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Safety: A Note on Safely Storing and Reheating Soups

Most of the soups in this book can be made in advance and frozen. Before you transfer the soup to storage containers, though, it’s important to cool it down quickly to get it out of the “danger zone,” between 40° and 140°F [4° and 60°C], where bacteria multiply rapidly.

To cool soup down swiftly, transfer it from the pot to a large bowl. From this point, you have two choices: either set the bowl of hot soup in a larger bowl full of ice water, or plunge an ice paddle into the center of the soup. Refrigerate either setup until the soup is cold to the touch. Heavy plastic ice paddles can be purchased at kitchen stores, or you can make your own by filling a sturdy plastic bottle three-fourths full with water, capping it, and freezing it until solid. Wash and refreeze the paddle between uses.

Once the soup is 39°F [3.9°C] or colder, store it in 1-qt [960-ml] zip-top freezer bags (they’re great space savers because they lie flat in the freezer) or in 1-qt [960-ml] plastic or glass containers. Even the toughest plastic containers break down with time, and extreme temperatures and can lead to chemicals leaching into your food. I use glass containers to store soup instead. When filling containers with cooled soup, leave at least

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