What is Sweet Milk?

The holidays are here, and everyone is busy in the kitchen. Recipes are being dusted off and shared with friends and family, young and old. This year, it was my turn to try making the cornbread dressing for our Thanksgiving dinner; it was no light task. I pulled out my grandmother’s recipe card to review what ingredients I needed and became stumped when I saw it called for “sweet milk.” What is sweet milk?

According to the Dairy Council of Wisconsin, “sweet milk” is used to differentiate from cultured products like buttermilk and sour cream. When a recipe calls for sweet milk, it refers to whole milk. The story of sweet milk started during the United States’ Great Depression when wasting any food would have been unacceptable. During this time, if milk had been sitting in the fridge too long or had started to go bad, people would still try to find a use for it. This meant several types of milk could be found during this time: soured milk, buttermilk, and sweet milk. Soured milk is milk that has been soured while still refrigerated and can be used for baking. Buttermilk is the fermented milk from the cream churned to make butter. It has a tangy flavor and is often used for biscuits and pancakes. Sweet milk refers to fresh, unfermented milk primarily made from whole milk, the most common type of milk available then.

Sweet milk is very different from condensed and evaporated milk. Condensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is regular cow’s milk that has been concentrated and sweetened with sugar. Unsweetened condensed milk is called evaporated milk.

Looking for a dairy-free substitute? According to The Food Network, soy milk is the best milk alternative for baking.

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