A stainless pot of broth starting on an induction hob, with onion, leek, celery and dried chiles under a layer of foam

Skills to practice first

Simmer, skim, season last

Simmer, don't boil

A few lazy bubbles keeps stock clear, while a rolling boil churns fat into it and turns it cloudy and greasy.

Skim early

Lift off the gray foam that rises in the first half hour, then leave the pot alone.

Build a flavor base

Cook chopped onion, carrot and celery gently in a little fat until soft before any liquid goes in.

Add in stages

Hard vegetables and dried beans go in early, pasta, rice and greens in the last 10 to 15 minutes.

Salt at the end

Stock reduces as it simmers, so keep it unsalted and season the finished soup, tasting as you go.

Your first week

The two tested recipes

What you can make in your first month

Chicken stock

A gentle three-hour simmer that teaches skimming, straining and cooling, and gives you the base for everything else.

Chicken noodle soup

A quick weeknight soup that shows how much better it tastes made with your own stock.

Vegetable stock from saved trimmings

Onion ends, carrot peels and celery leaves kept in a freezer bag turn into a free second stock.

A bean and vegetable stew

A thicker, heartier pot that teaches you to add ingredients in stages so nothing turns to mush.

A freezer stash

Four or more labeled quarts of stock and soup, cooled fast and ready for busy nights.

Two bowls of smooth pureed soup topped with fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil — Smooth soups come later, once the blender joins the kit

Food safety for big batches

Hot to cold in 2 hours, cold to boiling before serving

Never put a full hot pot in the fridge: it can stay warm in the middle for hours. Divide it into containers no more than about 2 inches deep, or quart containers in an ice bath, and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking (1 hour on a day above 90°F).
Don't leave soup on a turned-off stove overnight to cool; bacteria multiply fastest between 40°F and 140°F.
Eat refrigerated stock and soup within 3 to 4 days, and freeze what you won't use inside that window rather than at the end of it.
Frozen soup stays safe indefinitely at 0°F but tastes best within 2 to 3 months, so label every container with the name and date.
Thaw in the fridge or in a pot over low heat, not on the counter.
Reheat soup, stock and sauce to a full rolling boil before serving, and reheat only what you will eat.

The official leftovers guide

USDA FSIS: Leftovers and Food Safety Free official guide to cooling, storing and reheating leftovers, including big pots of soup

Choosing your stock pot

Size

12 quarts holds a full batch of stock with room to simmer without boiling over; 8 quarts works if you only make soup, not stock.

Base

Look for a thick base with a bonded aluminum or copper layer. Thin bottoms scorch beans, stews and chili.

Shape

Tall and narrow loses less liquid to evaporation, which suits stock; a wider pot suits stews and browning meat.

Handles and lid

Riveted handles you can grip with oven mitts when the pot weighs 20 pounds, and a lid that sits flat.

Fit

Check it sits on your largest burner and fits in your sink for straining; stainless steel works on every stovetop, including induction.

Before each batch

Check the pot is clean of old residue, which scorches, and set it on the burner it covers best.

A lidded stainless steel pot steaming on a stovetop in a bright kitchen — A lidded stainless pot steaming on the stove

Where soup making can take you

Sauce makingTomato sauces, pan gravies and velvety reductions built on the same stock and simmering skills, made in a sloped saucier with a flat whisk.

Start here

Make the tomato sauce guide below with your saucier, then use a cup of your stock to make a pan gravy the same week. Both teach reducing and thickening, the two skills every sauce rests on.

Food Network: How to Make a Basic Tomato Sauce

Chili cook-offsCompetitive chili judged on aroma, color, texture and taste, where cooks grind their own blends from whole dried chiles.

Start here

Toast and grind a few dried chiles for your next pot of chili instead of using chili powder, then look up a cook-off near you and go taste before you enter one.

International Chili Society: Find a Cook-off

Where to start each one

What trips beginners up

Expect the first stock to taste flat on its own; it is unsalted on purpose and comes alive once it is seasoned in a soup.
A stock that sets like jelly in the fridge is a success, not a problem: that is gelatin from the bones, and it melts back to liquid.
Big batches take longer than recipes suggest, mostly in heating up, straining and cooling, so start stock on a day you are home.
Adding pasta or rice to the whole pot makes it swell into mush by day two; cook it separately or only in the portion you serve.
Bean, potato and pureed soups thicken as they chill, so expect to thin them with a splash of stock or water when you reheat.

Close-up of chicken stock in the pot: chicken pieces, carrots, onion, sage leaves and whole spices under clear liquid — Chicken stock mid-simmer, before straining

Why the kit looks like this

The stock pot is the one item worth spending on. Everything else is inexpensive and does one job well: straining, skimming, ladling, cooling and freezing. This kit assumes you already have a basic kitchen (a knife, a cutting board and a saucepan); if you don't, the Cooking guide covers that core set. The only shelf-stable ingredient the first recipe needs is whole peppercorns, and the rest is fresh produce and chicken. The sauce and chili add-ons are small, and the immersion blender can wait until you want smooth soups.

Two hands holding a bowl of beef and vegetable stew with a spoon in it

Set up the soup station

One pot, many quarts

Every line below is something you can buy online; the bones, vegetables and chicken come from the grocery store. Compare the options and set your tiers in the soup-station kit. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out of the kit.

Essential

12-quart stainless steel stock pot with lid

Core equipment

Holds a full batch of stock (about 6 quarts of water plus bones) with room to simmer, and its heavy base keeps stews and chili from scorching.

budget

Specialty Stainless Steel 12 qt Stock Pot with Lid, Induction

4.6(924)

$49.99

Soup Making

Skills to practice first

Your first week

Food safety for big batches

Choosing your stock pot

Where soup making can take you

What trips beginners up

Why the kit looks like this

Set up the soup station

12-quart stainless steel stock pot with lid

Fine-mesh strainer

Stainless steel soup ladle

Quart freezer-safe soup containers with lids

Whole black peppercorns

Fine-mesh skimmer

Reusable ice paddle for cooling soup

3-quart stainless steel saucier

Flat whisk

Whole dried chiles for chili

Electric spice grinder

Immersion blender