Brown Bits From Sausage Are The Key To Potato Soup That Actually Tastes Homemade - Tasting Table

"When you brown sausage and see those caramelized speckles cling to the pot, you're witnessing the single biggest difference between soup made from scratch and soup that tastes flat or store-bought. Those brown bits at the bottom of the pan make your soup taste better because they're essentially concentrated flavor, what the culinary world calls fond. Fond happens when the natural sugars and proteins in the meat react to heat and form deeply browned layers."

"In our simple, three-ingredient potato sausage and soup recipe, cooking diced potatoes with perfectly browned sausage is the key to adding flavor directly to the potatoes, in addition to flavoring the rest of the soup. Adding stock, cream, and seasonings bolsters the soup's flavor even more. And if you want to make your soup thicker, those browned bits come in handy for making a roux, too - one of the best ingredients to thicken homemade soup."

Browning sausage produces caramelized speckles called fond, concentrating natural sugars and proteins through the Maillard reaction to create deep, savory flavor. Scraping and dissolving those browned bits into broth builds a slow-cooked, layered foundation even with a short simmer. Browning meat adds fundamental flavor rather than sealing in juices, and cooking diced potatoes with browned sausage transfers flavor into both the potatoes and the soup. Adding stock, cream, and seasonings further enhances taste. Using the browned bits to make a roux thickens the soup, and choosing herby sausages adds specific aromatic notes.

Read at Tasting Table