If you’re like me, soup is on the menu a couple of times a week, whether it is out of the pouch or can. I like to spice it up with additional vegetables.

Someone on the forum noted if you put either meat or vegetables on a cookie sheet and freeze them before bagging, they will not freeze together when placed in a bag. I now do this with scallions, carrots and celery. For scallions cut as much as you want of the white or green portion and separate them on the sheet. For celery cut the stems up into pieces as desired for your soup. Carrots need to be treated differently since they won’t cook up in the time scallions or celery will. I cook carrots to maybe 75% done, let they dry and dice them. These pieces are now frozen on the sheet, then bagged later. Basically, any vegetable which can be frozen and then cooked can be treated in this manner.

(Chicken noodle/vegetable soup is a favorite. For onion soup, I need to think ahead of where I will be in a couple of hours as onion farts can be rather strong.)

On the scallion tops you don’t use, they don’t need to be discarded. Cut into short lengths and dehydrate in the oven on a cookie sheet at about 125-150 degrees until dried. These can be preserved in two ways. Simply put them in a plastic container and kept cool or grind them up into a powder. Either way provides a nice soup additive.

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I cook bacon up in batches to almost done in advance and then freeze it. When needed for soup a couple of strips just need to be torn into small pieces (which would also work for a salad)? For breakfast, just heat up in the same pan while the eggs cook. Don’t cook long enough for the bacon to become crisp. I use cookie sheets in the over on about 350 degrees, turning once.

These frozen bacon strips also work well in things like black-eyed peas.

Also on the freezing separately, I give my barn tom chicken gizzards a couple of times a week. Frozen this way, it is just a matter of taking a couple out of the bag and letting them thaw out.

Any other cooking tips from the bachelors or bachelorettes out there?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 21, 2001

Answers

Bachelor or not, the tips are great, Ken! I use some of them, myself, and will incorporate more now. By the way, I really enjoyed your articles in the latest issue of Countryside! What an adventure you must have had in Croatia! Jan

-- Jan in Co (Janice12@aol.com), October 21, 2001.

When boiling chicken/turkey/rabbit/whatever - always make MORE than you will be using right away. When the meat is done, take the meat from the bone. Cool the broth in the fridge. When it is cold, you can skim the fat right off the top. You can save some of the meat & broth together in the freezer for another day. Also, if you want to save just the broth, it works great to freeze it in ice cube trays. When frozen, just pop them into a freezer bag and use as few or as many as you need.

Then just throw some of the meat into some of the broth that you just cooked - grab a few of Ken's veggies - and you have a great soup!

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 21, 2001.

How about something called "winter soup"? It's a pot of soup kept on low heat on the back burner of the stove and added to daily with fresh or leftover meats, veggies, broth and spices. Each day before serving you bring to a rolling boil and make a fresh loaf of bread or pan of biscuits to go with it. I've heard about this, but haven't tried it yet. I think I'm going to start with the first venison we get this year or the leftovers from the Thanksgiving turkey. Would like to know if anyone else does this or what your results are if you try it.

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), October 21, 2001.

Minced meat (ground meat, I think, in your parlance) can be a tremendous convenience, but it can also be overly fat - particularly that which is marketed as for hamburgers. What I do is process a large batch of it at once, in smaller batches, as follows. This works best with full-flavoured meats such as beef or mutton. You can do it with others, but I think the result is a little tasteless.

I mix a thin creamy slurry of meat and water in a saucepan (potato masher works really well to mix), boil vigourously for about ten minutes, then strain through a colander, saving the liquid, and letting the meat drain well. This involves some redistribution of flavour from the meat to the water, so I generally cook with some herbs and spices, usually with added garlic in my case. The fat is now almost all with the liquid. Meat treated this way then cooled in the fridge can be rubbed (say working from the outside of a plastic bag) to separate into individual grains, and won't stick together much in the freezer. Rub again to separate when freshly frozen. THIS IS ALSO IDEAL FOR DEHYDRATING, and will then keep for years in an airtight container in a dark place.

I then process further batches, using the same liquid and only adding more water if I need to make up the volume. This means that the liquid is becoming a concentrated stock, and in later batches less juice comes out of the meat into the stock, more stays in. The later batches of meat are obviously better than the first one, so at the end I try to mix all the meat grains together.

The meat is ideal for soups or stews (say with Ken's vegetables), or can be cooked in an undiluted can of el-cheapo tomato soup mix to make a spaghetti sauce. It's already cooked, so further cooking time is minimal.

