Ingredients

Milk

There is a dizzying array of milk in the dairy case today.

Milk is usually a significant source of fat and calories in a recipe so the recipes on this site are specific about the type of milk used. Very few recipes that I have done turn out well using skim milk. While it has only about 3/4 gram of fat per cup it is usually too thin to add enough creaminess and body to a recipe

1% milk has 2.5 grams of fat per cup. In the same eight ounces of 2% milk there is about 4.5 grams of fat. So that's 2 grams per cup of milk saved.

More importantly, the savings are mostly in saturated fat. I tell my patients that it's OK to drink 2% milk if you really don't like 1% or skim milk. But I really like 1% milk over 2% for cooking because there's little difference in the way sauces or soups turn out.

Most of these recipes have been tested with both and use one or the other primarily based on flavor or texture in a particular recipe. If I can't tell the difference I use 1% milk.

Whole milk is high in fat and calories. Sometimes the carton will simply say “Homogenized Milk.” Nine grams of fat per cup.

	Skim	1%	2%	Whole
Calories	100	102	122	156
Fat (grams)	0.74	2.7	4.6	9
Sat. Fat (grams)	0.39	1.6	3	5.5
Cholesterol (mg)	5	10	19	34