Not Your Mother's Cream of Mushroom Soup | Cooking Stories

Not Your Mother's Cream of Mushroom Soup: We've Come a Long Way, Baby

If you're a middle class American who grew up in the 1960s or 70s, there is a good chance you're familiar with the old culinary standby of American moms everywhere - Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. Did anyone ever eat a bowl of that stuff plain, as soup? I can't say that I've ever witnessed the famous gelatinous magical mixture transformed into a bowl of soup as nature intended. No, cream of mushroom soup had many uses in the household in which I grew up, but soup wasn't one of them.

Remember that old Thanksgiving standby, green bean casserole? A can of green beans, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and a can of french fried onion rings are all baked together to create that salty, nutrient-free holiday classic I know (and secretly love with turkey and gravy, but don't tell anyone lest I die of embarrassment). How about chicken pot pie? Leftover bits of chicken and veggies, a can of cream of mushroom soup, all mixed together in a casserole. Pop some Pillsbury Pop-N-Fresh biscuits on top, bake, and viola, chicken pot pie in a jiffy. These are just a couple of the classic cream of mushroom recipes I can remember. There must be thousands of others. Any good housewife in the 70s had a stash of versatile cream of mushroom soup in the pantry!

I don't have one can of cream of mushroom soup in my pantry. Here's what I keep on hand to whip up quick, delicious meals for my family (this is just a one pantry shelf sampling):

A Taste of Thai - Red Curry Paste

A Taste of Thai - Coconut Ginger Soup Base

Several cans of coconut milk

Sesame Garlic Grilling and Roasting Sauce

Mustards: basic Hunt's yellow, Grey Poupon, honey mustard

Poonjiani's Madras Curry Simmer Sauce

Patak's Biryani Paste

Mango Chutney

Nori Seaweed Soup

Miso

Tamari

Teryaki Sauce

Pad Thai Noodles

My own garam masala blend (I made this myself - whee-haw!)

Rices: basmati, jasmine, plain white, brown, wild rice mix (there's also couscous if we get sick of rice)

My, how times have changed. Or have they? Have all these spice mixes, grilling sauces, and marinades become the cream of mushroom soups of the 21st century, trendy, cool "gourmet" housewife? Yikes! I think they have. And thank goodness!

Take a walk down the condiment aisles of any grocery store to see what I'm talking about. These products take up rows and rows of shelving. They make my life easier and expose my family to "ethnic" foods. Hey, when I was 12, spaghetti and meatballs or La Choy in a can was about as ethnic as it got.

So, the next time I'm tempted to make fun of cream of mushroom cooking, I'll take a stroll through my own pantry. I'd like to think I'm way more culinarily sophisticated than the fare I grew up on, but am I really that different from the cream of mushroom cook? Until I'm spending entire days in the kitchen whipping up sauces, marinades and spice mixes from scratch, methinks, no. I have a lot more at my disposal than my 1970s counterpart mom, thank goodness. There will never be any cream of mushroom soup in my pantry. I wonder what the cream of mushroom soup equivalent will be for my dauaghter's generation.

We've come a long way, baby. Or have we?