Cool the stock as the previous contributor said, then take off the fat - probably quite a thick layer. If it's not thick, then the meat was too good to treat this way - shame on you. The stock will jelly - you can rewarm then freeze as ice-cubes or just cut in in pieces and freeze, and save to re-add to the mince when cooking it. Alternatively, just treat yourself and avoid the hassle by using it immediately as a soup base - this probably isn't an option if you were using milder-flavoured meats.

There's a lot of fat. If you want to save it, boil with water (which will wash it), then cool again as with the stock. Discard the water. You may need to repeat this.

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 21, 2001.

I keep a plastic containier in the freezer and place leftovers of the leftovers in, usally just small amounts not enough to make a meal out of. It might be just a couple of talble spoons of vegtables left in the bottom of the pot. Maybe a small piece of meat (I cut into small cubes before adding to my container). I might add 1/4 cup of leftover spagatti sauce. Probably the only thing I never add is eggs, dairy products or Choclate cake!

When the containier is full I make soup. I thaw the containier in the fridge, when thawed I put it a large pot and depending how much liquid is in the containier I add some broth (chicken,beef or vegtable) sometimes it only needs a little water. Add a few spices. I let it simmer on the stove for an hour or two.

It never makes the same soup twice it always different. The soup may end up having pork, chicken, sausage, beef (ground & cubed), beans, potatoes and every vegtable under the sun. I love it!

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), October 21, 2001.

I am a soupster too Ken.

In my old place I only had a counter height fridge and virtually no freezer. Recently I have been gifted with a fairly new upright freezer. And I'm having me a big fill the freezer day tomorrow.

I will be making four soups. Cream of celery, cream of cauliflower, chicken noodle and lentil. All the soups share some ingredients so I can just cut up enough for all at once [no food processor here. alas.] Anything veggie that is left over I will just freeze on it's own. I plan to make more roue than I need also. And freeze that and see how it does.

I've bought freezer bags and a pack of those gladware containers and a pack of those Ziplock containers. After the soups have cooled I will fill the containers. The soups in the freezer bags will go on a cookie sheet, in case of a mishap, until they are frozen.

I've frozen many fresh herbs in the past and will do it again. Scallions, parsley and dill being the three I most often use and freeze. Just rinse them, pat dry and snip em up with scissors into a baggie or small container.

I also freeze milk and bread products on a regular basis. And juice if I find a great deal on it. I know of people who cook up vast quantities of rice and pasta and freeze them in small containers. I haven't tried that, but I'd like to hear if people here have done so.

I've been hesitant to fire up my freezer until I had enough to put in it. Didn't want to waste energy freezing nothing [and I have a normal fridge/freezer now]. So, tomorrow is the day. And Thursday I pick up my twice monthly food club packages [I'd love to tell you folks about this if anybody is interested]. So, I imagine, by weeks end the appliance will be doing it's duty.

Then I just gotta remember to feed myself on a regular basis. ;-)

PC

-- pc (pcha@ludl.tds.net), October 21, 2001.

Forgot to mention you can also freeze supermarket canned vegatables in the same manner. Just drain and let dry (to where they are not wet) then freeze on cookie sheets. I also currently have sweet peas, whole kernel corn, mushroom pieces and stems and string beans in bags in the freezer also.

After about an hour, use an egg turner to break the pieces apart. An hour later do it again. When they get to the point they won't stick to either each other or the pan they are ready to bag. Use zip-lock freezer bags for storage.

If I opened a can of say peas, by the time I used all in the can they would have gone bad. This way I can just take out and use what I want. I don't notice any difference in taste.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 21, 2001.

Hmm..

I get lots of canned bean stuff from my food club. Cook up half. Let the other half rot. A new addition to my lovely new freezer! Thanks.

-- pc (pcha@ludl.tds.net), October 21, 2001.

Ken, cooking for one, I often have vegetables left over. (Especially half an onion) I chop the extra and put it on a cookie sheet in the oven (I have propane). When dry just toss in ziplock baggies. Simmer in broth 20 min. and you've got soup. Great for backpacks, just add a little boullion and herbs. If you don't care about weight pack along a can of turkey or ham otherwise dry your leftover meat and toss in the bag. When I find a really good sale on vegetables, I buy lots. Chop it all and dry in my dehydrator and then you can use as much as you need without the leftovers.

-- Jill in AZ (lance1_86404@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.