New England Clam Chowder Update Coming

I'm working on updating the comprehensive guide to canned clam chowder, which was first published in June 2011. There have been a few minor updates over the past couple of years, but since I first posted it, Campbell's has discontinued some of their products and introduced others, and there has been at least one major recipe and/or label change. Look for a heavily revised guide to come out soon.

In the meantime, if there are any canned (or plastic-pouched) New England-style clam chowders you think I should try, let me know about it in the comments here or through the Contact Me form and I'll do my best to find them. Remember that I have to have some way to get them (online ordering or from a store close to the Western Massachusetts / Northern Connecticut area.) Also please remember that I do not accept manufacturer's samples or freebies.

Fishy Delights 52: Richfield Farms Ready-to-Serve Clam Chowder

I spent most of last week along the southern Maine coast, doing things like visiting lighthouses, walking the beaches, and gawking at the gorgeous New England autumn foliage (seriously, those of you who don't live here should put "Second Week Of October In New England" on your bucket list.) One of the things Maryanne and I always do on visits to Maine is hit up Marden's, a regional chain of discount/job lot/cultch stores. We generally go to the Biddeford store on US 1.

And it was here that I found a few cans of Richfield Farms Ready to Serve Savory Selections Clam Chowder, Healthy Chunky New England Style. (Look at all that text. Who designed this label, Leo Tolstoy?)

Clam chowder - even canned - is one of my favorite lunches. In addition, I try to keep track of what chowders are good and which are crap. In my Comprehensive Guide to Canned Clam Chowder, I've reviewed and rated nearly every available clam chowder I could find. Discovering Richfield Farms chowder in Marden's reminded me that the guide is still a work in progress.

So how is it?  Pretty good, I'd say.  The color and consistency is pretty much what you'd expect of a New England-style chowder, although the texture is a little on the "slippery" side. I was surprised to see visible bits of herbs in the broth - mostly, though, it seems to be finely minced parsley with enough thyme to give the chowder a vaguely aromatic aftertaste. I was also a little unsettled by these weird little white floaty bits that just would not stir into the chowder. I think that might have been some kind of starch or fat or something. The floaters persisted even after microwaving and the chowder didn't have an off taste. Despite how it looked, it definitely wasn't mold and probably wasn't a bacterial colony either (I ate it at the beginning of the week and I'm still alive.) 

There were big chunks of nice, waxy potatoes and plenty of clam bits of varying sizes. Overall flavor was pretty good - clammy and a bit herbal, but a little tinny. Like most canned chowders, it was improved with a good dose of black pepper.

I would love to give Richfield Farms a 7/10 but them floaty bits, yo. Gotta knock it down a tad to a 6+/10.

To see how this chowder stacks up against other canned chowders, you can click here to go to the Richfield entry in the Comprehensive Guide.

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Review: Dominique's Snapper Turtle Soup

My only previous experience with turtle soup was the poem in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland:

Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, 
Waiting in a hot tureen! 
Who for such dainties would not stoop? 
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! 
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

So, you can see that I'm totally unqualified to review this stuff in comparison to any other canned or homemade turtle soup (not that that's ever stopped me from reviewing anything else I've found on a grocery store shelf.)

Anyway, as a total Snapper Turtle Soup N00b, I had no idea what to expect. I read the ingredient panel and found stuff like beef stock, celery, carrots, wine, and snapper turtle meat and figured it couldn't be all that bad. So I gambled a couple of bucks and bought a can to give it a try.

Dominique's Snapper Turtle Soup is condensed, so it requires the addition of one can-measure of water before heating. I opened up the can and poured the soup out into a saucepan to find a thick, gelatinous glob the consistency of slightly warming Jell-O, which dropped into the pan with a wet slap. I added the canful of water and stirred with little effect - the brown glue just didn't want to combine with the water. Eventually, I was able to stir it together and put it over the fire. I heated and stirred, but the soup never thinned out. (I've found out since then that snapper turtle soup is supposed to be thick like a gravy, so I guess that's the way it was actually intended to be.)

Mon dieu.

With the soup heated up and ready to eat, I sat down to try it out. It was, in a word, disgusting.

It was thicker than gravy, brown and viscous, swimming with tiny bits of what were probably vegetables, and small squares of spongy, flavorless meat which I think was supposed to be turtle. The flavor was sickening - slightly sour, as though they used the cheapest industrial-cleaning-fluid-grade wine they could find. It took a concerted effort to eat more than the first couple spoonfuls, but it didn't take me long to just give up.

Personally, I would never buy this again. And if this is an example of what snapper turtle soup is like, I'd never order it out, either.

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Chef's Cupboard Canned Broths by ALDI

I'm not a big fan of canned broths - most of them taste like salty, flavorless water.  Nevertheless, there are times when I don't have the time or enthusiasm to make broth or stock from scratch and have to use a prepared product.  For the past few months, that product has been Chef's Cupboard, the house brand sold by ALDI.

I discovered it completely by accident.  Last winter, I went on a make-my-own-doggie-treat kick.  Most recipes for homemade dog treats are basically low-sugar cookies that use beef or chicken broth for flavoring.  As much as I love my dogs, there was no way I was going to use expensive Wolfgang Puck organic roasted chicken broth to make dog treats.  So I started looking for a cheap alternative, and that led me to ALDI, because virtually every time I've bought an ALDI brand of anything, it's been great.  And there, right by the soups at the local ALDI, was Chef's Cupboard chicken broth and beef broth.  I picked up a couple cans of each and went home to make the dog biscuits.

