382487 Sun Mar 18 21:39:17 -0700 2007 50 31 Home Cooking 0 2398634 The Chowhound Team split this tangent from its original location on the L.A. board. http://www.chowhound.com/topics/382457 * * * * * I saw a great version on the food network recently... drop a can of condensed milk in a pot of boiling water, and boil for 90 minutes. Make sure the can is always completely submerged, and after boiling, don't open the can until it has cooled. When served warm, it's fantastic! Sun Mar 18 20:44:19 -0700 2007 75441 meganw 1 2398642 What a nice and easy recipe. I found some recipes online too, but they seemed more complicated. :) Sun Mar 18 20:48:18 -0700 2007 2398634 57689 katkoupai 2 2398658 Katkoupai - a typo in my recipe - the can should be boiled for 3 hours, not 90 minutes. But you're right - pretty easy! M Sun Mar 18 20:56:40 -0700 2007 2398642 75441 meganw 3 2398668 Sounds great! Thanks for posting it. :) Sun Mar 18 21:00:19 -0700 2007 2398658 57689 katkoupai 4 2398716 I think I read that recipe, too. Be careful, it mentioned the can could explode. Sun Mar 18 21:29:06 -0700 2007 2398668 21761 212 5 2398727 Yep, that's why ensuring that the can is always completely submerged in the water is so critical - if the pot boiled dry, the can would explode. I use my pasta pot to make sure there's no chance of there NOT being enough water. Sun Mar 18 21:33:51 -0700 2007 2398716 75441 meganw 6 2402290 Absolutely make sure the can is covered in the water! When I was in high school my mother, who was a great affectionado of Eagle Brand cooked in the can, put one in a pot of water to do it's thing and forgot to turn the stove burner down before she took a nap! Result - brown deliciousness dripping from the dented kitchen ceiling and a big mess everywhere! Mon Mar 19 20:16:49 -0700 2007 2398727 14341 OCEllen 1 2398915 My mom used to this in the pressure cooker! I don't recall how long. But this was at 9000 ft. Or you can let Nestle do it for you. The can I have is from Chile. paulj Sun Mar 18 23:09:39 -0700 2007 2398634 12139 paulj 2 4851812 Pressure cook for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how thick you like the caramel. 20-minutes results in a caramel that will pour, 30-minutes results in a thick caramel that will not pour. Sun Jul 12 15:45:38 -0700 2009 2398915 126101 Antilope 1 2399513 My mother and grandmother have done it this way for decades (for use as filling in a sponge cake roll). I have a dedicated old pot for it (used another once and it dislcored the pot). I boil for 3 hours. If when you open the can, it doesn't seem quite done, put it back in the pot with the water almost to the top of the can at a simmer. Give it a stir every 10 minutes until you get the desired color. Mon Mar 19 07:58:05 -0700 2007 2398634 70639 esmom 1 2399616 I've done this often, I learned the trick from the mom of my best friend in high school, who was a caterer. There is no danger, just make sure the water always covers the can. I boil it for 90 minutes and usually do three cans at a time so there is always a can in the cupboard. It makes very good caramel. If you want a great, easy pie to make with this, try Caramel Banana Pie: - Take one purchased Graham Cracker Pie Crust (or make your own) - Slice three fresh bananas in the pie crust - Pour the contents of 1 can all over the bananas - Top with fresh whipped cream Yum. Mon Mar 19 08:26:05 -0700 2007 2398634 10308 Tom P 2 2400060 Sounds yummy. Mon Mar 19 10:17:03 -0700 2007 2399616 57689 katkoupai 2 4849487 There is a restaurant in Alabama called The Boar's Butt Cafe, they make the same type of pie and call it "Boar's Butt Pie" Delish!!! Sat Jul 11 13:44:25 -0700 2009 2399616 1092842 shellybabe1207 2 5243951 They call that bannofee pie in the uk- it has a cult following. Fri Dec 11 04:20:55 -0800 2009 2399616 1100806 crispysaltysweet 1 2399795 CAn you store the "transformed" can indefinitely in the cupboard as long as it isn't opened? Mon Mar 19 09:20:56 -0700 2007 2398634 17714 alex8alot 2 2402491 I am not sure I would go over a year. I once used one just under a year and all was well. Mon Mar 19 21:44:07 -0700 2007 2399795 10308 Tom P 1 2399987 Didn't the FN version use a hot dog cart's steam table? At least that's what 'Ham on the street' used. He's from Venezuela, so could have picked up the technique from his homeland. paulj Mon Mar 19 09:59:37 -0700 2007 2398634 12139 paulj 1 2400073 in the south, this is called 'cooked can' and is trailer trash delicacy... Mon Mar 19 10:19:43 -0700 2007 2398634 74176 kitchenknife 2 2400358 I like the name: "cooked can." :) Mon Mar 19 11:27:16 -0700 2007 2400073 57689 katkoupai 1 2400083 I want to go out and buy a can of condensed milk to do this now. What else can it be used for? Ice cream topping? Pies? I would love to know. :) Mon Mar 19 10:23:03 -0700 2007 2398634 57689 katkoupai 2 2402305 Alfajores! Make butter cookies and spread the dulce de leche on the bottom of one -- attach the bottom of the other to it, let