Soup question

[UNCLEG]

Hello, I have a question, not to long ago I bought a Chuck Roast and cooked a chuck roast that turned out to be tastelss and tough. I'm not one to waste food so I cut it up and boiled it until it was falling apart, needels to say it became the base for a very large quatity of vegatable/beef rice soup. Long story short ate off it for about a week and ended up freezing two gallons of it, this last weekend, we thawed out a gallon. It was not very good the potatos had turned rubbery/spongy and the rice had broke down into an unappetiezing substance. Anyway it was unediable. Is there a better way to store leftover soups with rice and potatos in it? would canning it be better? I'm single and really stretch my food dollars and I always have lots of left overs for the freezer, actually I only cook about once a week and do leftovers most of the week.

Just a side note, the bad soup was mixed with some layer crumbels and fed to the chickens and they loved it, so no waste.

Thanx,
G

 

[Acre of Blessings]

Honestly, I can about everything I can get my hands on. My hubby says "You would can a jar of rocks if you knew you could eat em'".

.

I usually freeze meat from the store and when I have a stockpile I can it. When I make a bunch of soup or stew I always can it for later and it taste so good. Now what you could do is when you are going to make alot of soup only add rice in the soup you will eat then. Then when you can the other just add the rice when you are heating it up.

Edited to say:

 

[patandchickens]

It was not very good the potatos had turned rubbery/spongy and the rice had broke down into an unappetiezing substance. Anyway it was unedible. Is there a better way to store leftover soups with rice and potatos in it? would canning it be better?

Yep, potatoes and (to a lesser extent) rice just do not freeze well.

The thing to do is, don't make up that much soup at once

Seriously. Freeze the stock *plain*, and don't put rice or potatoes in til you thaw it and are ready to eat it for real. Or if you have long-simmered veggies and/or beans in the stock, you can cook them all together and freeze it in that state. Again, don't put the potatoes or rice in til you're ready to eat it.

Don't try to can it unless you have a pressure canner (you cannot safely waterbath-can soups) and honestly if you have freezer space it is just not worth it anyway, IMO.

Good luck,

Pat, raised to believe that soup is the sixth basic food group

 

[seismic wonder2]

Im a Personal chef I do this sort of thing all the time...

The only real way is to split the soup into two batches. One to eat within a day or two and the rest to freeze.

The soup to eat now, cook it like normal.

The soup to freeze, cook everything EXCEPT the rice and potatoes.
(If the taters are cut to the size of your thumb they will cook in just a few minutes.)
Throw in the taters and rice in the last 2 minutes of cooking the soup then TURN IT OFF AND WALK AWAY!
The Idea it to leave the potatoes and rice a little raw. They will finish cooking when you (re)heat the soup to eat.

Let the whole batch cool to room temp BEFORE packaging, then put it in the refrigerator for an hour and then take to the freezer.
Allow it to thaw completely overnight in the fridge BEFORE heating or it will turn to mush.

None of my clients have ever complained of gooey rice or squishy potatoes.

 

[SpottedCrow]

Hi UncleG! Where ya been?!

 

[UNCLEG]

Hey Crow, just been busy, working and all the stuff life entails. I'm still around and into chcikens up to my eye balls, well for me anyway. I have grown from just having two birds to fourteen was at twenty but lost some due to oppossums.

Later,

G