Cream of Mushroom Soup
A canned, condensed cream soup with a mushroom-flavored white sauce base. Like other condensed soups, it's used mostly as a ready-made binder and sauce in casseroles, added straight from the can rather than diluted into an actual soup.
Buying guidance
Check the sodium content on the label -- it can supply a large share of a casserole's total salt, so a low-sodium version leaves more room to season the rest of a dish. Use it undiluted for a casserole; the water or milk in the label's directions is only for preparing it as a soup to eat on its own.
Substitutions
- A quick homemade white sauce with sauteed mushrooms -- butter, flour, milk, sauteed mushrooms, salt, and a little stock -- gives the same texture and binding with a cleaner flavor; it starts less salty than the canned version, so taste and adjust.
- Cream of chicken or cream of celery soup -- similar binding power, but the mushroom flavor is lost.
Tips & common mistakes
The mushroom pieces suspended in the soup settle toward the bottom of the can, so a spoonful straight off the top can be mostly starchy sauce with little mushroom flavor -- give the unopened can a shake or stir the contents before using, especially if a recipe calls for only part of it.