Evaporated milk is simply milk that has had about 60% of its water removed. It is routinely mixed with an equal amount of water and used in place of milk - but generally only in cooking. It has a somewhat unique taste - "a bit sweet," according to some; "canned" in the words of others - and not universally loved. No one in our acquaintance admits to mixing up batches of reconstituted evaporated milk to drink.

If the dish you're making is full of flavor, you probably won't notice any difference in making the substitution. If it's a very delicate dish, where the milk is a leading ingredient, you may or may not notice a difference. Not all taste buds are created equal.

There are low-fat and skim versions of evaporated milk, as well, and they can also be reconstituted on the same basis as evaporated whole milk and used as you see fit.

Related Article: Substituting evaporated milk for whole milk (written, apparently, in one of our grumpier moods)