Today I made my monthly “throw everything leftover in a pot” soup. Into the stockpot went comfrey, carrots, all sorts of celery, fenel, onion, leek, cabbage, ginger, garlic, tomato paste and for the meaty part some leftover grilled porkchops. All chopped to small pieces, fried and finally cooked in lots of water with leftover veggi-stock and tons of other spices I had to get rid of (caraway, chili, sweet paprika).
A hearty dish for a cold friday night. But while I whittled the veggis I was asking myself: can I make a “hunter’s pot” from this soup? Obviously it is a big pot of soup and I’m on my own, but if I eat 2 meals a day I can half the thing in 2-3 days. It will be chilled over night and boiled every time it comes out of the fridge.
Will this this start to ferment at some point? Can I just blend the rest, throw in some fresh vegs, meats and water? Make a stew with all sorts of meat? Ideas?
I wouldnt recommend thawing and recooling food alot either.
I currently make big stock/soup. Pour some bowls to eat. Strain the big stuff to vacuum bags and straight lid mason jars. Freeze that. Reduce the stock further on the stove. Once its pretty concentrated , let it cool, then put in ice cube trays. Take those soup cubes and bag them up.
They work like your own flavored bullion for soup.
If you really want constant ready soup though, crock pot it and keep it hot. Keeping food out of the “danger zone” where stuff grows is the name of the game. Acid (like vinega) alcohol, dehydrating, etc. Are all about making it inhospitable for stuff to grow. Just like heat and cold.
I just had the crockpot on for days for up to a week! Just adding things everyday like beans or meats. Was it safe? Sure, is it kindaa gross? Maybe by today’s standard. Is it delicious, yup.
YMMV
This would ick me out. You’re spending a lot of time in the danger zone as your heating and cooling. Seems like the bacterial byproducts would compound over time.
Some thoughts:
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You could try it, but if you fuck it up it sounds like a great way to give yourself some nasty food poisoning. FYI: boiling kills most pathogens, but doesn’t always break down the compounds they produce – which can still make you sick.
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If you live somewhere with hard water, you will get scale build up on the sides of your pot. If you boil just plain tap water in a pot and let it air dry repeatedly you will see this happen; with other stuff in the mix, the build up could get really nasty… I use vinegar to clean the pot I use for making tea when the scale builds up too much; it may be worth trying to add some vinegar, lemon juice, or other acidic ingredients periodically to try to stay on top of this?
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Mixing some alcoholic beverages in occasionally may be worth trying – both for the anti-microbial effect and for flavor. e.g. I used to put red wine in beef stew when I still drank, and beer in gumbo.
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If you do try it, take notes on what works, what doesn’t, etc.
Good input! I have to read up on that compound buildup. The idea of the hunter’s pot was to water it down once it’s 1/3, maybe that did the trick back in the day. These were some tough dudes…
For the water, I used filtered tap water, so should be ok on that.
The alcohol is a fantastic idea and it can pair well with the leftover cooked down to a stew with potatoes and meats. I have to think about that. Salt and maybe rosemary are anti-microbial as well.
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No, it won’t fermented in just a few days while refrigerated. You also don’t/shouldn’t reheat an entire pot of soup if you’re only making one serving as it will become a gross porridge in no time. Instead, just use a smaller pot closer to the intended serving size and just heat that (or use a microwave).
Yes, I should be more specific. I can heat only the serving I need, but that is not the point of my thought experiment. It is obviously a horrible idea if I want to be as eco friendly as possible.
The idea is: heat everything up to a boiling point every time just to kill the bad stuff, how long can I keep something like this going.
Somebody correct me if wrong, but arent the possible toxins produced by some bacteria also an issue with multiple reheats? As in, the bacteria dies, but the “poop” remains.
Eh, I think that’s more Botulism, but that requires a low oxygen environment, and usually only happens in failed jarring/canning.
It’s going to take time for the soup to heat up and cool down each time, and that’s a window for bacteria to grow. A true perpetual stew is never allowed to cool off, which is what makes it safe.
However, if you are interested in fermentation and pickling, there are absolutely ways to reuse the brine, and it’s typically done at room temperature.
You could probably do this for an extended period of time if you freeze the soup as that entirely stops microbe growth, but there would still be periods of time when the soup is not entirely frozen when microbes will grow and create toxins that cooking doesn’t get rid of. Freezing doesn’t kill microbes, only stops them from multiplying. So probably advised to not do this literally perpetually.
That’s what we do when we make a massive batch of burgoo. Fill freezer bags with the stew after cooking and cooling then freeze.
