Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Mon 05 Sep 2005 10:28:49p, djs0302 wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
>>
>> wrote:
>>> What foods do you guys know of that aren't as good as they used to
>>> be?
>>
>> Campbell's chicken noodle soup: When I was growing up in the early
>> 70's you HAD TO add water to it because it was so thick. I bought a
>> can recently it was nothing but juice with a few noodles and I think
>> a
>> piece of chicken floating around in it.
>
> I never eat Campbell's soup as soup, but I do keep some of their
> soups on hand to use in making quickie sauces, etc. Typically, I
> keep tomato, cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, and cream of celery
> in the pantry. Years ago, you practically had to dig the contents
> out of the can they were so thick. In fact, the tomato was so thick
> I used to open both ends of the can and push the soup out like
> jellied cranberry sauce. Now they've all been thinned down to the
> point where they readily pour out of the can leaving little residue
> behind. I've found that the store brand at WalMart is thicker and
> better.
The store brands are usually better and the weird thing is they are most
likely sold to the stores as second market by Campbell's or some other known
producer of the canned soup. I find you get a better product at half the
price.
But, you also have some people who *refuse* to buy anything that doesn't
have a name-brand label slapped on it. They are the ones religiously
clipping coupons trying to make up for the savings to be had already sitting
there in front of them on the shelf. I'll try the store brands; if I don't
like it, I don't buy it again. No law says you have to buy a case of it,
you know? Just get a can and see how/if you like it.
A couple of weeks ago I was perusing the canned soups. Schnuck's (regional
grocery store) Bean with Bacon caught my eye at 45 cents a can. So I had a
can of it for dinner. Practically had to pry the contents out of the can,
absolutely add water and use a whisk to get it all blended as it heated. It
was delicious! I'll buy it again for those nights when I don't feel like
fussing over dinner.
Jill