Often when discussing the benefits of soup base vs. pre-made stocks and broths, I emphasize that one pound of Cook’s Delight soup base can make 5 1/2 gallons of soup stock or broth. Although that seems like a lot, it doesn’t really make a visual impact on someone. On Friday night (at about 9:00 pm), I got this great idea to go to the store and buy 5 1/2 gallons of boxed broth and 5 1/2 gallons of canned broth. I’d bring them home and make pyramids out of them to show the differences between Cook’s Delight soup base and pre-made stocks.
Boy, was I surprised when I got to the store, armed with my calculator, at how much 5 1/2 gallons of pre-made stock truly was — in both quantity and cost! I thought I had a pretty good visual in my mind before I got there….wrong. I couldn’t even justify buying both the boxed stock and the canned stock to bring home and make my pyramids to photograph and share. Too much money!
So, I rummaged through my purse and found my camera. I loaded the boxed stock in the bottom of my cart face up. Surprisingly, 5 1/2 gallons would not fit the bottom of the cart face up. I added a few boxes to make a 2nd row. I stood up, on my tip-toes, and took an ariel photograph of the boxed stocks.
Next, I loaded the necessary canned stock in the cart to equal 5 1/2 gallons. Again, a partial 2nd row was needed to fit it all the canned stock. Back on my tip-toes, I took another photograph.
Finally, I put the Cook’s Delight soup base in the cart for making 5 1/2 gallons of stock or broth. 1 – 1 pound container. Plenty of room in the cart. Final time on the tip-toes for a photograph.
In case you are wondering, I did get some strange looks. At one point, a stock person came walking by me slowly. I’m sure they were watching my efforts on the store surveillance cameras. I made certain that I put everything back better than I found it. I also bought some tortilla shells and yogurt, so I didn’t leave empty handed!
If you want to find out how much boxed and canned stock it takes to make 5 1/2 gallons, and how much that costs, watch my 30-second video!
In the past week, there has been a nationwide recall on HVP products produced by Basic Flavors. Integrative Flavors, manufacturer of Cook’s Delight gourmet soup bases has been unaffected by this recall. Link to our Press Release.
HVP, or Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, is a flavor enhancer that is common and used in many foods, including soups, sauces, dressings, hot dogs and dips.
Because Basic Foods manufactures a great deal of the HVP used in the food industry, this recall is expected to be extensive. The FDA has posted information for consumers on The HVP Recall.
If you need further information on Cook’s Delight soup bases, unaffected by this recall, please feel free to contact John True, Director of Sales. 219-229-2825
What benefits does using soup base in food service have over making traditional stock? I had to answer that question when I first began working at Integrative Flavors. So, I took a class at the local community college on Broths and Stocks. In this class, we spent the semester making different stocks and mother sauces. That was a really interesting experience (and some great eating). Traditional stock is popular with some chefs, but there are many reasons that soup base is a great alternative. Here are my top 5:
#5
Consistent, predictable, flavor profile. It tastes the same, everytime.
#4
Stock items have no minimum order. Custom soup bases have low minimum orders.
#3
The variety of flavors and attributes available. Gluten Free, Low Sodium, Organic, No MSG. Chicken, Beef, Turkey, Seafood, Salmon, Clam, Lobster, Veal, Bacon, etc.
#2
Costs pennies per serving. One pound of Cook’s Delight base makes 5 1/2 gallons of stock or broth.
#1
Foodservice professionals can work with Cook’s Delight R&D Food Scientists to develop custom products, if one of our stock products doesn’t fit their needs.
When we are looking for a non-meat pasta sauce for dinner, we usually turn to this recipe. We developed it by trial and error and we think we have it perfected now! It has an interesting combination of flavors that work well together. It is also a quick recipe, taking about 10 minutes to assemble. I usually simmer it for about 10 minutes and then make the pasta to go along with the sauce. This brings the total cooking time of the sauce to about 30 minutes which gives it time for the flavors to meld.
When tomatoes are in season, I blanch them and peel them for the tomato base in the sauce. If I don’t have that option, I use canned crushed tomatoes. I’d prefer fresh, but this is a suitable alternative.
INGREDIENTS
28 oz. Crushed Tomatoes
2 tsp. Cook’s Delight Roasted Garlic Soup Base Concentrate
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1 tbsp. olive oil
6 oz. can (drain weight) black olives
14 oz. can artichoke hearts, quartered
oregano
DIRECTIONS
Sautee onion in 1 tbsp. olive oil until translucent.
In a large skillet, add tomatoes and 2 tsp. Cook’s Delight Roasted Garlic soup base concentrate and heat on medium. After garlic base has been incorporated, add onions and continue to heat.
Chop black olives in half. Add olives, artichoke hearts and oregano (I usually add a 1-2 tsp. dried, but this is more of my preference).
Simmer sauce while making pasta. We have used “regular” pasta and whole wheat pasta. This sauce goes well with either.
After my initial post, I had a thought that this would be great on pizza dough with cheese. I’m going to give that a try.
A few years ago, I did the Weight Watchers program. In the quest to find good recipes with “low point value”, I tweaked a few different chili dishes and came up with this Chili Recipe. I call it green chili. The recipe calls for 3 lbs. of ground turkey. I generally buy packaged ground turkey and it usually comes in 1.25 lbs. per package. I just throw it all into the pot, so I typically use about 3.75 lbs. ground turkey when making it.
Ground turkey meat is the only ingredient in this recipe with “points”. Those that have done Weight Watchers in the past will understand the lingo here. With that, the entire recipe has a points value of 60 (using the 3.75 lbs. of ground turkey option). This recipe serves a lot of people. It fills an entire stock pot when I make it–so the individual points are quite low.