And of course, I couldn't resist taking a sip of each of the broths as I used them.  

Damn.  They were good.

Since then, I've used both the chicken and the beef broths a few times, always with good results. You can use them straight up to make a quick soup, or pour them into a dutch oven for three hours of braising a batch of short ribs (the broths don't have so much salt that a long cooking time makes your dish too salty to eat.)

So, I guess you could call this a combination review and recommendation.  It's yet another good, solid, inexpensive product from ALDI.

Canned Clam Chowder: A Comprehensive Guide

It isn't easy to find a decent canned clam chowder.  I've spent the past month or so of lunches evaluating every canned or prepared New England clam chowder I could find.  Here they are, rated from worst to best. In case of tie scores, the brands are listed in alphabetical order:

BAD 

Hanover Chunky (ready to serve) - I couldn't even pour this out when I opened it - I had to open both ends of the can and push the contents into my bowl. It was so thick that I double-checked the instructions to make sure it isn't a condensed soup - and it isn't; the label explicitly says not to add water.  There is absolutely nothing to like about this chowder. It smells like canned dog food (seriously) and it's made up almost entirely of grainy, dry-textured chunks of potatoes held together with a gluey beige sludge/broth. Tiny pieces of clams are sparsely distributed here and there throughout the vomitous mass - there are so few of them they should be listed as a "seasoning" rather than an "ingredient."  I suppose that's just as well. I'd hate to think that large amounts of tasty bivalves were being wasted in this crap, which didn't even taste like clam chowder. It had an overpoweringly salty, artificial "bouillon" taste and reminded me of the cheap "chicken" soup that used to be sold by the cup in coffee vending machines. Thoroughly nasty, unredeemable shit. Final score: 0/10. 

Big Y Chunky (ready to serve) - One of the worst canned clam chowder I've ever had. Although there was an adequate amount of clams, it was very heavy on the potatoes and bizarrely thick - so thick and starchy a spoon could stand in it unassisted as though it was in a bowl of pudding. There was also an odd non-clam aftertaste that was vaguely brackish. I would not ever buy this one again. Final score: 2/10

Snow's (condensed) - As I noted in an earlier post dedicated to them, Snow's was once the benchmark against which all clam chowders were measured. Although I had noticed the quality slipping several years ago (after the company was moved out of New England to Cape May,  New Jersey), it still surprised me just how bad Snow's has gotten.  The chowder base is a thick, gummy gel that never really combines with added milk.  Light on clams with a moderate amount of potatoes.  This chowder is extremely bland - almost flavorless.  I was able to partially rescue it by adding thyme, celery salt, paprika and lots of black pepper as I heated it up - as well as ladling the chowder over a pat of butter in every bowl when serving.  Final score: 3/10

MEDIOCRE

Valu Time (ready to serve; a "generic" brand produced by Topco) - Honestly, I wasn't expecting very much from this economy brand, but I have to give it credit for decent flavor, and an adequate amount of clams.  Kind of heavy on the potatoes. The broth was a freakishly unnatural white, very thick, starchy, and gluey. It actually jiggles in the spoon. This is probably due to the modified food starch in the broth, although there are token amounts of cream and butter as well. Final Score:  5/10

ACCEPTABLE

Richfield Farms Savory Selections Healthy Chunky New England Style (ready to serve) - Good consistency though a little "slippery." Visible herbs in the broth (parsley and, I think, thyme) give it a pleasant herbiness that enhances the clam flavor. Nice chunks of potatoes and clams. Not sure what makes this "healthy," though - there is still plenty of sodium and fat in that little can. Broth has a strange white floaty component (see this full review for more info) which knocks the score down a bit. Richfield's chowder slides under the wire to barely score in the Acceptable category with  6+/10.

 Bookbinder's (semi-condensed) - Flavorful, well-seasoned broth with a good consistency, Bookbinder's puts in plenty of big, meaty clam pieces and chunks of potatoes.  Points off, however, for a "slippery" texture from xanthan gum and the high price for what is fundamentally an only-slightly-better-than-average condensed soup. Final score: 7/10 

Campbell's (condensed) - Snow's could learn a thing or two from Campbell's, who manages to make an inexpensive condensed clam chowder which blends smoothly with milk to make an excellent broth. Perfect consistency and with a rich clam flavor, this chowder could have scored a lot higher than it did if only Campbell's weren't so stingy with the potatoes and clams. Final score: 7/10

Campbells Chunky (ready to serve)- Although excessively thick and starchy when it comes out of the can, it thins out as it is heated until it reaches nearly perfect consistency. Lots of clams and a fair amount of potato, but still somewhat bland and needs to be further seasoned - celery salt and pepper makes a big difference. Not bad, though. Final score: an acceptable 7/10

Campbell's Soup At Hand (ready to serve) - Very much like the other Campbell's selections here; excellent consistency and very good flavor marred only by a very slight plasticy aftertaste (perhaps from the cup.) The recipe uses tiny potatoes and bits of clams - a slight alteration for the "sippy-cup" format of the Soup at Hand line - but there are plenty of both.  It's also quick to heat in the microwave, but keep an eye on it because the narrow, tall format makes it easy to overheat until it overflows (well, it made it easy for me, anyway.)  Overall, a tasty New England clam chowder with the bonus of convenience - you don't even need a spoon. Final Score: 7/10

