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General
Questions
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Are
you a new company?
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Why do your soups taste so much better than other soups?
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Are your soups all
natural?
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Do you have any
organic soups?
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Do your soups contain trans fats or hydrogenated oils?
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Are any of
your soups allergen free?
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How does the sodium content compare to other soups?
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How often do
you offer new soups?
Gluten
Free, Frozen Soups
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Where are the gluten free soups manufactured and how do you
ensure that they are gluten free?
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Do you have gluten free soups that are dairy-free?
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My local deli is serving Kettle Cuisine soups hot and the
local store is selling them in refrigerated containers. Are
those soups gluten free?
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Are these gluten free soups really high in natural proteins?
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What is the best way to heat the gluten free, frozen soups?
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Is it true that the gluten-free diet of the founder’s daughter
was the inspiration for these soups?
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Can I purchase
directly from you?
Foodservice, Refrigerated Soups
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What is the pack size?
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Can I purchase
directly from you?
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Can I freeze the refrigerated soups? What if I already froze
them?
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How long are they good for once I open the pouch?
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How should I heat
your soups?
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Can I use it the next day after heating it today?
General
Questions
1. Are you a new company?
Kettle Cuisine opened its doors in October
of 1986, and we have been making quality, all natural soups from
scratch for restaurants, food service accounts, supermarkets and
specialty retail outlets ever since.
2. Why do your soups taste so much better than other soups?
We believe that great soups are created
using the best natural ingredients and traditional cooking
methods. We only use the best quality, natural vegetables,
meats, oils, spices, dairy and other ingredients. We work
closely with and monitor our suppliers to ensure that we always
get the best ingredients available. Traditional cooking methods
means we cook our soups from scratch using multiple steps
without taking short cuts such as soup bases, MSG or chemically
produced flavor enhancers. We simmer our own flavorful stocks
from scratch for hours and sauté vegetables and braise meats so
that each ingredient is cooked to taste and texture perfection.
Each soup is prepared in small batches, adding herbs and spices
at just the right moment for optimal flavor. Some might think
that we go a little overboard in our methods, but at Kettle
Cuisine we believe it’s the only way to make soup.
3. Are your soups all
natural?
Absolutely. We use only the finest all
natural ingredients. The chickens, beef and pork we use are
raised without antibiotics or added hormones* on a vegetarian
diet. We peel and cut fresh produce and make fresh stocks in
our kitchen. And we purchase our cream from local New England
dairies that pledge to not use artificial growth hormones.
*All USDA chicken is considered to be
“hormone-free”.
4. Do you have any
organic soups?
Select varieties such as Organic Carrot
Ginger, Organic Lentil and Organic Tomato & Garden Vegetable are
available for foodservice. Check our product listing to see the
most up-to-date list.
5. Do your soups contain trans fats or hydrogenated oils?
All Kettle Cuisine soups are free of
artificial transfats and hydrogenated oils. However, beef and
dairy products have small amounts of naturally occurring
transfats, so there is naturally occurring transfat in Angus
Steak Beef Chili and New England Clam Chowder, for example.
Research suggests that the body digests naturally occurring
transfats differently than artificial ones; some experts contend
that it even has potential benefit to aid in both muscle
building and fat loss efforts.
6. Are any of
your soups allergen free?
The Food and Drug Administration’s top 8
allergens are:
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Milk
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Eggs
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Peanuts
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Tree nuts (such as almonds, cashews,
walnuts, coconuts)
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Fish (such as bass, cod, flounder)
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Shellfish (such as crab, lobster, shrimp)
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Soy
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Wheat
These allergens
account for 90% of all documented food allergies.
While many of
our soups are made without these ingredients (we are a
peanut-free facility), we only take special precautions with our
gluten free, frozen line, which is also tested after the fact to
ensure that there is no gluten cross contamination.
7. How does the sodium content compare to other soups?
We are particular about all of our
ingredients, especially salt. We only use sea salt from a
Utah-based company; just a tiny amount of this special pink salt
greatly enhances the flavors in our soups.
Although we do not add a lot of salt to our
soups, sodium is naturally occurring in many of the
ingredients. Sodium is a mineral found naturally in every food;
for example, eight ounces of 1% low fat milk naturally contains
127 milligrams of sodium. The recommended sodium limit for most
people without particular health concerns is 2,400 milligrams
daily, on average.
8. How often do
you offer new soups?
Our Executive Chef Volker Frick constantly
develops new flavors and concepts. Kettle Cuisine prides itself
on quality and innovation, including new flavors, certified
organic varieties, converting to all natural ingredients, and
most recently, our frozen, gluten free soups. Check out the
What’s New section on our website or send us an idea!
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Gluten
Free, Frozen Soups
9. Where are the gluten free soups manufactured and how do you
ensure that they are gluten free?
Our gluten free soups are manufactured in
our dedicated soup making facility in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
It is a USDA-inspected facility that is also certified to make
organic soups. Our company makes over 60 different varieties of
soups and has instituted strict manufacturing procedures to
ensure that no gluten cross contamination occurs when we make
gluten free soups. In addition, we test every batch down to 5
parts per million, which is tighter than the proposed Federal
standard (the proposed Federal standard for “gluten free” is no
more than 20 parts per million).
