The Crappy Economy Means You'd Better Learn To Love Canned Soup
You know who is making money despite the total eclipse of your 401k? Campbell Soup Company. That's right. When you're broke -- you eat soup. But which soup should you eat?
Consumer Reports tests soup, and they've reported that the Original Soup Man (yes, the guy from Seinfeld), which costs $3 for a single cup, made the tastiest but not exactly the cheapest chicken soup. Campbell's Select Chicken With Egg Noodles ($1.32 a cup), was only "good" because of its "slightly sour, fatty mouthfeel" and "mushy vegetables."
Sounds delicious.
So tell us: Are you eating more soup lately?
What soups do you like?
Soup sales are a sign of the times [Consumer Reports]
(Photo: jonathon )
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Comments:
Or.. I'm eating the same amount of soup I eat when it is freezing outside.
Yeah-
About $10 in ingredients can make a really good tasting soup that can make 8 decent servings.
I love me some Progresso, but only when it's on sale for 10 for $10. That and a sandwich has pretty much been my lunch for the past couple of months.
@rpm773: All of those except "quick." It takes hours and hours to make and excellent stock (you know, the base for the rest of the soup). Luckily it can be done mostly unattended, and it's essentially made from scraps.
Add me to the list of make-from-scratch-ers.
I've said it a hundred times if I've said it once: For the cost of about 5 cans of Progresso soup, you can make the equivalent of 15-20 cans, and it's fresh, and you know what went into it, and you can support local farmers in the meantime.
It's a win/win/win/win.
When we do soup we make a huge pot of it and it lasts for days for me and my family of 5 people. So I really think we come out ahead when we make our own.
Spend the money for various spices & herbs, beans, vegies.. etc. vs. Spending $1.32 (though Campbells soup ain't great) per person = $6.60
Somehow, I think I come out ahead.
@tekkierich: Whenever my wife and I buy a chicken to roast, we boil the bones (and leftover bits of skin/meat/etc.). It only takes a few hours and makes for great low-sodium stock. Then I freeze it--makes great, quick soup in a pinch.
I make my soups from scratch. Stuffed green pepper is my favorite! I make the tomato juice from scratch from tomato's I grew during the summer. Everything in it, came from my garden. Only thing I purchase is rice, which is cheap, and ground beef. 3lbs of it, is $6ish. I then make 5 gallons of soup at once, lasts me a week, for lunch w/ grilled cheese sandwiches.
@CountryJustice: Besides, it's more fun. I find myself walking through the produce section of the local supermarket and thinking, "Hmm, I wonder how THAT'd taste in beef stew? Let's find out."
@balthisar: I tried making my own stock in my crockpot one day. The meat came out tasting like cardboard and the bones basically dissolved. It was disgusting.
In college, we kept a never ending pot of soup in the fridge. It was where most leftovers ended up along with an occasional restocking of vegetables. It just sort of never ran out. I suppose that's not as sanitary as people are used to now, but it was sure nice to always have on hand.
@balthisar: If you want it to take hours to make stock from scratch, that's great. But you can buy some stock at the store and beef it up a little with some aromatics before using it to save time. Or if you want something quick you can use it straight.
Soup is great. You can make it as fancy or as simple as you want.
The crockpot, dutch oven, and pressure cooker are getting more use at our household lately.
@balthisar: You can make perfectly decent homemade soup with storebought stock. I still wouldn't categorize initial prep as "quick," but then it's easy enough to freeze portions so that it really does become a quick meal that's cheaper and tastier than canned. We can store the stuff in those freezers everybody apparently bought this year.
Some soups don't even require stock. I make a killer tomato soup by combining a big can of crushed tomatos, a can of rotel, a small can of tomato sauce and about 1c white sauce. The result is a spicy, creamy, soothing tomato soup that goes well with grilled cheese or tuna sandwiches.
It's super cheap, too.
We also made some poor-man's gumbo the other day by combining a Zatarain's gumbo mix with some canned okra, some inexpensive sausage, and we bought an inexpensive amount of fresh shrimp to toss in there, too. Yum yum!
@rpm773: Making stock from a chicken carcass, for example, isn't quick; it takes hours. But I don't make stock the day I want soup. I make stock after I eat the chicken, and then the stock is ready in my freezer for when I do want to make soup. It's all about planning ahead.
Everytime there is a post about soup 900 we make it our own soup people jump out of the woodwork...We know already.
...i already make my own soup
Campbell's chicken-noodle-salt water is usually only 68 cents at the local wal-mart. It's delicious with saltines.
This is why I'm heavily invested in Campbell soup "stocks" I have beef stocks, and chicken stocks, and vegetable stocks, I'm all set for the apocalypse. Except, how do I run the can-opener when the power goes out?
I'm eating less soup now than I used to. I used to love the Chunky soups but now the meat in them taste horrible.
@Oranges w/ Cheese:
Hey, you were partway there! The meat *should* end up flavorless, since the whole point is to extract the flavor into the liquid.
I'm not a crockpot user, but my guess is that the cover is the x factor that threw off your stock--it's usually made in an uncovered pot. The crockpot probably causes enough change in the heat/moisture flow to soften the bones more than in conventional stock making.
I generally make stock on a weekend when I can safely use a regular stovetop pot--obviously, if you need this to happen on a workday while you're not home, that isn't going to work.
Anyway, if you're up for trying it again sometime, don't get discouraged! It sounds like you were probably a lot closer to getting it right than you realize. /end kitchen geekery
Well-made stock destroys the meat. The fact that your meat tasted like cardboard means you did it right. Throw it away, and add veggies and chicken (or whatever it was).