Chef's Cupboard (ready to serve, ALDI store brand) - This is so similar to Campbell's Chunky that I would not be surprised to find that Campbell's produces it for ALDI as a private label - I would not be able to tell the difference between them in a blind tasting.  Like the Campbell's, it has lots of clams, decent amount of nice hearty potato chunks, and although it has a good flavor it is still somewhat bland and needs a seasoning boost.  And like Campbell's Chunky, it scores a solid and acceptable 7/10

Healthy Choice (ready to serve) - Although the broth was a little "slippery" (there's that xanthan gum again!) the flavor is decent, with plenty of nice waxy potatoes and lots of clams. Slightly underseasoned, but I took care of that with some black pepper. Overall, my opinion of Healthy Choice New England Clam Chowder hasn't changed since I wrote this review in September, 2010: it's not too bad. Final score: 7/10

Campbell's 100% Natural (ready to serve) - Plenty of potatoes and an adequate amount of (very tiny) clams. Thick broth with good flavor (Campbell's adds flavorings from pollack, clams, shrimp, and cod) but points off for using vegetable oil as a major ingredient and relegating cream and butter to the less-than-2% category. Thanks to all that oil, the broth also has a "slippery" mouthfeel that's less than idea. Can't give this one more than a 7/10.

GOOD

Kirkland Label Campbell's Premium (ready to serve, made by Campbell's for Costco) - Not surprisingly, this is very similar to Campbell's Chunky. But they've done something differently with the seasonings for the Kirkland label, adding more parsley and black pepper. Quite decent when all is said and done. Final score: 7+/10

Olde Cape Cod (condensed) - Lots of clams and chunks of potato, and a rich creamy broth that's just the right consistency.  This is a very high-quality chowder, but I had to take points off for underseasoning. Add a little thyme, just a hint of salt, and some black pepper when you're heating it up, and it's top-notch. Final score: 7+/10 

Campbell's 100% Natural Light (98% Fat Free) (ready to serve) - I bought this chowder expecting to be underwhelmed, but was totally surprised by how decent it was. There were lots of good waxy potatoes, a decent amount of clams (though mostly in tiny bits) and irregular chunks of roughly-chopped celery just like homemade. Although cream and butter were in the less-than-2% category of the ingredients, the broth had a slightly buttery taste as well as a depth of flavor provided by additional pollack and flavorings derived from shrimp, cod, and clams. Most surprising to me was the complete lack of any kind of gum as a thickener; Campbell's relied on good ol' cornstarch, just like you might do in your own kitchen. Final score: 8/10, believe it or not.

Bar Harbor Foods (condensed) - Very good, with an appropriate amount of potatoes and a generous amount of clams, yet surprisingly bland. The preparation instructions are rather vague and say to add milk or cream and butter to taste.  I get the milk or cream part, but I usually add a pat of butter to a bowl of canned chowder if it's not that great and needs a flavor boost. Still, it's a better-than-average chowder and the clam base blends smoothly with the milk when prepared, so there are no disgusting little gooey balls. Final score: 8/10

Trader Joe's "Pilgrim Joe's" (condensed) - Excellent ratio of potatoes to clams, with a relatively smooth clam base that needs quite a bit of stirring as it heats to blend well with the milk. Very good clam flavor, but exceptionally under-seasoned - I needed to add a moderate amount of salt and pepper to bring it up to my standards. Like so many other Trader Joe's products, this is better than average and I would buy it again. Final score: 8/10

Price Chopper (ready to serve) - Rich clam flavor with a hint of butter, big chunks of waxy potatoes, and plenty of clams (though most of them are in tiny pieces.) Definitely better than other store brands, and don't be fooled by the "golden" color of the chowder on the label picture; the actual product is a very traditional "clam broth" shade of white. Price Chopper's house brand holds its own quite respectably against any of the "name brands" in this category. Final score: 8/10

Progresso (ready to serve) - I heated up this chowder in a microwave and interestingly, although it started out a little too thick, it thinned a little as it cooled to nearly a perfect consistency.  Big hearty chunks of potatoes, with lots of clams (although the clams were in small pieces.) Although not necessarily richer than any of the other chowders, Progresso has a very deep flavor with complex shellfishy notes thanks to addition of lobster powder, shrimp, crab powder, and fish powder. Like many of the other chowders tasted, it was a tad underseasoned - I recommend a good shake of black pepper. Gluten-free for those of you who may be on a special diet.  I found Progresso to be very good, and I would buy this brand again.  Final score: 8/10

Progresso Rich & Hearty (ready to serve) - Extremely similar to Progresso's "Traditional" New England clam chowder - same consistency, with lots of clams and potatoes - but with a slightly different taste profile. For the Rich & Hearty version, they've taken out the various fish and shellfish powders and instead seasoned the chowder with chablis wine and brandy. The result is no less delicious, and still gluten-free.  Final score: 8/10

Snow's (ready to serve) - The difference between this and Snow's condensed is like night and day.  Delicious broth, just the right consistency, luscious with cream and butter. Plenty of clams (mostly small pieces, but there are some fairly good chunks in there too) and lots of chunky potatoes.This is good enough to buy again! Final score: 8/10

Campbell's Select Harvest (ready to serve) - Chunky potatoes and loads of clams in a well-seasoned broth of nearly ideal consistency. Although lacking the buttery flavor of a true New England clam chowder (no surprise - there's no butter in it) the rich clamminess helps make up for it. And look! Those are real slices of celery in there! Top notch, and this is another canned variety I would buy again. Final score: 8+/10

