DIY Homemade Rice Milk

[Photograph: Molly Sheridan]

Something that sometimes gets either pushed to the side or overlooked completely when discussing home food storage is milk.  The reason for this is because, let's face it, none of the available options are all that attractive, especially to those of us who are prepping on a budget and don't have a lot of money to waste.

Dehydrated milk is expensive and, while it keeps okay, nothing dairy-based is going to have the same kind of shelf-life that the rest of our long-term storage foods enjoy.  As a result, most of us either store a small amount and rotate it religiously, or we go to the other extreme and end up buying a goat.

But now, we find ourselves presented with what is, perhaps, a better option for those of us not yet prepared to delve into the responsibilities of small-scale livestock husbandry: making milk from rice.  Rice is a tried and true long-term storage food that can also be had much cheaper than dehydrated milk.  My only concern is how this would be doable in a grid-down scenario, as all recipes call for the use of a blender or handheld immersion blender; this would necessitate that you have access to electricity, either to run the appliance directly or to charge the battery on a cordless version.

Below, you will find links to three sites that share recipes and instructions.  My one caveat is that I advise you to largely forgo the option they all describe, calling for the use of brown rice.  Brown rice is a more nutritious option, but it has nowhere near the shelf-life of white rice.  Just know, however, that as long as you're moving forward with this project, either variety of rice will work.

Here are the links:

DIY Rice Milk

Do-It-Yourself: Homemade Rice Milk

Homemade Rice Milk

The quick and dirty version is that you simply:

1.) Cook until the rice is slightly overdone;

2.) Blend;

and...

3.) Strain out any remaining solids.

The remaining liquid is rice milk that you can dress-up however suits you by adding vanilla, honey, cinnamon, regular sugar, maple syrup, etc.  Very easy, very affordable; in fact, according to one of the links above, "[i]t takes 3.25 ounces of rice to make 64 ounces of rice milk."