A CAN of condensed milk is a symbol of happy occasions. When actress Audrey Hepburn was a girl poking through the ruins of the Netherlands after the Second World War, she celebrated the end of the war and of her wartime privation by eating an entire can of condensed milk. In a less extreme example, a can sitting on a countertop can mean delights like leche flan and dulce de leche (achieved by caramelizing the sugars in the condensed milk), to be served at parties.