"Why Does My Noodle Soup Thicken As It Sits Overnight?"
I am wondering about the noodles in canned noodle soups. Homemade noodle soups become thick and mushy as the noodles suck up all the broth, but canned soups retain a decent (not great) texture, and don't seem to absorb broth, no matter how long they sit in the store or my pantry. How do they do that? Do I want to know?
—Sent by Ancient Acolyte
To put it simply: It's because your noodle soup is better than their noodle soup.
To put it in a more complex way, let's consider what happens to a bowl of noodle soup over the course of its lifetime from the time you add the noodles to the time you reheat the bowl the next day.
To start, your soup is relatively watery, and your noodles go in dry. The broth may have a little bit of body provided by the gelatin created by simmering bones and meat, but for the most part, your soup is thin.
As the noodles begin to cook, the liquid in the soup will start to thicken slightly. This happens in two ways: first, it's a simple concentration of dissolved solids. As the pasta absorbs water, it leaves less and less free water in the pot, so whatever small amount of gelatin and other dissolved solids were present in the water in the first place will become a little more concentrated (those solids go mostly unabsorbed by the pasta).
Simultaneously—and more significantly—free starch molecules from the noodles will begin to slough off their surfaces. As those starches hydrate, they significantly increase the viscosity of the broth.
If you're following a good recipe (try this great one from Alice Waters), then your soup base should reach a perfect rich-but-not-stodgy consistency exactly as your noodles hit al dente. This is when the soup should be served for optimum deliciousness. You ever come across a Japanese ramen that refuses to serve take out or delivery orders? It's because with soft ramen noodles, the window of time in which both broth and noodles are perfect is a matter of moments. That's why Japanese people always eat their ramen so fast.
With homemade noodle soups, you've probably noticed that even over the course of eating a bowl, the noodles will continue to get softer and softer, the liquid thicker and thicker. At this stage, the effects of the noodles soaking up more moisture and the resultant increase in concentration of hydrated starch molecules in the remaining liquid can cause that liquid to become quite thick indeed. Eventually, what was once a soup is now a stew.
Now, let that pot cool down and store it in the refrigerator overnight and you've given the pasta even more time to absorb extra liquid (pasta will absorb water even if the water is cold—check out this great Ideas In Food article on how to take advantage of this fact to make one-minute pasta). By the time you start to reheat it the next day, there may be almost no liquid left, the noodles puffed and bloated like an East River body.
So this leads to two questions. First, is there any way to prevent the flaccid noodles and too-thick broth? And second, how do the canned soup makers avoid it in the first place?
The answer to the second question is that they don't. Have you ever had a noodle out of a canned soup product that was truly al dente? A noodle that was anything short of over-soaked mush? I certainly haven't. When they design a can of soup, they've already taken this extra bloating into account and consequently use fewer noodles and more broth than you would for an at-home recipe.
To answer the first question, unfortunately there is no way I know of to prevent noodles from continuing to absorb liquid as they rest. The best course of action would be to set aside any soup that you think you are going to have leftover before adding the noodles. Add the noodles to the pot as you reheat the soup just before serving. If you've already added the noodles from the beginning, your only hope of rescuing the soup is to dilute it with more broth so that the noodles have a bit of space to spread out.
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Dinner Tonight: Alice Waters' Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
At this stage, the effects of the noodles soaking up more moisture and the resultant increase in concentration of hydrated starch molecules in the remaining liquid can cause that liquid to become quite thick indeed. Eventually, what was once a soup is now a stew.
Adding/mixing water in the soup makes the soup less thick. (discrepencies apply. You could use more vegetables/fruits/ingredients with water in them in your soup or just plain ol' pour in water, though ratio applies. Some ingredients have more water than others.
This texture is due to a natural process whereby gelatin is released with gentle cooking over long periods of time. Prolonged simmering coaxes the collagen from the bones and cartilidge of beef or pork into the broth.
You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.
Many home cooks find themselves wondering how to thicken a soup, and there are a few different ways: cooking the soup longer to remove excess liquid, blending some of the solid ingredients of the soup, or using food scraps like bread or potatoes to thicken the soup, but if you don't have time to wait, you can use a ...
So, yeah: Toss that soup that sat out overnight. Now, to the question of whether or not boiling it will kill off these bugs -- that might be technically true, but it comes with a big caveat. To be completely safe, you'll have to boil the soup vigorously for 10 minutes.
An array of salty, umami, tangy elements move in and out of the components in the soup or stew, balancing and integrating the overall flavor. Cooking beans in broth allows them to absorb some flavor from their surrounding liquid; but letting them sit for hours in the broth does a much more complete job.
Boiling soup leads to mushy veggies and tough meat
Since boiling food brings it to a higher temperature, it's easy to think that it's a good way to cook your soup faster -– but boiling soup can backfire. According to Patch, boiling soup can make your vegetables fall apart, and your meat overcooked and tough.
When you simmer a fresh chicken — complete with bones, skin, and meat — you extract the collagen from the bones. This collagen in the bones is what is causing your soup to gel. It's completely natural, and it only happens in rich, well-made chicken stock.
It can be various things that cause your soup to thicken in the cold refrigerator. Starches found in a roux used to thicken or found in noodles or beans will make it get much thicker. A good homemade meat broth will have proteins that congeal as they cool, just like gelatin.
Just add Milk. Milk has often been an easy choice to thicken soups and broths for several reasons: You usually have some in your kitchen, it's easy to find some at your local grocer, and it's cheap. ...
Like a sauce that is too thin, a dish that is too thick is a simple fix! All you need to do is add more of the recipe's cooking liquid — such as wine, broth or cream. If it's bland.
Chunkier soups, like black bean or lentil, tend to lean thick—and, it must be said, gloopy. To thin them out (and dial down the intense salinity), add more water or low-sodium stock while they're heating. (If you overdo it, don't stress: Continue simmering until the liquid has reduced to your desired consistency.)
Add a small amount of fresh herbs to the soup and stir until well combined. Acidic ingredients like lemon juice, vinegar, or tomatoes can also help to reduce the saltiness of soup. Add a small amount of acid to the soup and stir until well combined.
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