If I’m eating anything where milk plays a big part (smoothies, granola, etc) this is the one I reach for first.
BTW - They also make a great coffee creamer!


Nido - My favorite instant milk powder and my current backup, Nido is a great tasting choice! Although you might not find it on your traditional grocery shelf, you can get it in most Asian and Latino grocery stores in a small or large can. It dissolves much more readily than Nature’s First so this is what I use in most of my recipes calling for powdered milk. It doesn’t have a full-cream milky taste, but it does taste like you're drinking milk NOT milk powder.



Eggs

This one is a little bit harder…. I hear many backpackers say they opt to pack in fresh or hard boiled eggs. Personally I wouldn't do it. I don't want to have to worry about spoilage or breakage so, unless it’s the first day out and I want fried eggs on the menu, I go with powdered. There are a couple good powdered options that taste a lot like real eggs.

Ova Easy – Made with just freeze-dried eggs, this one is definitely my first choice when it comes to powdered eggs. It’s the closest thing I’ve tasted to the real thing – in fact, I recently served these to a friend and they couldn’t tell the difference! Appearance, texture and flavor are just like home cooked scrambled eggs. Although they're good on their own, I really like them with a little freeze-dried cheese tossed in or mixed with dehydrated bell peppers and tomatoes. Yum!


Sonstegard – This is more of an egg-mix than Ova Easy as they’ve had milk, oil and salt added to them. These taste almost as good as the Ova Easy but (maybe due to the add ins?) the texture is a little bit more dense. Still a really good option though and less expensive than OE if you’re on a budget.