Bitter about carrots

February 5, 2013 1:01 PM

I made some carrot soup. It has a slightly bitter after taste. Why is that, and can I fix this?

Basically, I did to a ton of leftover carrots what I do to all my soup bound veggies:
Cooked carrots and onions and a nugget of ginger in some oil, added water and stock cube, some salt and sugar, simmered until done (but not too soft) and then ran it all through the blender, minus the ginger.

There's a slight but distinct bitter aftertaste that spoils it. I added sugar and it helped a little but I don't really want to add more.

Were my carrots simply too old? Was it the ginger? What did I do wrong and can I fix it?

posted by Omnomnom to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

Were they California carrots? I find my supermarket/farmers market carrots that aren't labelled California have a bitter taste (when they have any taste at all.)
posted by Infinity_8 at 1:03 PM on February 5, 2013

I associate bitter with overcooked onions or garlic. Did you burn the carrots? They too will become bitter on the outside if you scorch them.

Try adding brandy to the soup, or perhaps sherry. That might take away the bitter. I know that beer can take away a scorched flavor.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:04 PM on February 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

How about adding a bit of cream? I don't think it was the ginger.
posted by shoesietart at 1:05 PM on February 5, 2013

Ginger can be bitter, and overcooked ginger can be waaaay bitter. That'd be my first suspicion and I don't think it's going to be very easy to fix in your existing batch. If the soup is undersalted then seasoning will help but if it's properly seasoned already oversalting it won't do it any favors.

I would grate or finely mince the ginger and it should just be sweated until you can smell it; either right at the end of cooking the vegetables or do it first and remove it.

Just my guess but anything in there including the carrots could have carried a bitter taste if it was a bit off.
posted by ftm at 1:08 PM on February 5, 2013

Is it properly seasoned? A bit of salt can reduce bitterness.
posted by hungrybruno at 1:08 PM on February 5, 2013

Acid. Squeeze a little lemon over it.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:08 PM on February 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'd try adding cream or a creamy cheese, like goat cheese.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:10 PM on February 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I'm pretty certain I didn't burn anything. I guess maybe I did cook the ginger too long according to ftm's description.
posted by Omnomnom at 1:15 PM on February 5, 2013

add lemon and a little more salt and sugar. Next time cook the carrots longer. You're going to pulverize them anyway so there's no need to worry about keeping them firm.
posted by fingersandtoes at 1:26 PM on February 5, 2013

Especially if they are old or mature carrots, the cores can be bitter. If you want a sweeter soup, you have to cut out and discard the cores.
posted by slkinsey at 1:39 PM on February 5, 2013

Well, I don't want to jump to conclusions! - but if it was a good sized chunk it might have been over on the outside and under in the middle unless you went super gentle and long on the heat.
posted by ftm at 1:41 PM on February 5, 2013

In terms of cutting bitterness, salt will cover it a little but the real solution is to add fat. Butter or cream are your friends here.

If I were you, I'd take out a little of the soup into a cup or something and experiment with it there. Don't just start tossing stuff into the whole pot. Figure out what to add on a small sample, then scale it up for the whole recipe.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:52 PM on February 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

Did you peel them? Sometimes carrot peels can be bitter.
posted by Specklet at 2:46 PM on February 5, 2013

Unless you cooked the onions to dark brown or black, I think it's the carrots. Carrots can be bitter because they ripen too fast for sugars to develop or they have a high level of terpines. This happens if temperatures are too warm, carrots are harvested too early, or if they are stored too long (even refrigerated) or where ethylene is being produced, i.e. with other ripening/decomposing produce. (also soil type, carrot variety, pest infestation, disease, and a number of other issues in the field can contribute to bitterness).
I don't think you did anything wrong, but you may be able to avoid this by buying local carrots at a farmer's market, where they are less likely to have been in long storage. Of course if you have unseasonably warm weather locally, carrots may still be bitter. But the people at farmer's markets will usually let you taste things before buying.

Right now I would try some acids like lemon and/or pineapple juice, or sour cream. Fresh herbs sprinkled on top, especially dill, parsley, or cilantro may help as well.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:32 PM on February 5, 2013

Just to throw a wrench into the monkey... Sometimes pesticides leave a pretty harsh tang on the vegetables.
posted by BenevolentActor at 8:01 PM on February 5, 2013

If they were unpeeled, the skin is always quite bitter (to my taste at least) - Specklet has a pretty likely suggestion.
posted by turgid dahlia 2 at 8:06 PM on February 5, 2013

Modernist Cuisine agrees with slkinsey. "Make sure to core your carrots. The soup will be sweeter because the cores tend to carry a bitter aftertaste."
posted by SampleSize at 9:06 PM on February 5, 2013

nthing peeling the carrots next time. Cook's Illustrated did a blind taste test on this once and found that peeling them before use really improved the flavor.

Better yet do the taste test yourself with two batches of soup and see if you can tell the difference.
posted by Aizkolari at 6:31 AM on February 6, 2013