Knowledge Base > Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 2:00 pm Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to cou… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Does using a plant based milk that has been opened for a few days (4 or 5) in a dish shorten the shelf life of the dish itself or does cooking it extend the life of the plant milk?

— Lisa Cornett

Answer:

So here's what I do, because I have a tendency to buy a half gallon of, uh, oat milk, which I use, uh, in cereal, or yesterday I used it in the, uh, celery soup that I made. So I go through it pretty quickly. But remember that when you make something, you wanna use the freshest ingredients that you can. And this is why I always have on hand, uh, a quart of shelf stable milk, so that if a recipe calls for two cups of, let's say almond milk, I'm going to put in the freshest ingredient that I can. And then what I do with the leftover is I will put it into ice cube trays and put it in the freezer, and then use it if I, I'm not a smoothie person, but if I was making a sauce or a smoothie, I would then use that. So it would be absolutely fresh. Um, if you're going to eat that dish or dessert in the minute of that day, I don't see any problem. However, remember that you wanna use the freshest ingredients that you can so that your food tastes absolutely delicious. So that was a very good question. Very, very good. Um, the other thing I suggest, because I know some people will go through, uh, a half a gallon of plant milk, uh, very slowly. So you might wanna take a, uh, sharpie and put down the date that it was open so that if you go to drink it and you see that it's a very old, you might wanna think, uh, of something else or grab some of those, uh, frozen almond milk ice cubes.
Char Nolan

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

@char_nolan