Cocktails with Milk
Milk is the creamy, nutrient-rich liquid produced by mammals — in the kitchen and bar, almost always cow’s milk.
How it's used
It gives a drink opaque, creamy body without the weight of cream, and a White Russian or a milk flip is built on exactly that. Milk goes in anywhere from 20 to 75 ml — at the low end it softens a drink, at the high end it is most of its volume, and either way it thins where cream enriches. Its other use is the opposite of creamy: in a clarified milk punch, acid is added on purpose so the milk curdles, and straining the curds pulls out color and harshness and leaves the drink clear and silky. Add it last in a shaken drink and shake briefly.
Substitutes for Milk
Any cow's milk works one for one: whole milk gives the fullest drink, reduced-fat a slightly thinner one, skim a noticeably thinner one. Evaporated milk diluted with an equal amount of water comes close to whole milk in fat and sugar, though it tastes faintly cooked. Oat or soy milk works one for one in drinks without citrus, though its own flavor shows.
Cream
Far richer: even half-and-half has more than three times the fat of whole milk, so in place of milk it makes the drink much heavier.
Condensed and evaporated milk
Concentrated: evaporated milk is unsweetened, while sweetened condensed milk is more than half sugar, so cut any sugar in the recipe if you use it.
Storage
Refrigerated and by the date, and kept away from anything aromatic. Milk left on a station warms faster than anyone expects, and warm milk in a shaker curdles against citrus that cold milk would have tolerated.
