Freezing Hot & Sour Soup

Jessica V. said:

I had a brief brain glitch and didn't halve my Chinese hot and sour
soup recipe. Now I have about a quart and a half of leftover soup,
there is no way that much is going to be consumed within the next few
days. Does anyone have any experience good or bad in freezing
something like this? I've never done it before, but my gut feeling is
that the egg will have a rubber texture when thawed.

Is your hot and sour soup thickened with corn starch? I have experience
freezing that. In fact, playing around with corn starch is fun in that
weird sick way that I like playing with my food. The frozen-then-thawed
starch-thickened water forms a spongey solid that I wouldn't want to eat.

--Lia

Jessica V. said:

I had a brief brain glitch and didn't halve my Chinese hot and sour
soup recipe. Now I have about a quart and a half of leftover soup,
there is no way that much is going to be consumed within the next few
days. Does anyone have any experience good or bad in freezing
something like this? I've never done it before, but my gut feeling is
that the egg will have a rubber texture when thawed.

Cooking renders it pretty much sterile, properly covered no reason it
can't be kept in the fridge for a week. But whether frozen or
refrigerated the cornstarch will lose it's thickening power, upon
reheating your soup will be watery, especially that it contains
vinegar. It'll still be good, re-thicken with more corn starch slurry.

Julia Altshuler said:

Jessica V. said:

I had a brief brain glitch and didn't halve my Chinese hot and sour
soup recipe. Now I have about a quart and a half of leftover soup,
there is no way that much is going to be consumed within the next few
days. Does anyone have any experience good or bad in freezing
something like this? I've never done it before, but my gut feeling is
that the egg will have a rubber texture when thawed.

Is your hot and sour soup thickened with corn starch? I have experience
freezing that. In fact, playing around with corn starch is fun in that
weird sick way that I like playing with my food. The frozen-then-thawed
starch-thickened water forms a spongey solid that I wouldn't want to eat.

--Lia

That seals it. It went into the fridge, cornstarch sponge just doesn't
appeal.

Jessica

Jessica V. said:

That seals it. It went into the fridge, cornstarch sponge just doesn't
appeal.

As long as we're not talking about food which eliminates the ick factor,
this topic becomes fun. Everyone, go to the cupboard and get out the
cornstarch. Put a cup of cold water in a sauce pot, disolve some corn
starch in it (maybe 2 tablespoons), bring it to a boil until the water
is thickened, then remove from the heat, cool, then freeze. (I put it
in a paper cup for freezing.) When it is frozen, remove from the
freezer and thaw. Peel away the paper cup. You'll be left with a sort
of solid network of starch that you can squeeze the water out of.

I haven't tried reheating it to see what happens. That should be next.

No, there's no purpose to this exercise, I just like to play with my food.

--Lia