You can use any of the Cook’s Delight Chicken soup base products in the recipe. It calls for 2 cups chicken stock which is just 1 3/4 tsp. chicken base mixed with hot water. Very easy and very inexpensive.
I Listened to an Interview with Chip Heath and Discovered that We Did Something Right!
As I was doing my morning walk on the treadmill, I was listening to a Duct Tape Marketing podcast. Chip Heath was being interviewed about his new book “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard”.
I found this very relevant information and was intrigued with Chip’s comments. Especially as they pertained to “getting the emotion right” when it comes to changing the way we are working in an organization. He says that looking at the bright spots is a really strong motivational technique rather than just focusing on the need to change.
Mostly, I was excited to find out that we did something right! At our annual goal setting meeting in January. We started out the usual way with listing everything that we are working on now, things we didn’t accomplish in the past year and items we wanted to accomplish in 2010. As in the past, this can be pretty heavy stuff and can be a bit of a downer. The meeting tends to focus on where we fell short in our projects.
We took a short break from our work, and during that break, I was struck by a thought that maybe we should start with listing all of our accomplishments from 2009. We were pleasantly surprised when doing this that we filled up a complete page and then some. Then we went on to list some items in our personal lives that we accomplished in 2009. This was a much more uplifting way to start.
When we got back to the office, I sent an email out to everyone asking them to list 5 accomplishments from 2009 and also asked them to cc: everyone in the office. Too many times, we spend our time together at meetings moving forward with projects and never looking back to see where we have come from.
We have a huge year this year at work. We are in the process of renovating a manufacturing plant to move Integrative Flavors’ soup base operations to this summer. The advice Chip gave, in this brief interview, validated to me that retooling the way we approach our projects will go a long way to a successful year!
I usually make a pot roast in the crock pot and spread Cook’s Delight French Onion Soup Mix on top. Today, I decided to try something new (mostly because I ran out of French Onion soup mix). I mixed Roasted Garlic soup base concentrate in hot water and then poured that into the crock pot with the roast for cooking. When we got home, it smelled delicious. It definitely gave the roast a different flavor. I liked it, but I think I prefer the French Onion soup mix for the crock pot cooking. Brian thought it went well with the roast with a nice background flavor of garlic. He wasn’t sure which one he preferred…probably the French Onion soup mix. Although, I have a friend that swears by the roasted garlic base and calls it “gold” on a roast. Try it for yourself and see what you prefer. Let me know!
One of our favorite Lenten meals is Shrimp Fried Rice. We eat it year-long, but it is a definite during Lent.
We had a discussion (and a good laugh) at work the other day about giving up meat for Lent. Even though we eat meat, we also eat non-meat meals quite a bit. But, when Lent comes around, all the sudden we are somewhat perplexed as to what to eat for the non-meat meals. This only affects about 20 meals over 40 days, but yet it seems like a bigger decision than this.
For this meal, I made Shrimp Fried Rice with Cook’s Delight Seafood Base. To be honest, prior to this, I have never added soup base to my fried rice. I decided to give it a try to see if we could tell a difference and if we liked it better. I chose the Cook’s Delight Seafood soup base. We also have shrimp soup base, but I had the seafood soup base at home, so seafood it was.
We could tell a difference in the fried rice. It had a smooth and subtle flavor of seafood. This is a definite keeper.
Shrimp Fried Rice
Ingredients
Please adjust these ingredients to your personal taste. I just wing this every time.
2 cups uncooked rice
4 – 6 chopped green onions
4 oz. bean sprouts
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
4 eggs
1 cup salad shrimp
soy sauce
1/2 tsp. Cook’s Delight Seafood Soup Base
You can substitute shrimp soup base, crab soup base, clam soup base
Cook rice. Other recipes I have seen have you cook rice and then refrigerate it until it is cold. I just use the warm rice. This will make the rice softer than if you refrigerate it, so it is all preference. You can add the soup base to the water when cooking the rice, if you’d like. I added it at the next step.
Heat 1-2 tbsp. oil in a non-stick wok or large skillet. Add the rice and Cook’s Delight Seafood Base. Stir.
Add green onions, mushrooms, bean sprouts and shrimp. Cook until the vegetables are the consistency you like.
Clear rice mixture to the side of a pan and create open space. Scramble eggs in the opening. After eggs are scrambled, mix into the rest of the rice and vegetables.
Add soy sauce to taste.
Enjoy!
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Please feel free to pass it along to anyone you think it may benefit.
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I have read several articles lately about the evils of the food industry and how they bury ingredients under the “natural flavoring” portion of a label.
Yesterday, I read another article that discussed the “Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry” and specifically mentioning soup bases.
It stated that “Anything you buy that says spices or natural flavors contains MSG!” This really bothers me, because as a manufacturer of soup base, I know that this is not true. Both the USDA and the FDA regulate food labeling.
The USDA has put together information on Natural Flavorings on Meat and Poultry Labels to answer some of the most frequently asked questions.
The FDA follows Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 Sec 101.22 regarding defining labeling of spices, flavorings, colorings and chemical preservatives.
When I submit labels to the USDA for label approval, if I list Natural Flavoring on the label, I must spell out exactly what that includes for the USDA label examiner. There is no way that I could “hide” MSG in a label approval.
If a product does not contain MSG, but contains hydrolyzed vegetable protein or autolyzed yeast extract, the product is not allowed to be labeled “No MSG”. It can be labeled “No MSG Added”, but needs a disclaimer that indicates *except for what naturally occurs in the hydrolyzed vegetable protein or autolyzed yeast extract.
I hope that this helps to explain labeling of foods for the consumer. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to try and answer them.
