STOP Buying Canned Cream Soup! The 10 Minute Mix My Mother Kept in a Jar

A can of condensed cream soup is only a white sauce with the water taken out, and Grandma Ida made that sauce in a black skillet every day of the thirties without ever opening one. So if every grandmother in America knew how to make it, why did the can win in every covered dish from Campbell's test kitchen, where Dorcas Reilly built the green bean casserole in 1955, to the funeral tables of eastern Kentucky? One jar of dry Cream Soup Base, about three cups, does the work of nine ten-and-a-half-ounce cans and keeps three months on a cool shelf. And there is one mistake with it that turns the whole pot to lumps. Grandma's sauce, Mama's always-ready and June's jar all meet in one before-church chicken and rice casserole, and the free Pantry List, The Thirty Foods That Keep for Years, is in the pinned comment too. THE RECIPES GRANDMA IDA'S MILK GRAVY (fresh cream soup) 3 tablespoons bacon grease or drippings 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 cups whole milk 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1. Melt the grease in a black skillet over medium heat. 2. Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes, stirring the whole time, until it smells nutty and turns the color of sand. 3. Pour in the milk a little at a time, whisking hard after each pour. 4. Simmer 4 to 5 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom, until it coats the back of a spoon. 5. Add salt and pepper, taste, and add more salt if it wants it. Rule: equal spoons of fat and flour. CREAM SOUP BASE (makes about 3 cups, nine cans' worth) 2 cups powdered milk 3/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 cup chicken or beef bouillon granules 2 tablespoons dried minced onion 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1. Whisk everything together in a big bowl until no streaks of bouillon show. 2. Spoon into a jar with a tight lid and keep somewhere cool and dry, up to about 3 months. 3. Write on the lid: cream soup, 1/3 cup to 1 1/4 cups cold water, and the date made. ONE CAN'S WORTH OF CREAM SOUP 1/3 cup Cream Soup Base 1 1/4 cups cold water 1. Put the cold water in a saucepan with the burner still off. 2. Whisk in the mix until smooth. 3. Turn the heat to medium and stir the whole time until it thickens and boils, about 3 minutes. 4. Use anywhere a recipe calls for one can of condensed cream soup. For it thicker, use a spoon less water. Cream of mushroom: stir in a handful of chopped mushrooms cooked in a little butter. Cream of chicken: use chicken bouillon and add a little chopped cooked chicken. Never add the mix to hot water, or the cornstarch seizes into lumps. CHICKEN AND RICE CASSEROLE 2 cups raw long-grain rice 1 onion, chopped 1 batch cream soup, made up 3 cups chicken broth 8 bone-in chicken thighs Salt and pepper 1 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon garlic powder Butter for the pan 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9 by 13 pan. 2. In the pan, stir together rice, onion, cream soup and broth, and spread level. 3. Salt and pepper the thighs on both sides and dust with paprika and garlic powder. 4. Lay them skin side up on the rice, not pressed in. 5. Cover tight with foil and bake 1 hour. 6. Uncover and bake 20 to 30 minutes more, until the rice is tender, the liquid is gone and the chicken reads 165 degrees in the thickest part, away from the bone. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:24 What The Can Really Is 0:45 Grandma Ida's Kitchen 1:07 Making Milk Gravy 2:21 Fat Before Flavor 2:38 Rise Of The Can 3:14 The Depression Kitchen Book 3:36 Covered Dish Tradition 4:15 Why The Can Won 4:58 Building The Soup Base 6:34 Avoiding The Lump Mistake 7:37 Chicken And Rice Casserole 9:07 Share Your Memories PHOTOS Campbell's Condensed Cream of Mushroom can photos by Famartin and by SpaceFerret, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Campbell's Tomato Soup advertisement, The Saturday Evening Post, 1920, public domain (Internet Archive Book Images).