 EXCELLENT

New England Country Soup (ready to serve) - Sold ready to heat and eat, in shelf-stable pouches. This chowder was outstanding, just about as close to homemade as I have ever had. The broth is a perfect consistency, lightly thickened without being pasty or gummy - it's made with real cream and butter, and it tastes it. Loads of clams and plenty of potatoes. I was surprised to taste a hint of dill and even more surprised that I liked it, because when not part of a pickle recipe, dill is my least favorite herb. Seriously, I would buy this again in a heartbeat.  Made by New England Country Foods LLC, in Manchester Village, Vermont.  You can check out their very informative website by clicking here. Final score: 9+/10

Campbell's Soup

If you're a fan of some of Campbell's Soups more out-of-the-ordinary varieties (such as Chicken Gumbo, Scotch Broth, and Pepper Pot) the photo at right will go a long way towards explaining why you can't find your favorites any more.

Fourteen spaces on that display are devoted to varieties of chicken noodle soup marketed directly to children.  All of them are based on the same cheap and kind of nasty chicken broth and the only difference between them is the shape of the noodles.  But because they are extremely inexpensive to produce and kids are highly susceptible to advertising, Campbell's has found them to be highly profitable.

Years ago, Campbell's outsourced the production of some costly soups to their Canadian division.  Scotch Broth and Pepper Pot were two examples.  But they began getting scarce in New England markets late last summer, until finally they became completely unavailable.

For now, Pepper Pot and Scotch Broth are still in production in Canada and available in supermarkets there.  I don't know what happened to Chicken Gumbo.

Out Of The Can: Snow's Clam Chowder

The cylinder of condensed soup slid out of the can and into the pot with a wet sucking sound. Most of the jiggling bar of soup was made up of a kind of clammy gel, but a pool of clear, sticky fluid also ran to the bottom of the saucepan.  I added a can's measure of milk and stirred the chowder over a low flame, and rediscovered why I really hate Snow's clam chowder and hardly ever buy it.  

It's that clammy gel.  The stuff never really blends with the milk.  You stir it in, and it separates into chunks of gel; the chunks would be perfectly happy to remain just like that - big globby things that float around in the milk with their sick slimy mouthfeel and low tide taste profile. Eww. I always wind up taking the whisk to Snow's chowder and even then all that does is break up the gel into smaller and smaller gel bits - it never blends.

It wasn't always like this, you know.  I remember when Snow's was made here in New England and it was still good. There was always a can or two in the pantry at my Mom's house. Snow's Chowder was the standard against which all condensed canned clam chowders were measured from the time the company was founded in 1920. But by the 1990's,  (right about the time their corporate overlord Borden was being taken over by private equity firm KKR) I noticed that the quality and flavor of the product had changed.  Snow's Clam Chowder stopped being a pantry staple for me as the quality really started to slide.  

Nasty crap tuna.

Still, I buy a can now and again hoping that maybe the Snow's I knew as a kid will be eased back into production.  Unfortunately, the Snow's brand is owned by Bumble Bee now, so I  sincerely believe it's never ever going to return to its former deliciousness.  Bumble Bee are the  makers of the worst canned tuna on the market and it's the company that shut down the last remaining US sardine cannery after promising not to do so less than a year earlier.

Scotch Broth

Despite my preference for homemade soups, there have always been a couple of "easy soups" the family and I enjoy.  One of these was Campbell's Scotch Broth, a very hearty barley soup made with lamb.

Unfortunately, Campbell's recently made a business decision to discontinue several of their soups which were based on relatively costly ingredients so they could concentrate on their various chicken noodle soups marketed at kids and based around their cheap and crappy chicken broth.  That's why, if you're a fan of Campbell's Lentil Soup or Bean With Bacon, you might be having trouble finding them since they're getting pushed aside for the astounding eleven varieties of chicken noodle swill aimed directly at kids.  (Seriously, Campbell's, does the market really need Disney Princess Soup?  Disney Pixar Cars Soup?  Spongebob Squarepants Soup?  Give me a damn break.)

Anyway, Scotch Broth is gone from the American market.  It's still available in Canada, so maybe I'll take a drive up to Quebec sometime and smuggle some back.  Until then, I'll have to be satisfied with making my own.

Scotch Broth

Makes about 2 quarts

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds of meaty lamb neck bones (see note)

1 large onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

Water

1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

2 bay leaves

6 whole peppercorns

1½ cups of barley

2 tablespoons tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

Lamb neck bones have a lot of muttonylicious flavor with a decent charge of meat, but they aren't always easy to find.  You can substitute a couple of cheap lamb shoulder chops or a shank if you prefer.

Heat the oil in a large Dutch Oven and add the lamb bones. Over medium heat (be careful not to scorch the oil) brown the lamb well on all sides.  Add the onions and the carrots and stir over the heat until the onions are amber and translucent.  Pour in about two quarts of water (enough to cover the bones well and bring the soup to a simmer, adding the parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns.  Simmer for about four hours to make a very rich lamb stock, adding water now and then as needed.

Meanwhile, bring 4 cups of water to a full rolling boil in a separate pot.  Pour in the barley and simmer it for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the barley is plump and tender but still somewhat chewy.  Drain the barley well and then rinse it in cold running water to shock it from cooking further.  Put the cooked barley aside (perhaps in the refrigerator) until needed for the soup.

Back to the lamb stock:  When the meat is soft and falling off the bones, remove the stock from the heat.  Take out the bones and discard them, returning the meat to the pot.  Bring the stock back up to a simmer and add the barley, tomato paste, and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve hot.