cool and harden a bit, and you have Argentina's finest junk food. Mon Mar 19 20:21:42 -0700 2007 2400083 10811 Das Ubergeek 3 2402372 Okay, this sounds so good. I am gaining weight just reading about it. Sounds delicious! Mon Mar 19 20:50:23 -0700 2007 2402305 57689 katkoupai 3 2402449 Oh man, those were the dessert at an event that I went to this summer, and the caterer was being chased for the recipe. They were incredible. Mon Mar 19 21:29:26 -0700 2007 2402305 13525 JasmineG 2 2402495 You can use it for anything you like with caramel. Just try it, and open it and see what it there. Pretty creamy, lush caramel. Not quite as smooth and refined as if you made it on the stove. But I often find that caramel you make on the stove has a tendency to harden easily if you don’t do it just right. This is always creamy. Mon Mar 19 21:45:51 -0700 2007 2400083 10308 Tom P 1 2400115 I made one can the first time and it was so good I did 5 the next time and gave a couple out to my coworkers. Great on vanilla ice cream. Mon Mar 19 10:29:56 -0700 2007 2398634 16746 Pete G. 1 2400329 it's great on toast. a graham cracker. a SPOON. you name it. Mon Mar 19 11:20:08 -0700 2007 2398634 74176 kitchenknife 1 2400458 You can also make the Dulce de Leche in a crock pot. Pour a can of sweetened condensed milk in, set to low, stir every 45 minutes or so. In about 7 hours you should have rich, brown Carmel. Mon Mar 19 11:46:11 -0700 2007 2398634 28134 mary0201 2 2400552 Ok, this seems a little less scary (no fear of the exploding can). My dad loves his crock pot. Maybe I'll ask him to experiment with this some day. Mon Mar 19 12:07:40 -0700 2007 2400458 57689 katkoupai 1 2401042 My ex's stepmom told me about this, and she says the key to not exploding the can is to do the boiling the evening before you use the caramelized condensed milk. She put it on after dinner, using a soup pot so she didn't have to check the water level, and turned off the heat before going to bed. This way the can cools down with the water, and since you don't remove it while hot, there's no chance of an accident. In the morning, you have dulce de leche! Mon Mar 19 13:58:19 -0700 2007 2398634 24126 amyzan 1 2401579 My mother makes this into a pie. Simply pour the results into a graham cracker crust and put whipped cream on top. The whipped cream helps cut the "oh so sweet" taste. Mon Mar 19 16:26:43 -0700 2007 2398634 60516 cussbucket 1 2401748 Despite being a Southerner (well, ok, a Texan to be exact), I'd never heard of this until I read the Sweet Potato Queen books. I still have to try it. I really like the sound of the overnight method....maybe I'll try it tonight! Mon Mar 19 17:16:15 -0700 2007 2398634 48292 powella 1 2402139 I lived in Chile for a while. They do it this way down there. They call it "manjar", but it's the same thing. A good friend told the story of how he lived in Kansas as a high school exchange student, and had a real craving for some manjar, and wanted to boil a can of condensed milk to make some, but his host parents were convinced it would blow up and wouldn't let him do it, so he never got his manjar. Mon Mar 19 19:19:05 -0700 2007 2398634 10668 johnb 2 2402206 Some cans of condensed milk warn you not to do this. At a local shop that carries some 'crash and dent' items I bought of a couple of jars of Argentine Dulce de Leche - flavored with banana. paulj Mon Mar 19 19:43:38 -0700 2007 2402139 12139 paulj 2 2402216 The Chilean can is labeled: Dulce de Leche Cajeta, Arequipe, Fanguito, Manjar, Caramel Cajeta probably refers to the wood boxes that this was traditionally sold in in Mexico Arequipe - I wonder if that derives from a town in Peru? paulj Mon Mar 19 19:47:16 -0700 2007 2402139 12139 paulj 3 2402312 I don't know the origin, but "cajeta" is the Mexican word for any caramel, including dulce de leche. Mon Mar 19 20:23:32 -0700 2007 2402216 10811 Das Ubergeek 2 4852618 I lived in Argentina as a girl. This method is SOP there for making dulce de leche at home. You use it anywhere you'd use jam---spread on toast, to fill cake or cookies, on pancakes etc. I don't happen to like dulce de leche so I haven't experimented but I wonder how it would work in a crock pot, say, overnight, with the can well-covered with water so it couldn't possibly uncover itself. Sun Jul 12 21:54:01 -0700 2009 2402139 15521 Querencia 3 4852866 I lived in Paraguay as an exchange student in the early 1980s. There dulce de leche was also used between cake layers, sometimes with dulce de guayaba and others between other layers of the same cake. And y host mother always put fresh flowers on top of the cake (for decoration, not to be eaten). Mon Jul 13 04:59:12 -0700 2009 4852618 169792 lgss 1 2402515 Does evaporated milk work the same way? Mon Mar 19 22:01:40 -0700 2007 2398634 32189 agalarneau 2 2403692 No -- it doesn't contain nearly the sugar that sweetened condensed milk does, so it won't caramelise. Tue Mar 20 09:43:25 -0700 2007 2402515 10811 Das