Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

Sweet Man and I used to make these big pots of soup and they'd feed us for a few days. Then one pot went sour after a couple days and we didn't know why. We never really had a specific recipe, just dumping in lots of chopped veggies and sometimes beans, rice and/or barley. Never did bother putting any meat in as it was too expensive and the amount of other stuff thrown together was so delicious and filling it didn't beg for anything more.

So we tried again and the next batch went sour within the first day. We'd let it sit on the stovetop till it was cool enough to put in the fridge and during that wait it developed some froth and started to taste sour.

We'd tried to figure out what ingredient could have caused it. We thought maybe the peppers or the kidney beans. Not sure, though, as we'd made chili with kidney beans many a time in the past and I only had it go sour on me once (and I think that was coz I'd left it out too long before refrigerating). Wait a sec... as I'm typing I'm wondering if it could have been canned chili beans. Normally I would cook dried beans for hours but sometimes got lazy and used canned beans. Could that be it? But why would that make a difference?

Well, we kinda gave up on the big soups for awhile, discouraged. We thought it also might have been the big pot we were using, which was some light weight thing, not sure what it was made of, I'm thinking aluminum but I got it after I'd heard aluminum pots were bad for health and I figured they wouldn't sell them anymore and this one must've been something else. Not sure though.

So we finally broke down and bought a large Cuisinart stainless steel stock pot. Oh what a beauty it is! For about a month I couldn't bring myself to take it off the stove top, just had to let it sit there and gleam at us throughout the day like a piece of fine art. :D

We cooked a few soups in it, but when one went sour, we shied away again, sticking to using it for boring old spaghetti sauces now and then, but longing to throw together a lovingly delicious creation of multiple vegetables without fear of a sour ending.

Has anyone else ever had this happen - making a big soup and having it turn sour before it's even half gone?

I originally started making these large soups when I was coming off the Master Cleanse [the lemon juice/maple syrup/cayenne pepper cleanse]) and followed the suggestions in the book (available to read online at http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/spa/7244/master_cleanse.html - search for "soup" and you'll see what I mean.

That's the type of soups we like, with lots of ingredients thrown in. I love cabbage soup, too, like from the "cabbage soup diet".

Maybe we need to follow a specific recipe. If so, does anyone have any suggestions?

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

I've never experienced that. The fact that it started to taste sour before you even put it in the fridge and as it iss cooling suggests that you've maybe got some sort of spice that's already off and the flavor is just developing as it sits...

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

I would try to cool it quicker. In a sink of cold water or ice.

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

yup you'll need to either put it in a shallow container or several smaller containers to get it cool fast. A whole pot of soup cooling is a breeding ground for bacteria.

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

My husband's family makes big pots of food and never refridgerates them. What they do is they boil them at a hard boil for a few minutes (maybe 5) and then nobody touches it. Once someone touches it (puts a spoon in it) it will need to be boiled again within an hour or so.

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

You should always refrigerate leftovers within two hours.

Also, break it down into small containers no more than a few inches in depth and make sure they are put in the fridge in a way that allows for air to circulate around each container. Don't stack them, at least not until they are 40 degrees or below. A very large container of soup put into a residential refrigerator is not going to cool quickly enough to prevent dangerous bacterial growth. The outside might get cool quickly, but the inside won't. :sick

If you do these two things, and your refrigerator is cold enough, I'm guessing it should fix the problem. :)

I'm a bit of a food safety freak. :shifty

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

I'm wondering if your fridge is what's changed, if it isn't set as low or cooling as well as it used to.

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

Bumping a semi-old thread, but... I wanted to add...

I gave my family food poisoning b/c of soup that had gone bad. :/ I couldn't figure out what would've caused it. But now that I've read this thread, I can totally see that it was b/c I kept it in the crock pot for cooking, then also in the fridge... and it probably cooled extremely slowly.

Anyways... good info! And PeachPappoose, you're not alone.

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

:hug2 I'm glad to get this info out there. We have to be careful about things like this. :yes3

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

I would be more inclined to think it had something to do with a spice (the sour flavor) than food gone bad..so quickly, anyways. Mainly b/c the OP didn't have any meat/animal products in the soup.

Can you get sick from an all vegetarian dish cooled slowly? :shrug I guess I thought that was mainly limited to dishes that contained animal or animal products?

Re: Soup going sour after a day. What's wrong?
 

I've seen beans go bad. :shrug But certainly, animal products are way riskier.