Why do the leftovers taste soapy?!

[Anonymous]

For years we have been going to a dear family friend’s home for Thanksgiving. And for years, the leftovers that have any kind of breading in them, taste soapy. Why is this?!?!? It’s most noticeable in baked goods. It’s also there in the stuffing. Today I noticed it in the turkey. It was a piece of turkey with some crispy skin on it, which makes me wonder if maybe it was basted with butter, and that’s the source of the soapy taste? I can’t think of anything else that the turkey would have in common with the stuffing and baked goods except butter. This soapy taste is also there at other times of the year, when she gives us baked goods.

Please help me solve this mystery, DCUM.

[Anonymous]

When you eat the food fresh, there is no soap taste? What type of container does the leftovers go in? Do you reheat in those containers?

[Anonymous]

No soap taste when it’s fresh. We always bring glass containers to take them home in, and reheat them on our Corelle plates. Throughout the year when they give us baked goods, they will wrap those in foil, and those taste soapy too!

[Anonymous]

I have the same problem with our food. I basically use a clingwrap over the pyrex glass container making sure that the food does not touch the plastic of the clingwrao and then I put the silicone/plastic pyrex lid on. Your food is being stored in fridge and the food is getting some smells from the fridge as well. No amount of reheating or adding more spice/herbs is going to remove that detergent smell from the silicone lid. Strangely enough, you will not get this taste when you are using the plastic soup containers that chinese restaurants use for takeout. Go figure.

[Anonymous]

A lot of dish soap leaves a taste and smell on dishes. They're probably used to it but you can taste how it is absorbed by the food. That is just nasty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have the same problem with our food. I basically use a clingwrap over the pyrex glass container making sure that the food does not touch the plastic of the clingwrao and then I put the silicone/plastic pyrex lid on. Your food is being stored in fridge and the food is getting some smells from the fridge as well. No amount of reheating or adding more spice/herbs is going to remove that detergent smell from the silicone lid. Strangely enough, you will not get this taste when you are using the plastic soup containers that chinese restaurants use for takeout. Go figure.

The food I make at home and store in those same containers doesn’t taste soapy, though. It’s only the leftovers from our friend’s.

[Anonymous]

Detergent grabs on to oil—that’s how it works. So it’s probably attaching itself to the oil in the food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of dish soap leaves a taste and smell on dishes. They're probably used to it but you can taste how it is absorbed by the food. That is just nasty.

So why wouldn’t OP taste the soap when the food is fresh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of dish soap leaves a taste and smell on dishes. They're probably used to it but you can taste how it is absorbed by the food. That is just nasty.

So why wouldn’t OP taste the soap when the food is fresh?

The soap is in op’s reused containers. It is grabbing on to the oils in the food (dish soap grabs on to oil).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of dish soap leaves a taste and smell on dishes. They're probably used to it but you can taste how it is absorbed by the food. That is just nasty.

So why wouldn’t OP taste the soap when the food is fresh?

The soap is in op’s reused containers. It is grabbing on to the oils in the food (dish soap grabs on to oil).

How can it be in my glass containers when I use them throughout the year with my own cooking and nothing else tastes soapy? I think a PP is correct - the food itself is soapy, probably from their own soapy dishes, as you said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of dish soap leaves a taste and smell on dishes. They're probably used to it but you can taste how it is absorbed by the food. That is just nasty.

So why wouldn’t OP taste the soap when the food is fresh?

The soap is in op’s reused containers. It is grabbing on to the oils in the food (dish soap grabs on to oil).

How can it be in my glass containers when I use them throughout the year with my own cooking and nothing else tastes soapy? I think a PP is correct - the food itself is soapy, probably from their own soapy dishes, as you said.

Also, they’ve given us baked goods wrapped in foil, and the soapy taste is in those foods too. Definitely not my containers.

HOWEVER, as a PP said, why isn’t the soapy taste there when the food is fresh?

[Anonymous]

This is a mystery…but I guess just stop getting food from them?

[Anonymous]

First of all - i cannot believe you still eat food from these people! Lol

Things that can taste soapy - cilantro, baking soda, silicone, and - actual soap

Do they possibly have some kind of air freshener or dryer sheets in their kitchen, fridge or pantry that could be transferring smell?

[Anonymous]

So the food does not taste soapy when first eaten? Only when you take it home? Perhaps the hosts soap up their hands before handling leftovers, and do not rinse all the soap off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No soap taste when it’s fresh. We always bring glass containers to take them home in, and reheat them on our Corelle plates. Throughout the year when they give us baked goods, they will wrap those in foil, and those taste soapy too!

Baked goods wrap on foil cannot taste soapy. Impossible. OP has a good mystery here…