Things you learned the hard way

[jame_alec]

Finally, after three tries of soup making and only now getting one that's good, I thought it might be fun to share things we've learned the hard way.

Some of mine:

Bags of frozen mixed vegetables are not precooked. If you dump these in your soup at the end to allow them to thaw, you will have very crunchy soup.

You cannot freeze soup with pasta in it. It will all be mush when you thaw it.

I have to say, though, learning it the hard way has ensured I will never forget it!

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Freezing something with potato chunks in it will make the potatoes have a weird texture when thawed, because of the ice crystals. I suppose flash-frozen stuff doesn't have that problem so much, but oh, I hate that texture. Potatoes that are already the consistency of mashed, no problems. Chunks, problems.

Do not, for the love of all that is holy, blend the tuna salad. EWWWW.

[jld]

Bags of frozen mixed vegetables are not precooked. If you dump these in your soup at the end to allow them to thaw, you will have very crunchy soup.

Contrariwise, canned vegetables (e.g., string beans) will have been sitting around in salty water at arbitrary temperatures for, um, how long has that can been hiding in the cupboard, anyway? And, thus, if put in at the beginning of cooking something, may have dissolved entirely by the end.

[afuna]

Oh man! Thank you for those tips. I've been thinking of moving on to soup (because mmmm, soup), and I'm pretty sure I would have made these mistakes :)