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Soup Need Not Suffer

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Mary A. Keith

Published: February 11, 2009

I have this wonderful soup I make for big parties. It has three different meats and lots of vegetables. When I make it and serve it immediately, it tastes great. But every time I make it in advance and refrigerate it, it comes out tasting sour. One time it got almost frothy. I've tried putting it in a big plastic bowl and leaving it in the pot; either way, it tastes sour. What can I do so I don't have to cook all day before the party?

What you need to do is either divide the big pot into several small, shallow containers of soup to refrigerate, or you need to put the big pot in a sink full of ice water to chill before you refrigerate it. It can take a large pot of soup or stew as much as 36 hours to chill if you just put the whole quantity in the refrigerator while it's hot. Even though the outside of the pot might feel cold when you take it out of the refrigerator, the center of the pot will still be plenty warm enough for bacteria to grow. That's what happened to the other pots. Things were growing in there, fermenting the soup, making it sour and blowing frothy bubbles at you.

What's the trick to keep cheesecakes from cracking? I follow the directions exactly and it looks great until the last half hour or so. Then it gets a big crack across the top.

Cracking occurs because the top of the cheesecake is drying out. The recommended baking procedure from Baking Illustrated is to heat the oven to 500 degrees. Put the cheesecake in for 10 minutes, then without opening the oven, reduce the heat to 200 degrees and continue to bake for an hour. At this point, use an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature in the middle of the cake. The cake is done when the center gets to about 150 degrees, and cracking occurs when it goes over 160 degrees. Open the oven as little as possible to keep it humid inside so the top doesn't dry out faster. When the temperature gets to about 150 degrees, remove the cake from the oven to cool so it doesn't keep on cooking and drying.

I know a lot of fruits and vegetables need to be boiled before freezing, but do I have to boil orange juice, too? I've tried several different procedures and it always separates. Sometimes it tastes bitter too, when it's been thawed, and sometimes it loses its flavor and tastes really bland.

Boiling or heating orange juice is not necessary and won't help the problems you've described. The bitterness comes from oil from the skin of the fruit getting into the juice. Be very careful as you juice it to not get oil into the juice. The blandness factor seems to depend mostly on variety. Adding a little sugar, 1 or 2 tablespoons per quart, helps. And freezing in glass jars, wide mouth are best, will help prevent other off flavors. There's not a lot we consumers can do at home to prevent the separation. It'll be safe, just shake it up well when you thaw it.

I need to make a couple weeks' worth of meals in advance and freeze them. When I've done this in the past, some come out tasting fine and others seem to lose their flavor. What can I do to keep the flavor better?

Some seasonings change flavor when they're frozen. Some get stronger (celery), bitter (onion and garlic, both green and black peppers, cloves and some herbs) or musty (curry). Salt tends to lose its flavor and may make fats get rancid. So if you intend to freeze the foods, go very lightly on the seasoning. Then add as much or as little as you want when you reheat it. Next, consider the packaging. Be sure to use heavy duty, made-for-freezer-use plastic wrap, bags or containers. Too thin a wrap can allow air to enter. This can cause loss or change of flavor as well as allow freezer burn. Finally, don't put too much warm food in the freezer at one time. It can warm the rest of the food and take too long to freeze. Be sure to chill packages first if you will put more than a few in at one time.

I made a flan today, and just realized that one of the cartons of eggs I used was a few days past the "use by" date. Is the flan safe to use?

It's fine. USDA research says that properly handled eggs are safe for up to 10 weeks. That's at least an additional month after the "use by" date on the carton.

Mary A. Keith, a nutritionist and health agent at Hillsborough County Extension, can be reached at (813) 744-5519 or mkeith@ufl.edu.

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