evaporated milk is milk from which the water has been partly removed. Because several canned products originally sold as “evaporated” and “condensed” milk are condensed through a process of evaporation, they have historically been surrounded by greatly confused terminology. Today, thick, syrupy, “sweetened condensed milk” is always made with added sugar, while the more fluid “evaporated milk” is produced by condensation/evaporation without added sweetening. In cookbooks published between about 1885 and 1940, however, it is often difficult to know which of the two is meant. See sweetened condensed milk.
