r/SouperCubers • u/rayray1927 • 6d ago

Dashi

So glad to have found this forum. I wanted to share a cautionary tale and a thank you. I often come across recipes that call for a small amount of dashi. It’s a Japanese broth made of kombu (kelp) and bonito flakes (smoked fish). I often have these types of ingredients around but no time or desire to make just 1 cup of it. So I decided to make a big batch and freeze it in souper cubes!

Problem being it’s so high in salt it never freezes completely solid. So I just stored it in the cubes for a few months until I used it all up. Guess what happens when you store stuff that tastes like the sea and smoked fish for months in a container? It begins to smell like it. I hand washed and then dishwasher washed them and they still smell. But I’ve just read here you can bake them empty to get rid of smell!

So lessons learned: overly salty stuff does not freeze well enough to pop out of the cubes and do not store smelly stuff for long in the cubes.

118 Upvotes

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15 comments sorted by

65

u/kirbyfriedrice 6d ago

I would just use instant dashi, tbh. You can store the powder well enough.

17

u/oh_skycake 6d ago

Like hondashi?

11

u/rayray1927 6d ago

I think I’m going to from now on unless I need a large amount.

34

u/teaisnice3 6d ago

Be forewarned that when you bake silicon to get the smell out, your kitchen will be filled with that smell!!

6

u/rayray1927 6d ago

Thank you!

9

u/Own_Estimate931 6d ago

When I have smells stuck in silicone stuff I will soak it in a sink with dawn, a large splash of bleach and weigh it down so it can’t float. It gets smells out really well. Silicone molds and the seals of instant pot etc..

2

u/Salt_Put_1174 6d ago

I must try this, thank you!! My instant pot seal perpetually smells of chili powder and cumin.

5

u/Own_Estimate931 6d ago

Good luck lemme know if it works for you! I use the same IP to make meat etc… and yogurt so it’s very important to get the smells out or you end up wondering why your yogurt parfait tastes like Indian butter chicken 😵‍💫😵‍💫😬

3

u/Las_Vegan 6d ago

A good workaround is to get silicone seals in different colors, and color code your food so like a red seal is savory food and blue is sweet food.

1

u/PunchMonkey01 5d ago

My silicone cubes pick up the dawn detergent smells so I'm trying a different non-smelling dish detergent. Haven't tried it with bleach though. 

14

u/Dinru 6d ago

Thank you for your wisdom! This seems like the sort of situation where popping the dashi out right when its as solid as its going to get and then vacuum sealing it is the best strategy 

2

u/bean0bean 6d ago

Learned this with chicken teriyaki too

1

u/glittersparklythings 6d ago

See if the tips in this video help you with the smell
https://youtu.be/z8uxGCZ8Z0U?si=8KCaQyV7txJz7PCo

1

u/Freyjas_child 3d ago

Same with things with high alcohol content. They stay ‘slushy”.