Soup Problem

Termyn8or

Termyn8or

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I usuakly make a tradtitonal beef soup, with oxtails when available. Last time took me 16 hours to extract the flavor. For fast make meatball soup, also known as Italian wedding soup.

So of course the veggies do not go in until this process is done. I actually like them a bit al dente, and for that sometimes I make the broth first and then discard some veggies and put in new.

But when you freeze it they turn to mush. Carrots and celery, but onions who cares, those are fie disappearing and giving up all their flavor.

I have put veggies in like ONE minute before stopping cooking for now... Took it out and put it in freezer containers and froze it.

It comes back mush.

Not long ago I thought I was cool and decided to roast those veggies and only have them in for a short time. The texture was not exactly the best but they were not mush.

However roasting them made them sweet. i was not the one to comment on that.

I have an Aunt who just takes the carrots out and puts in new ones when she thaws the soup.

Any ideas ?

T
 
One thing you can do is not over cook the carrots and celery as much so there is something left. Wait a while before you add them to the soup. .You can also cut them in larger pieces so they don't break down as much...you can also cool the soup faster by pouring it into another pot after you are done..you can pour it back and forth a few times if you want to bother,this will cool it quicker and not let your veggies sit and stew..you can also fill your sink up with a few inches of cold water and emerse the whole pot in there and stir the soup occasionally..this should slow down the cooking process also
 
Hmmm, strange..I sell frozen soups at the deli and granted, they never come back as good, but they don't disolve away to mush..good luck...let us know if you find a solution..I'd love to hear it
 
I make it using beef bones. Then when all ingredients are added & almost done, I pan-fry 2 cube steaks, cut then into small cubes & add them to the soup for meat (hardly any on the bones). it comes out good!! The quicker way is to use beef shanks. Lots of meat on those!! I just brown them in the pot that i make the soup in!! :whistling:
 
When your freezer doesn't have enough power and can't cool down the veggies fast enough they get to mush through tiny ice-crystals growing inside of the vegetables. These crystals grow only in specific temperatures and can be avoided when you have a really powerful and big freezer. Would it be a problem to not freeze the veggies together with the soup?
Stay healthy
 
It sounds like your problem is in the freezing process. Do you vacuum seal? I make large batches of soup and gumbo. I have no problem with vegetables turning to mush.
 
Yes it is the air that destroys food. Vacuum sealing it helps to keep out air & leaves no chance for the food to spoil. :whistling:
 
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Even with vacuum sealing there are limits on how long you can keep food in the freezer before it develops freezer burn. How long food will maintain it's integrity in the freezer depends on the food and the type of freezer. Food kept in a self defrosting freezer has a shorter shelf life than food kept in a manual defrost freezer.
 
That's probably because self-defrosting fridges & freezers have a small fan that helps circulate the chilled air off the hidden evaporator that's behind a wall. The only was that any freezer burn would develop is if a leak somehow occured in the bag. The vacuum sealer that I bought gives you a choice between a single line seal or a double line seal. I choose the double line seal to give extra assurance that a leak will not occur, keeping the air out of the bag. As long as no air gets in, the food is safe to eat, preventing it from drying out & spoiling. :whistling:
 
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The freezer in question may or may not be powerful enough, but it is so full I am sure its efficiency is not quite at its peak.

Buying another one is out of the question, we already have two and almost wish we didn't, but not quite. We have saved a fortune buying in bulk. I could feed a football team filet mignons out of it, and I don't mean just 11.

All what was said about the freezer is supported by the fact that they have frozen carrots in the store and they are not mush. the must be flash ffrozen, in fact i have heard some things are actually sprayed with or dipped in liquid nitrogen. That is literallly as cold as is economically feasible for a business that wants to make money.

I bet crushed dry ice would do a nice job but last time I looked for it there are not many sources.

T
 
Termyn8or said:
I bet crushed dry ice would do a nice job but last time I looked for it there are not many sources.
Click to expand...
Alton Brown did a thing on Good Eats years ago where he showed the best results with freezing strawberries was to used dry ice, so you may be onto something there.
 
I may have figured something out. How about I leave out the carrots altogether from what is getting frozen and just add store boughten frozen carrots at the time of freezing ?

T
 
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