I occasionally make soup and then freeze it in separate containers to be eaten at a later date. Most of the time I keep one or two servings in the fridge to use in the next few days but I never know how long to actually keep these in the fridge. This time I made this soup http://allrecipes.co.uk/m/recipe/7404/creamy-carrot-and-potato-soup?o_is=LV, It doesn't have any cream in it at the moment so ignore that part. Do people have a particular rule of thumb or does it really depend on to many factors in order to have a specific answer (content, cooking method etc.)?
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It doesn't depend on any complicated factors. Cooked food lasts 3-5 days, period. (Stinky rule applies before the 5th day, throw out afterward even if not stinky). It doesn't matter if the food has cream, egg, or other perishable ingredients; as soon as you have mixed non-perishable ingredients into a palatable form, they become palatable for bacteria too.– rumtscho ♦Mar 4, 2014 at 12:39
2 Answers
Homemade soups should last 3-4 days in the refrigerator, which is a good estimate for almost any cooked food.
If you want longer storage, most soups freeze pretty well, unless they contain pasta, which gets very mushy. On the other hand, it is easy to leave the pasta out of the main batch, and add it later at the time of service.
See, for example:
StillTasty: Chicken Soup Vegetable Soup
I sometimes make a big batch and leave it in the pressure cooker. After each serving, I bring up to pressure and turn off the heat. That's pretty close to keeping it in a can, but I will go though the pot over a week or so.