The greatest wedding gift I got from my mother. A Soup book and a soup pot.
For about 15-20 dollars I can make lunches for the entire week for my wife and I and have them different and unique that no can could match.
been making our own for a while now. when the missus and I bought a house and she stopped working at the same time, we put it into our being cheap set of things. Take an afternoon, get a crockpot at Value Village or the Salvation Army. Freeze the leftovers. You won't regret it.
Ever since I found rat turds in my can of Spaghetti-O's I've sworn off all forms of canned products that contain anything I can not inspect and identify clearly
My favorite is Campbell's Tomato, made with water, with lots of pepper. Heinz Tomato (in the British foods section) is pretty good too.
I don't make my own soup because I hate eating the same thing for a week. Since I live alone, it lasts forever and I get sick of it and end up throwing it out. That's just wasting money.
What - No Ramen? Jack it up with your choice of veggies, cayenne, black pepper.. Crack an egg or two in it. Faves are green onions, broccoli, corn,chicken breast.
I've been eating soup anyway, because I'm lazy. Check out Trader Joe's--they have a hell of a collection of soups, chilis, and so forth that are cheap and really good. Kroger has the same soups, but in different packaging, in their specialty section. Of course, the labels look more special, and they charge about a third more for their versions.
@tekkierich: Me too -- it's fun, and the cost often works out to less per serving than the canned stuff. When the economy went south, I spent $8 on a cookbook of soups and stews, and that thing has already paid for itself several times over. Instead of shelling out nearly $10 for lunch every day (I am staggered to realize how long I did this), I just bring the soup.
@tekkierich: Plus it makes me feel justified in buying hotwings ... since the stock doesn't care what KIND of chicken bones go into it ... (and you can always rinse off any remaining hotwing sauce, you purists, if it bothers you that much!).
We keep a sturdy tupperware container in the freezer into which I toss chicken bones, carrot tops and bottoms, celery tops, onion skins, and other vegetable detrius of the sort. When it gets full, I toss all of that plus some garlic and frozen chopped onions and spices in the stock pot and make me some stock.
Sometimes it's a really carroty stock, sometimes it's a really chickeny stock with little veggie matter, but whatever, it's easy stock from stuff I'd otherwise throw away.
(The onion skin gives it lovely color, even tho it doesn't really add flavor. Dried mushrooms are also nice and keep forever so you can have them on hand.)
@Oranges w/ Cheese: Some meats don't make good stock, like pork (which gives off too much grease) or veal (it imparts very little flavor). There are also other variables, like the width and height of the stock pot (which determines how well the water evaporates), when the seasonings were added and what kind of aromatics were used. Lastly, did you skim off the gray "scum" that settled on the top? If I don't need the stock right away, I store it in the fridge overnight and remove the excess fat that solidifies at the top!
I eat a lot of soup as it is. Campbell's select chowder, tastes aweful but its only like 110 caloies, 5% from fat, so I can live with the taste.
@CountryJustice: I've made my own soups before to amazing results... except when it came to clam chowder. When I tried to make my own clam chowder it ended up in the perfect storm of failure.
@trk182:
No kidding. Trust me, we're proud of you. But we've already heard that you can make your own soup, and its cheap..
Oh, and delicious, and it supports local farmers, and you can put whatever you want it.
Yes, we know. Because you tell us every single time someone mentions soup in a post on here.
Thank you. I needed to hear it again.
Now, tell me again.. How easy is it?
@B: I totally prefer the manual can opener to the machine... having a can of liquid suspended in the air... it freaks me out. Terra firma por favor!
I live by black bean soup, Progresso Lentil, and Progresso New England Clam Chowder (tabasco it up). I made a 3 squash soup this winter with my pumpkin decorations, and in the summer i make both gazpacho and asparagus soup. I love me some MSG so I like those individual serving thai soups "Noodle Soup."
I can't help but wonder how cracker sales are doing.
@HogwartsAlum: Yeah, me too, even if I cook it and freeze a bunch, it's still cluttering up my freezer for months and months and months, taking up room that should rightfully be occupied by ice cream novelties.
is that Dexter in the picture!?!?!?
@HogwartsAlum: So here's what you do: buy some quart Ziploc bags or some of those reusable food storage containers in the single serving size. Fill them up with soup and freeze. Pretty soon you'll have a variety of soups in your freezer that you won't get sick of. In my freezer right now are spicy tomato, cream of tomato, clam chowder, chicken noodle, lamb/spinach/garbanzo, minestrone, chili, and lemon chicken rice soups.
And don't forget to wash and reuse the bags/containers. Throwing them out is a waste of money.
@tekkierich: Amen again. I just use Campbell's tomato soup or Swanson chicken stock as a base.
Throw in fresh veggies, beans, and either rice, barley, or pasta and you're good to go.
*~*STL*~*
Made sort of homemade chicken noodle soup yesterday, I don't make my own noodles and I use canned broth.
Total cost (broth, chicken, veggies, noodles), my guesstimate is around $10 for 20 or so servings.
Tossed it together during halftime yesterday, total prep time was around 10 minutes, total cook time was less than an hour. (Having a quality knife makes a hell of a difference.)
And, it always tastes better.
@trk182: I think us "we make our own soup" folk are relevent in that, even though we say, "we make our own", most of us are using pre-made stocks, many made by Campbell's. So, we're just taking their product and stretching it.
How'a about, "I am eating more soup, I make my own from scratch."
It is not that hard people, I even find it enjoyable.