Ham Stock, Pea Soup, Lentil Soup - A Trio of Recipes

Photo by ALDI

As the calendar starts rolling toward Easter, hams start to appear on sale in the supermarkets.  The ALDI in my town had a great deal on their Appleton Farms spiral-cut hams a short time ago: $1.49 a pound for the ham, with $3.00 taken off the total at the register. I put a nice big one in my cart because if you're trying to stretch a tight budget (and we've been pretty tight lately) there are few things that give you as big a bang for your buck as a ham.  Besides the initial family dinner, a big ham will provide sandwiches for lunch, slices for breakfast, seasoning for peas and beans and such, and then there's stuff like chopped ham salad, ham-and-cheese omelets, croquettes, and hash.  Now, there's no need to eat ham for every meal until it's all gone, but seriously the $15 or so you'll lay out for a ham on sale really does go a long way.

And then, of course, there is SOUP.

Ham bones are laden with flavor and you can usually make enough stock for two pots of soup.  One night last week, that is exactly what I did.  From bone to bowl usually takes about eight hours, so you probably won't want to start at 4:00 in the afternoon after work like I did. But if it's, say, a rainy Sunday and you're not going anywhere anyway, you've got plenty of time on your hands to make a proper pot of slow-simmered soup.  (Yeah, for all the junk food and TV dinners I eat, the truth is I'm a big fan of Slow Food and I make most of our family meals from scratch.  Don't tell the Burger King, or he'll start creeping outside my windows again.)

Anyway.  Good soup starts with good stock, so let's start with ham stock.

Ham Stock

makes about 7 quarts

2 gallons of water

3 medium onions, chopped

3 or 4 large carrots, chopped

3 or 4 ribs of celery, including the leaves, chopped

1 ham bone with a little meat still on it.

Handful of parsley, whole

8 - 10 whole peppercorns

3 bay leaves

Put the water, onions, carrots, and celery into a large stockpot and bring to a boil. Add the ham bone, parsley, peppercorns and bay leaves.  Turn the heat down to simmer and allow the stock to simmer for 4 or 5 hours.  Add a bit of water now and then if too much boils off. Remove the bone from the pot at the end of the cooking time. Pick off the meat and reserve for inclusion in the soup, and toss the bone. (I usually save the cartilage, gristle, and other nasty little bits for the dogs.)

You may strain the veggies from the stock if you'd like. I take out the long stringy stalks of parsley, but generally leave the rest of it in.

You will now have somewhere between 6 and 8 quarts of ham stock - enough to make two pots of soup.  Or one huge pot if you're feeding a lot of people.

You can freeze stock for later use if you have the room in the freezer.  If you're the proud owner of a ham bone but lack the time to give it a proper soupination, you can freeze that for later too.  I had plenty of time on Soup Night, so I decided to just make two pots of soup side by side on the stove.

Green Split Pea Soup

Makes about 3 quarts

 

3 quarts of ham stock

2 carrots, chopped

2 onions, chopped

2 ribs celery, including leaves, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 pound green split peas

Salt, pepper, and seasonings to taste

Bring ham stock, carrots, onions, and celery to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer.  Add bay leaf and split peas and simmer for 2 hours, covered, stirring occasionally.

By the end of the two hours, the peas should be soft and starting to break down.  Add reserved ham bits from making the stock, some chopped parsley, and some ground black pepper.  Simmer uncovered for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally, to help thicken up the soup.

Half an hour before serving, taste to adjust the seasoning. At the very least, you should add salt to taste, but there are certain ingredients I always add to my soups to make them outstanding.  One of these is Maggi seasoning.  Not the crappy soy-saucy stuff you find in American and Asian groceries, but imported Maggi Würze from Switzerland. This is the original formulation as Nestle first developed it over 100 years ago, and the main component is an extract of lovage. It is amazing in soups and stews.  It's available online.  Another seasoning I use consistently is Vegeta, an eastern-European blend of herbs, seasoning, and MSG OMG.  Lynnafred calls it "magic powder" because it has such an incredible ability to flavorize soup and gravy.

After adjusting the seasoning to your taste, simmer briefly, stirring to distribute the flavors, and serve hot.

You can use any kind of lentil you like in this lentil soup.  My favorite are the tiny green Puy lentils from France. They take a little longer to cook because unlike common brown lentils they need to be soaked before using. However, they hold their shape even after having been cooked for hours and hours.  This quality gives the soup a heartier character.  You can find Puy lentils in the "gourmet" section of your local supermarket, or you can get them in bulk at many"health food" stores.

Lentil Soup

Makes about 3 quarts

1½ pounds tiny Puy lentils

3 quarts ham stock

2 or 3 carrots

2 onions

2 ribs of celery

2 bay leaves

1 can (14½ ounces) diced tomatoes

1 bag (16 ounces) frozen cut leaf spinach

Salt, pepper, and seasonings to taste.

Several hours before you start to actually cook, put the lentils to soak in plenty of cold water. (I start soaking the lentils when I put the ham bone into the pot to make the stock.)

Bring the ham stock to a boil with the carrots, onions, celery, and bay leaves.  Turn the heat down to a simmer and add the soaked lentils, stirring as you pour the lentils in.  Add the diced tomatoes and cover the pot, simmering for three to four hours.

Add the frozen spinach to the pot, and continue to simmer as you season the soup.  I use salt, pepper, Vegeta seasoning, and Maggi - at the least, you should add salt and pepper to taste.  When the spinach is tender, the soup is ready to serve.

