Fermentation in soup

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ecwink

Assistant Cook
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
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5
I have made vegetable soup and now there are bubbles coming to the top of the pan. This was a basic vegetable soup with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, celery, lima beans, onions, beef broth and onions. Soup was made twice with the same results. We used a 24 qt chefs stock pot. We moved the soup from a hot to a cold burner and left sit to cool from 8:00 pm until 7:00am the next morning. We were just about to place it in freezer containers when we noticed air bubbles coming to the top of the pan. Also, it smelled. What did we do wrong?
 
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Did you wash all vegetables thoroughly before prepping? It's possible airborne yeasts may have affected the mixture. Otherwise, I don't know.
 
You enabled rapid bacteria growth by leaving the soup in the temperature danger zone for almost half a day! The soup has spoiled and should not be eaten.

What you should have done is remove it from the pot and pour it into hotel pans or similar and moved it to the fridge immediately so it would cool rapidly.
 
You enabled rapid bacteria growth by leaving the soup in the temperature danger zone for almost half a day! The soup has spoiled and should not be eaten.

What you should have done is remove it from the pot and pour it into hotel pans or similar and moved it to the fridge immediately so it would cool rapidly.[/Q THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
 
Cabbage will ferment as it breaks down and releases sulfurous compounds (stinky gas).
 
Andy is correct ecwink. Were you cooling it for future storage and didn't want to overwhelm your fridge? Were you hoping to can it?
 
Yes, it's true about the bacteria etc causing the smell BUT as far as air bubbles themselves (non-smelly ones), it's very common to have air bubbles in soup and should be removed with a ladle or sieve.
 
Pot that big, you probably have comersial refrigerator or even walk in cooler. Should have gone from burner straight to cooler.
 
AFAIK, the rule of thumb is that anything thicker than 4" should be divided, or cooled in some other manner, before refrigerating.
 
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fermentaion in vegatable soup

Can we cool the soup for 4hs on cool burner. We would then like to cover and put in refer (covered) until next morning and then in containers. Would that be OK or will we have bubble problems?
 
Can we cool the soup for 4hs on cool burner. We would then like to cover and put in refer (covered) until next morning and then in containers. Would that be OK or will we have bubble problems?

No, it could still spoil in that amount of time. You need to cool the soup to 70°F within two hours and to 40°F or below within four hours. If you have that large a pot, you should have a commercial-size sink. Put the pot in the sink and fill it with ice water. Stir the soup slowly so the hotter soup in the center of the pot comes in contact with the coldness at the sides of the pot. Monitor the temperature and when it hits 70, you can place it in the fridge.

It will cool faster if you put it in smaller and/or shallow containers.

Are you doing this in a commercial kitchen? Someone should have food safety certification if you are serving to the public.

Cool Soup Safely : Safe Meals : Preserving and Preparing : Food Safety : Food : University of Minnesota Extension

ServSafe® ~ National Restaurant Association
 
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Can we cool the soup for 4hs on cool burner. We would then like to cover and put in refer (covered) until next morning and then in containers. Would that be OK or will we have bubble problems?


4 hours is a technical no-no.

You should cool it as quickly as possible and then refrigerate.

Split it into smaller containers. Use frozen water bottles immersed in soup. Use a ice water bath.
 
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