I recently tried to make a simple soup at home but it burned on the bottom of my aluminum pot. It happened in less than 10 minutes and ended up tasting horrible and burnt. Is there any trick to keep that from happening?
Did you use high heat from the start? That's the problem. With potatoes and onions you have to start with medium or even medium-low heat, because those ingredients release starch and stick to the bottom quickly if the temperature is too high. What works is sautéing the onion first in a little oil over medium heat until it's soft, then add the potatoes cut into even pieces and cover it with water or broth. From there on you keep the heat at medium, nothing higher. Another trick: move the pot every so often in the first few minutes, even if you don't stir the contents, just so the bottom doesn't stick. With aluminum pots you have to be more careful than with stainless steel ones because they heat up faster and less evenly.
Aluminum conducts heat a ton, so if you're not careful everything burns in seconds. What saves you is keeping the heat low from the start and, most importantly, stirring constantly during the first five minutes while the potatoes and onion release that sticky starch. I once threw in finely chopped potatoes on medium-high heat thinking it would be quick, and in less than a minute the bottom was already black; ever since I always start on low and don't stop stirring with a wooden spoon until I see the mixture starting to soften. It also helps a lot to add the broth or water once the vegetables are a bit wilted, not at the beginning, because that way you avoid them sticking to the pot while they cook.
What should really change the game for you is adding enough liquid from the start - if the potatoes and onion are almost covered with water or broth from the moment you turn on the heat, it's almost impossible for them to burn on the bottom. That exact thing happened to me when I tried to make a quick soup at my desk to eat at work, threw everything in dry and cranked up the heat, total disaster 😅 Besides that, yeah, low or medium heat is key, but honestly if you have enough liquid from the get-go you don't have to be stirring constantly; just giving it a stir every once in a while does the trick.
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