Bon Appetit!

Homemade Stock Concentrate

Some time ago, I bought a small jar of chicken stock concentrate by a company called Savory Basics.  It was the best stock concentrate EVER.  A little bit added to a homemade gravy really kicked up the flavor, and if I needed a really fast stock that truly tasted homemade, a spoonful dissolved in some simmering water yielded an instant broth that tasted like it had been cooking all day on a back burner. Wicked high quality, but as you can imagine, mad expensive for that little five-ounce jar - almost seven dollars.

Eventually, I used it all up, but I kept the jar for information purposes as I searched in vain for another one.  The company which made it, Sarliz LLC, has apparently gone out of business; their website clicks over to one of those "domain parking" pages, and when I dialed their phone number it came up as disconnected.  Too bad, because this was a really bitchin' product that I truly loved.

[Slight tangent:  Sarliz LLC was founded by former Nestle VP Bob Greene.  Mr. Greene, if you're out there reading this, I'm really sorry the marketplace didn't properly reward the awesomeness of Savory Basics stock.]

Anyway, for a long time I've pondered upon how to make a similar stock concentrate at home.  I wanted it to be somewhat shelf-stable but would settle for refrigerator-stable (something that could have a refrigerated shelf life measurable in months.)  I was thinking along the lines of a demi-glace on steroids, but because any single roasted meal usually produced such a limited amount of drippings with which to work, my ideas never got much past the planning phase.

Until I cooked that turducken. The long roasting time, triple-shot of poultry products, and loads of savory stuffing ingredients left me with a whopping quart and a half of rich and flavorful drippings topped with a massive load of poultry fat.  When the frankenbird had been removed from the roaster and carved and served with gravy made from a separate pot of poultry stock from the birds' bones and trimmings, I poured off the accumulated drippings into a big bowl and realized that I had enough to try making my own stock concentrate.

I started by removing most of the fat from the bowl of drippings, setting the fat aside for later use.  I deglazed the pan with the minimum amount of water needed for the job, then poured that off into a large round cake pan, to which I added the drippings, whisking all the while to make a smooth blend.  It was about the consistency of heavy cream.  From there, the cake pan went into the oven at 200F.

It stayed there for about five hours.  Every hour or so I would slide it out of the oven and poke at it with a spoon to check the consistency and make sure that it was simply evaporating and not burning.  I was finally left with a cake pan filled with a dark, tarry paste which was slightly tacky to the touch.  I tasted the smallest bit of it, smeared on the tip of a spoon.

It tasted amazing.  There was no bitterness from long cooking, no hint of char. I called Maryanne and Lynnafred in and they each tasted a bit.  Maryanne's eyes widened: "Wow.  That's rich."

"It's like you took all the flavor from all three birds and packed it into that pan," Lynnafred observed.  She hit it right on the head - that was exactly what I was going for.  Although a much darker color than the Savory Basics stock concentrate that I missed so much, I managed to capture the same effect.

The next step was a little trickier.  I scraped the concentrate back into a bowl and began working in salt and poultry fat, tasting tiny amounts smeared on the back of the spoon every so often to monitor the progress.  I wanted enough salt to act as a preservative and make the concentrate useful as a soup base and a seasoning, but not so much as to render it inedible.  It was trial and error and I had to go slowly because I didn't have more to fall back on if I made a mistake.   It took some time, but eventually the proper balance of rich roasted poultry flavor and salt was reached.  I tested it by stirring a teaspoon of the concentrate into a cup of boiling water and...it was perfect, giving me a cup of delicious, full-flavored poultry stock.  Huzzah!

When I packed away my homemade stock concentrate, it filled a half-pint jelly jar.  I've used it now and again, bringing a quick boost of additional flavor and awesomeness to soups, gravies, and sauces, and it never disappoints.  I use it sparingly, the same way I used my treasured Savory Basics stock concentrate, and it is serving me well.  I hope that when I finally run out I'm able to do it again.

Out of the Can: Campbell's Sun-Ripened Yellow Tomato Soup

Trust me - add some milk and stir it over the heat, and it'll taste a lot better than it looks here.

Campbell's Harvest Orange & Sun Ripened Yellow Tomato Soups

Recently, I had some pretty harsh words for Campbell's Chicken Wonton Soup - and Campbell's chicken soups in general, which are pretty lousy.

But I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and so here I am, praising two "Limited Edition" Campbell's Tomato Soups:  Harvest Orange and Sun-Ripened Yellow.

Lynnafred and I found a bunch of these condensed soups on a clearance table at the local Price Chopper.  Neither of us had seen them on the shelves before, so we were both surprised to find them being marked down - we had never had the opportunity to buy them at full price to begin with, and here they were, getting rid of them!

Last summer, about a third of the tomato plants we set were heirloom varieties which produced orange or yellow fruit.  Lynnafred especially is fond of yellow tomatoes, which are slightly sweeter and significantly less acidic than their traditional red relatives. She scooped up four cans of each of the unique Campbell's concoctions in the hope that they would prove as delicious as the actual fruit.

Her gamble paid off: both the Harvest Orange and the Sun-Ripened Yellow Tomato Soups are pretty damn good.

They are both condensed soups and call for one can of soup to be mixed with one can's measure of water before heating.  We've always preferred the creaminess of Campbell's tomato soup made with milk, however, so that's the way Lynnafred prepared these "alt tomato" soups.

