How To Substitute Evaporated Milk For Regular Milk

Obviously, you can use powdered milk mixed with water to make milk for your recipes. The instructions for doing so are on the box. What if all you have is evaporated milk? How much water do you add to that to make regular milk?

Evaporated milk is milk that has had 60% of its water removed. But, you don’t have to worry about any confusing conversion formula. Evaporated milk is reconstituted by adding an equal amount of water. You use a 1 to 1 ratio.

One 12-oz can of Carnation evaporated milk + 12 ounces water (1.5 cups) will make 24 oz or 3 cups of milk.

How Much Evaporated Milk Equals Regular Milk?

Again, evaporated milk can be made to equal regular milk by adding the same amount of water as you have in evaporated milk. So, if you want to make ONE CUP of regular milk, add 1/2 cup of water to 1/2 cup of evaporated milk. I’ll give you some specific conversions below but it’s very easy: To reconstitue evaporated milk and make it like regular milk, just mix it with water in a 1 to 1 ratio.

Evaporated Milk Conversions for Varying Amounts of Milk

Evaporated milk comes in 5-ounce or 12-ounce cans. So, to reconstitute a whole can simply add 5 ounces or 12 ounces of water, depending on whether you have a small or large can.

Hopefully, you have a glass measuring cup with ounce markers. A five ounce can of evaporated milk is 5/8 cups.  A twelve ounce can is 1.5 cups. Here is how you  substitute an entire can for regular milk:

  • 5-oz can evaporated milk + 5 ounces water = 10 oz or 1 1/4 cups of milk
  • 12-oz can evaporated milk + 12 ounces water (1.5 cups) = 24 oz or 3 cups of milk

Otherwise, to reconstitute other amounts just use the same amount of water as evaporated milk. To make just any old amount of milk can get a bit weird. For instance, if you wanted to make exactly 3/4 cup of milk you’d need to use 3/8 cup each of evaporated and water.  The easiest thing to do is to use easier-to-measure amounts and then measure out the amount of reconstituted milk you need. But here are some more conversions in case you want the exact numbers:

  • 1/2 cup milk = 1/4 cup evaporated + 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup milk = 1/2 cup evaporated + 1/2 cup water
  • 1 1/4 cups milk = 5/8 cup evaporated + 5/8 cup water
  • 1 1/2 cups milk = 3/4 cup evaporated + 3/4 cup water
  • 2 cups milk = 1 cup evaporated + 1 cup water
  • 2 1/4 cups milk = 1 1/8 cups evaporated + 1 1/8 cups water
  • 2 1/2 cups milk = 1 1/4 cups evaporated + 1 1/4 cups milk

I think you can figure it out from here!

More Substitutions

Does Thanksgiving Turkey Make You Sleepy from Tryptophan?

I just came across of dubious food fact about bananas. The tryptophan in bananas has sleep-inducing properties. Therefore, if you eat a banana before going to bed it will help...

You May Be Interested in These Articles