I haven’t bought cream of cr*p soup in years. Sorry, that’s what I call it. This is why I don’t have my own cooking show. I disparage packaged goods with vulgar, yet catchy monikers.
Anyway, why buy when you can make? And make without all the fillers, MSG, and odd chemicals?
Here’s the master recipe:
Put butter in a pan. Melt it. (Measure how much you put in)
Add an equal amount of flour. Stir it around untl the flour is absorbed and it looks like playdoh, about 1 minute.
Add 8 times as much liquid as butter. So if you used 2 T. butter, you’ll add 16 T. of liquid (which is a cup.) Whisk it in and heat until smooth. I find this goes better if you stir in a little liquid at a time, letting the flour absorb it. If you dump in a cup of cold milk then the butter/flour makes a million little globs that you’ll have to try to delump.
Cook and stir about 3 minutes, until smooth and heated through. The longer you cook the thicker it will get. Salt to taste.
Variations:
Cream of chicken – add half milk or water, and half chicken broth. You can add chicken bits if you like.
Cream of mushroom – cook up some chopped mushrooms in the butter, then sprinkle with the flour and proceed.
Cream of celery – soften finely chopped celery in the butter, then proceed.
Let’s compare.
MY CREAM OF CHICKEN: butter, flour, milk (or water), chicken stock.
CAMPBELL’S: Chicken Stock, Water, Wheat, Flour, Modified Food Starch, Cooked Chicken Meat, Cream (Milk), Contains Less Than 2% Of Chicken Fat, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Soy Protein Concentrate, Dehydrated Cooked Chicken, Yeast Extract, Lower Sodium Nautral Sea Salt, Flavoring, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Vegetable oil, Potassium Chloride, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Huanylate, Spice Extract, Beta Carotene For Color, Soy Proetin Isolate, Sodium Phosphates, Chicken Flavor (Contains Chicken Stock, Chicken Powder Chicken Fat), Chicken Flavor, Butter Milk, Cream Powder Cream Milk, Soy Lecithin, Enzyme Modified Butter Milk Nonfat Dry Milk, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean And Cottonseed Oil, Lipolyzed Butter Oil,, Oleix Acid Butter Oil, Lactic Acid, Butter Flavor
Lipolyzed Butter Oil? MSG? Sodium Phospates? That’s not good eats!
MY COST: 1/2 c. milk, 10 cents. Chicken stock, free (I put my bones in the crock and simmer away). 2 T. butter, 20 cents. 2 T. flour, laughably cheap. Total: 30 cents, give or take.
CAMPBELL’S COST: $1 – $1.50
MY TIME: 5 minutes
CAMPBELL’S TIME: 3-5 minutes to heat on the stove, stirring until smooth.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Why buy what you can make, especially when it tastes so much better! My recipe is similar to yours, but I only use 1 T butter to 3 T flour. I also use chicken boullion, because I never have homemade chicken broth (yes, I know!). Once I made it, I could never use that jello-y stuff from the can again.
We make our own, too!
And if you have any thyme in the garden, throw some in as well.
Yep, exactly ~ I did have cream of turnip soup today and I have to say, that is not something I’ll be trying again any time soon. It was like creamy potato soup, but without the potato taste ~ I don’t know, it was edible, certainly, but a little strange.
Cream of turnip soup? That does sound strange!
I make our own soups. You can even cheat on the roux if you wish. I agree why buy and consume a science experiment when it is easy and frugal to make your own? We regularly go through the fridge and make soup.
Great post! I have gotten away from using cream of crap (love the name) soups myself…then husband went grocery shopping for me last week while I was in Texas, and I just found about 10 cans in the pantry today! I’m not sure what he was thinking!
My husband will eat cream of mushroom soup straight from the can. That boy ain’t right.
hey, this is great! i came over from CK because this is something i’ve wondered how to do. i’ve just avoided recipes that would call for cream-of-whatever. i figured it had to do with making a roux, but the proportions necessary to get it ‘the same’ as a can of soup eluded me. i’ve been too wet and too dry in my tests. thanks for sharing! this is such a great skill to have.
use more flour if you want it thicker, it’s easy to adjust to your own taste!
Great post, thanks!!! I linked you from Kell the Kitchen Kop.
Years ago Campbells had one called cream of vegetable soup which was delicious. Just bits of veggies in there, the flavor was great (to us kids anyway). It would be easy to recreate with this recipe. Yeah, I like the name you designated too. Don’t take no rocket scientist to figure . . .
I haven’t tried this yet, but plan to make a bunch and can it with my new pressure canner.
Make sure you mix up one batch and tweak it to your taste before canning a bunch! You might find you like it thicker or saltier, or thinner.
I heat my liquid before adding it to the roux, it makes the lumps easier to deal with and it thickens up a little faster.
Thanks for sharing this tip! I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, just never got around to trying it. Even today, I had the hubs pick up a can of cream of mushroom for me for a recipe later this week….guess, I’ll give this a go once I am out of the few cans hubs picked up today!
Thank you for this recipe! It looks easy and cheap to make. So much better then buying those expensive cans.
This is such a great tip! Thank you!
After all the times I’ve been on your site, how have I not seen this sooner? I haven’t purchased canned cream of anything in over a year now b/c it IS just full of crap. But, this means I’ve had to be “inventive” with recipes calling for cream of mushroom or cream of chicken. . . . have avoided previous “fav” recipes that called for them.
Quick question(s) — how do you store it for future recipes? Can it be frozen or will the texture change in the freeze/thaw process? Also, how does this work when you add it to crock pot recipes? There are SO many great looking recipes that call for the canned stuff . . . I’d love to be able to make those but with the real food version.
Thanks!
Do you know if it’s possible to make this gluten-free? I’d really appreciate anyone’s advice
Yes, use cornstarch as the thickener. You’ll have to mix the cornstarch with the liquid, instead of cooking it with the fat (like you do flour) and don’t cook it too much or it’ll “break” and not stay thick.
Thanks!
I would like to know if this can be stored as well…frozen?
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