The Harvest Orange Tomato Soup is made with roasted garlic, rosemary, sage, black pepper, and Dijon mustard.  The flavor is delicious - the seasoning balance is just right with a unique flavor that is tasteable even through the familiar, semi-sweet Campbell's Tomato Soup flavor profile.

The Sun-Ripened Yellow Tomato Soup is surprisingly more standard-tasting.  The ingredients - including cilantro, jalapeno pepper, lime juice, and thyme - indicate that perhaps Campbell's might have been going for some kind of "southwest" flavor, but none of the seasonings were assertive enough to be recognizably unique.  Lynnafred described it as very close in flavor to standard tomato soup, "only totally better."  If only we'd found them on the supermarket shelves during their first run.

Campbell's Chicken Wonton Soup

This is not a wonton.

I got a call from Lynnafred yesterday.  She had just opened up a can of Campbell's Chicken Wonton Soup that she'd bought on impulse the other day.

"Dad, this soup is horrible.  Why did you let me buy it?"

I only accept part of the blame for this, however.  Although there are several Campbell's soups that we buy regularly, none of the chicken varieties are on our list because they're so nasty.  Campbell's chicken broth is just horrible - it's heavy and artificial-tasting and the doughy noodles they throw in only makes it worse.  It stands to reason that Chicken Wonton would be no better.

There were five small "wontons" in the can, each of them a thick pentagonal chunk of noodle with a tiny dab of meatlike stuff near the center.  She ended up dividing the soup between the dogs who, predictably, enjoyed the hell out of it.

Hooray for Cup-a-Soup!

Soup is soothing comfort food, especially if you're not feeling well.  When someone has a miserable cold or a touch of the flu, perhaps the best thing you can do for them is to bring them a delicious pot of homemade soup to help them feel better.  Sometimes, soup is the only thing that's appetizing.

But what to do when you're the one who's sick?  I've been waylaid by some kind of nasty virus since New Year's weekend, and when I feel crappy like this I don't feel like doing anything, let alone build a soup.  When that happens, I turn to...LIPTON CUP-A-SOUP!

Yes, Cup-a-Soup, that pouch-enclosed, misunderstood, maligned ambrosial broth.  It's just the thing to stop the fever-induced shivers and acknowledge my body's need for food even while I really don't feel like eating anything.  I acknowledge that Cup-a-Soup isn't going to appeal to everyone, but it's one of those cheap, quasi-food things that I've enjoyed since I was a kid and I'm not going to stop liking it now just because it isn't hip enough.

Seriously, though:  right now, at this moment, I haven't been able to even think about solid food for three days.  But I'm sipping a steamy hot cup of Tomato Cup-a-Soup and everything's good.  It has a flavor profile remarkably similar to Campbell's Tomato Soup, another childhood fave, and I'm sure that has something to do with it's awesomeness.

Cup-a-Soup is made in Canada these days.  Thank you for sending us your Cup-a-Soup, Canada.  It kinda makes up for also sending us Celine Dion.

Stockmeyer Pea Soup

Good, honest pea soup is a sublime and simple pleasure.  Dried peas, an onion or two, and a handful of herbs, simmered for hours around a ham bone - or better yet, a couple of meaty smoked hocks - turn into a meal-in-a-bowl.  It's even better with a couple of diced potatoes and carrots thrown in to cook an hour or so before serving.  Unlike a stew, where a flour-based roux is often called for to thicken up the gravy, pea soup should be relatively thick as a result of it's ingredients.  I have friends who swear that pea soup isn't thick enough unless the spoon can stand up on its own when stabbed into the bowl.  My own view is not that extreme, but still, I understand the thinking behind it.  For me, the perfect pea soup is slightly thicker than gravy, with a good hammy flavor behind the peas; a hint of smoke from the pork, the kiss of onion and green herbs, and an occasional bit of potato.  If it's been made with smoked hocks, there should be shreds of meat mingled in.

Now, there isn't a canned soup made that can truly measure up to good homemade.  When I buy canned soup, it's for convenience, not for gourmet enjoyment.  All I ask is that it's "good enough" - it doesn't have to be excellent.  Unfortunately, Stockmeyer Pea Soup doesn't even make it to "good enough."  Not only was the soup surprisingly bland, but it had an odd texture that didn't seem right for a pea soup and which might have been due to the fact that it's thickened with modified wheat starch and guar gum.

Strangely, the label also listed "artificial flavoring (including eggs, soybeans, milk)."  I have no idea what kind of artificial flavoring is derived from "eggs, soybeans, milk" but  it seems to be a common listing on Stockmeyer soup ingredient panels.

This is one product I would not buy again.

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Accidental Tomato Soup

The unseasonably warm weather last week was great for my tomato plants - a whole lot of them ripened up in a hurry, and I ended up last night with a bunch of them getting soft and in urgent need of being used.  I intended to make a basic tomato sauce, but by the time I was done I had ended up with an awesome pot of tomato soup.

Accidental Tomato Soup

1/4 cup olive oil

4 bell peppers, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

6 celery stalks, with leaves, chopped

1/2 pound carrots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3+ pounds of assorted ripe tomatoes, cut up

3 heads of fresh basil

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 cup rich beef stock

Light cream

Heat olive oil in the bottom of a pressure cooker.  Add bell peppers, onion, celery, carrots, and garlic and saute them in the oil while you chop up the tomatoes.

