How to make the perfect soup
So just a quick introduction here, hi, I'm Rayner, aka Rocky, and one of the few precious skills I possess is knowing how to make a GREAT soup from scraps, and I would like to teach you step by step.
Step 0 to the perfect soup broth: you need to squirrel away ingredients.
What I mean is that when you have leftover vegetables, scrambled eggs, egg whites, egg yolks, meat, bones, ect that are unable to be used right away, you need to freeze it for soup. I tend to focus on onions, carrots, chicken and chicken bones, and eggs because they're what I have most.
Typically, when I freeze items for soup, I'll freeze 1 kind of bones and meat scraps (today it's chicken with a random turkey leg), 1 variety of onion (peel, outermost layer, and any scraps. Today, there were red onions and sweet onions in the mix, which is fine), and one or two other veggies or eggs (today I have bell peppers and egg yolks)
Sometimes I keep water from pasta and freeze the bones in it, because the starch from the pasta water adds depth to the broth, but I don't do that often because I don't eat pasta very often due to gluten issues. It's definitely an option though!
The bags typically look like this, this one is ham and pork bones for the next time I do barbecue ham and bean soup. (Ignore my fuzzy bath robe sleeve, please)
Step 1: adding the bags to the pot
So, if you use the pasta water method, you have to let the entire thing thaw to get it out of the bag, because it'll be a giant effing chunk of ice, which is another reason why I prefer to skip that step.
But if you skip the water, you can add all your bones and scraps directly into a stock pot (I use one with a strainer insert to help with the straining step) and cover it with water. Set it on high, and cover it until it boils up. (You can see some frozen pasta water with red onions in there. I have no idea when I made that, but it's good 👌)
Meanwhile, start thawing out any meat you want to add to the finished soup and start chopping veggies for that part, too. I'm making a chicken noodle soup, so I'm thawing chicken breast tenderloins and I have carrots, celery, and sweet onions for later.
Once your broth ingredients are boiling and thawed, you can decrease the temperature and add fresher vegetables like mushrooms or more onions (I always add a whole onion to the broth at this point)
Step 3: let it boil until everything turns the same color
Grab a snack, this takes awhile.
During this part, which can take 45 minutes to a few hours, you want to occasionally stir the pot and add more water as it evaporates off. If you use glass measuring cups, don't touch the glass to the pot. I broke one that way, RIP.
I'll do part 2 when I strain it 😊