Ubergeek 1 2402520 Is this sweetened or unsweetened condensed milk? I presume it's sweetened but just want to be sure. Mon Mar 19 22:04:06 -0700 2007 2398634 54124 hagar4316 2 2402577 Unsweetened condensed milk is usually called evaporated milk. It's the sweetened condensed milk that is caramelized. In Mexico, goats milk is preferred, but even that needs extra sweetening. paulj Mon Mar 19 22:36:21 -0700 2007 2402520 12139 paulj 1 2409903 If you are afraid of the can exploding, the following link has three cooking methods for Dulce de Leche (stovetop, oven and microwave): http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=32293 Thu Mar 22 01:14:58 -0700 2007 2398634 11646 Norm Man 1 4852355 We used this method in HS Spanish class when making alfajores. The foreign language classes (Spanish & French) shared a small kitchen in the (then new, 1970-something) HS! Sun Jul 12 19:43:32 -0700 2009 2398634 169792 lgss 2 5243845 I will not take the risk of it exploding - and I (and you) don't have to. I just take a regular bottle opener and poke two holes in the top, just like you would for a juice that comes in a can, and I usually try to poke the end of the can with no ink on it (the ink you'd have with an expiration date or batch code or whatever) and put it in a pot to boil (obviously don't cover the holes). I stir it every once in a while with a long poker or toothpick, let it go for a few hours (this time I did it for about 4 hours I think? look up the times online depending on how deep you want it, and you'll be able to figure it out), and when you take it out of the can (opening the whole lid), it will be darker on the bottom, but you just blend it and you're good. I just finished making a can tonight. So good, and no risk! I'm going to try to do it with soy condensed milk next, 'cause I'm about to go mostly vegan, if not completely. Fri Dec 11 00:10:19 -0800 2009 4852355 1131066 purplepeppereater 3 5243877 What's the carbon footprint of boiling a can 4 hours? With a pressure cooker you can have Dulce de Leche in 30 minutes. Fri Dec 11 01:22:48 -0800 2009 5243845 126101 Antilope 4 5248323 The carbon footprint? Please, I'm very environmental, and always have been. I cook stuff on the stove for myself out of whole ingredients and don't go out and get styrofoam to-go containers... I don't have the money to be able to afford a pressure cooker right now, maybe one day - but I'm certainly not going to purchase one JUST for DDL -- besides, I wasn't talking about a pressure cooker, I was talking about people who were using a regular pot and boiling the whole can with no poke-holes, which isn't safe. How do you cook your DDL in the pressure cooker - loose milk? in a can? Man, if you PRESSURE cooked a can with no holes, I would not like to see that explosion!! Sun Dec 13 08:45:41 -0800 2009 5243877 1131066 purplepeppereater 5 5248422 Exploding cans may be less of a problem in a pressure cooker. The PC applies an extra 15psi to the can. Pressure cookers are commonly used in home canning. However if you are uncomfortable with making Dulce yourself, it isn't that hard to find it. Nestle sells cans that they have already 'cooked' - usually from Chile. They are not that much more expensive. I've also bought jars of Dulce from Argentina, and even squirt bottles of Mexican 'cajeta' (their goat milk version). Sun Dec 13 09:58:40 -0800 2009 5248323 12139 paulj 6 5250007 Nestle "La Lechera" dulce de leche comes in squirt bottles now too. I"ve never had a can explode, though. Mon Dec 14 07:04:29 -0800 2009 5248422 10811 Das Ubergeek 7 5266311 i really don't think the risk is less in a pressure cooker - in fact, i think it is more - because if it does explode, it's a pressure cooker (the can) within a real pressure cooker, and you could really REALLY hurt someone (though you could also hurt someone with just the exploded can). ...and like I said, why take the risk when there is really no reason to, you can make it just as easily with poked holes in the top. Plus, there is a HUGE difference between canning food and using a can in this respect... Sun Dec 20 22:39:05 -0800 2009 5250007 1131066 purplepeppereater 8 5266316 Cans explode when they poke out of the water because the pressure on top is less than the pressure on the bottom and the liquid wants to move from higher pressure to lower pressure. In a pressure cooker under pressure, the pressure is relatively stable throughout the device, though I would still ensure that there was plenty of water up top. I have to say, though, the stuff that's pre-made in the can is not so much worse that I think either your method or mine is worth it anymore, especially since the price has dropped so significantly. Sun Dec 20 22:44:50 -0800 2009 5266311 10811 Das Ubergeek 9 5356786 I haven't ever bought it pre-made... so I don't know what that tastes like. I like making my own, I can make it whatever darkness I choose. Thu Jan 28 03:20:47 -0800 2010 5266316 1131066 purplepeppereater