Add the tomatoes, basil, salt, and pepper to the pressure cooker.  Lock on the lid, turn the heat to medium-high and bring the pot up to pressure.  When the jiggler on the pot starts to dance, turn the fire down to medium and cook for 45 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and reduce the pressure under cold running water until the top can be removed.  Force the tomato sauce through a food mill or strainer to remove skins, seeds, celery strings, and so on.  

Bring the soup to a fast simmer and stir in the beef stock.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  For a richer Cream of Tomato soup, stir in light cream to taste just before serving.

You know what I love with tomato soup?  Grilled cheese sandwiches, made with cheap-ass orange American cheese.  Brings me right back to when I was ten years old.

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Healthy Choice New England Clam Chowder

There are very few canned New England clam chowders worth the price, which is why I initially bought this Healthy Choice variety on a dare from Lynnafred. I had tried Healthy Choice New England Clam Chowder once before, several years ago (back when their the Healthy Choice label had a little jogger on it, remember that?) and it was nasty - bland, almost clamless, and all-around "meh."  But this was a new label and other Healthy Choice stuff Lynnafred had tried was pretty good, so I put it in the cart.

I brought it for lunch on one of the cooler days last week.  Prep is easy - this is a heat-and-eat soup, not a condensed variety - I just dumped it in a bowl and nuked it a minute at a time (stirring between heating periods) until the stuff was as piping hot as I liked.

And...I was pleasantly surprised.  It's pretty good.  It's still got the overly-starched broth that I really don't like about most commercial clam chowders, but it's not nearly as gluey as almost every restaurant chowder you'll find and besides, it's a canned chowder so my expectations weren't super high anyway.  The flavor was nicely clammy and there were plenty of mollusk pieces.  All in all, quite satisfying and delicious enough to buy again.  It certainly exceeded my expectations.

Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth

Full disclosure:  One of the very first things my mother ever taught me in the kitchen was how to make stews, soups, stocks, and broths.  I've been making them as long as I can remember.  I hardly ever buy prepared broth because it's so easy to make (especially with a pressure cooker) and my homemade is far superior to anything I've ever bought.

Okay, that's over with and I can give you my review of Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth.  It doesn't taste like chicken.  It doesn't taste like anything, really, except maybe dishwater.  I've never had such flavorless, bodyless, flaccid so-called "broth" in all my life.  Unfortunately, I'm almost certain to have it again because at the same time I bought the chicken broth I also bought Pacific Natural Foods Beef and Vegetable Broths and given how bad this one is, I have no hope that the others will be any better.

I have no excuse for buying so many cartons of broth except that  occasionally I need broth on the spur of the moment, so I try to keep at least one or two commercially-prepared containers on hand.  I bought Pacific Natural because they were a really good price and "organic" products are usually so much better than "standard" versions.  Hah.  Not in this case.  It's pretty bad when the only way you can "save" a commercial carton of chicken broth is to add Knorr chicken powder and a dash of MSG to it.

I'm going to stick with the Wolfgang Puck broths from now on.

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National Clam Chowder Day! (Fishy Delights 30)

Today - February 25th - is National Clam Chowder Day.  I don't know who comes up with stuff like that, but it just so happens that not only do I really like clam chowder, but I also recently enjoyed  a can of Bar Harbor Food's clam chowder for lunch.

Although I prefer to make my own clam chowder, the condensed canned variety holds a special place in my memories; my mom served us New England clam chowder the way some other moms served chicken noodle soup.  Her preferred brand was Snow's, but after a series of moves, mergers, and buyouts since 1990, Snow's ain't what it used to be and no longer has a place on my pantry shelf.  I've tried a number of brands of canned New England clam chowder in the past couple years, and have found the big national brands (Snow's, Campbell's, and Progresso, to name a few) to be pretty nasty stuff.

Not so with Bar Harbor.   Stirring a can of the condensed soup with an equal amount  of milk (using the soup can as a measuring tool) over low heat just until the chowder is bubbling hot brings me back to Mom's kitchen when I was ten years old.  Rich and clammy, smooth and without any of the unpleasant gumminess of lesser brands, I've never had to doctor up a can of Bar Harbor with extra clams or potatoes to make it satisfying.  This is a canned chowder of choice.

Just like my Mom used to, I put a pat of butter in the bottom of the bowl before ladling in the chowder, and top it off with a grind of black pepper.  There's hardly anything more welcome when coming in from shoveling a snowy driveway than a steaming mug of clam chowder.  Well...hot chocolate comes close, I guess.

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Soup In A Tube

Awhile ago I bought a bunch of soup mixes packaged in cellophane tubes. I had almost forgotten about them until a couple days ago when I discovered them lurking in the bottom of an airtight container in the pantry. Because it was a cold and rainy day that afternoon, I figured it was a good time to try one out.

This particular variety, Goodman's Minestrone Vegetable Soup Mix, was the first one that came to hand when I reached into the tub, so that's the one that got cooked up.

Goodman's Minestrone is rather unlike any other minestrone I've had. It's got macaroni, yellow peas, corn, some dehydrated veggies, and lots of rice in the mix. Despite the difference from more traditional minestrone soups, it was very tasty and enjoyable and made a great lunch.

The prep was pretty simple - just boil some water, add the soup mix, and simmer until done - and I have to admit it was as good as any other packaged mix I've ever had. While that sounds like "damning with faint praise," I can assure you it really isn't. I enjoy many kinds of packaged soup mixes, especially Lipton's chicken noodle varieties, and I'd be happy to pick up more Goodman's soups to have on hand for quick soup fixes.

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