10. Do you have gluten free soups that are dairy free?
Our Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles and Angus
Steak Chili with Beans are dairy free and we hope to add more
dairy free varieties soon.
11. My local deli is serving Kettle Cuisine soups hot and the
local store is selling them in refrigerated containers. Are
those soups gluten free?
Maybe. You need to ask the operator if the
labeling on the product includes a Gluten Free claim. If not,
the soup has not been produced under specific protocols or
tested for gluten. The individual frozen retail bowls
which are sold in grocery stores all carry the Gluten Free
claim; they are produced under specific protocols and tested for
gluten.
12. Are these gluten free soups really high in natural proteins?
Many of Kettle Cuisine’s gluten free soups
are more of a meal than a meal starter. For each 10 oz.
portion, following is the protein content in our gluten free
soups:
Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles – 15g
Chili with White Beans – 21g
Angus Steak Chili with Beans – 19g
New England Clam Chowder – 15g
Grilled Chicken and Corn Chowder – 13g
13. What is the best way to heat the gluten free, frozen soups?
To heat from frozen:
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Remove bowl from box. Pull back one
corner of film to vent.
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Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes. Since
ovens vary, cooking time may require adjusting.
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Carefully peel back film & stir
thoroughly. If soup isn’t fully heated, replace film and heat
soup on high for up to one minute. Use caution as bowl may be
hot.
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Let stand for one minute before serving.
Enjoy!
To heat from refrigerated:
If you prefer, thaw soup in refrigerator and
use it within 3 days of it being thawed. Just heat it up in the
microwave or on the stovetop as you would normally heat soup.
Microwaves vary in strength, but a good rule of thumb is to
place it in the microwave with the seal in place for a minute.
Use caution as bowl may be hot. Stir the soup, keep a cover over
the liquid, and heat it for another minute. Enjoy!
14. Is it true that the gluten-free diet of the founder’s
daughter was the inspiration for these soups?
Yes, Jerry Shafir’s daughter Kate was
diagnosed with Celiac disease as a baby. When Jerry finally
decided the time was right to launch gluten free soups, she
helped us to focus initially on varieties with higher protein
and fiber. Although Kate and her parents admit that eating
gluten free is a lot easier today than it was 19 years ago, Kate
now loves eating our Chicken Soup with Rice Noodles and Chicken
Chili with Beans whenever she wants.
15. Can I
purchase directly from you?
Unfortunately not, but you can purchase
Kettle Cuisine’s gluten-free, frozen soups direct from
www.glutenfreemall.com, or check out the Where To Buy
section on our website.
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Foodservice, Refrigerated Soups
16. What is the pack size?
The soup is full strength, refrigerated and
packaged in two 8 lbs casings per box.
17. Can I purchase
directly from you?
Our soups can only be purchased by
foodservice operators through one of our distributors.
18. Can I freeze the refrigerated soups? What if I already
froze them?
We do not recommend
freezing these soups as the recipes are formulated for fresh
handling. By all means the soups should be frozen as opposed to
being discarded. If the soup has been frozen, we recommend
thawing under refrigeration and then heating per instructions.
Depending upon the variety, you should expect some compromise in
the brightness of the flavor, vegetable texture and/or
appearance.
19. How long are they good for once I open the pouch?
We recommend heating
quickly to 165° F and holding at this temperature. Product
should be kept covered when not serving to prevent moisture
loss, and over the course of several hours, if there has been
evaporation and the product has thickened up, water should be
added SPARINGLY to bring back proper consistency.
Holding Time:
At 165°F, with the
exception of moisture loss, which can be addressed as needed,
the product will hold up for several hours with the following
notes:
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Pasta and rice will
continue to slowly absorb water and thicken over time.
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Vegetables will
hold up well and soften minimally unless holding temperature
gets up to 180°F or above.
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The cream soups
will hold at 165°F but may break if temperature gets over
180°F for an extended period of time.
20. How should I heat
your soups?
Kettle Cuisine soups
can be heated right in the pouches in a water bath, kept
preferably between180°-190° F (not boiling to avoid breaking the
creams), or out of the pouches in a double boiler. If a water
bath is not used, soups must be constantly stirred to avoid
scalding.
The time required for
heating of our products from 35° to 165°F ranges from 25 to 45
minutes, depending on the product viscosity and the quality of
the heating source. Broth soups heat quickly; chowders, chilis
and stews take more time. Products should be heated as quickly
as possible, not slowly (e.g. in a soup warmer that is only made
for holding and takes a couple of hours to get up to serving
temperature).
21. Can I use it the next day after heating it today?
Leftover soup can be used the next day,
provided that it is cooled rapidly after being removed from
heat. To do this, the soup container is placed in an ice water
bath while the soup is stirred frequently. The soup should then
be stored in a cooler with good airflow in a container which
allows heat to escape. When re-heating, quick heating is
especially important (see heating instructions above). Note
however that for cream soups, the water in a double boiler setup
should be just below boil (not actively boiling) to avoid
breaking the creams.
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