Through all the years our children were growing up our go-to busy Saturday lunch was Campbells Cream of Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. My husband has a special fondness for this tomato soup and we haven't had it for a long time so since I am battling a cold this week he said he would pick up a can for dinner last night to keep things really simple. When I opened the can I thought it wasn't as deep and rich a red as I remembered but rather the soup was a pale orange color. And then as we were eating the soup it seemed terribly bland. I thought it was just me and my cold but my husband really started to complain about the soup's tastelessness and said that it wasn't the same as the Campbells tomato soup we used to get. I know that lots of food manufacturers are changing up their recipes to cut out transfats and cut back on salt and sugar but this seemed to be a very "dumbed down" version of their old tomato soup without much tomato flavor at all. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it because they are no longer using the ripe red tomatoes they used to use and instead have switched to the hard pink tasteless tomatoes we find in the grocery store all winter? Or are they going for the least offensive taste profile? After dinner I went straight into my EYB bookshelf to search out homemade cream of tomato soup recipes. I found some interesting ones in the various Sheila Lukins books and Cooks Illustrated books that I am going to try but would welcome suggestions.
Several years ago, Campbell's changed the formula for its tomato soup and some of their other soups. They cut sodium chloride quite a bit and changed some of the flavorings to compensate.
I'm not sure how similar or not the flavor is, but I really enjoy Trader Joe's creamy tomato soup with my grilled cheese -- if you have a store nearby, I would definitely recommend giving it a try.
Thanks Christine. I will definitely give Trader Joes' soup a try as well as experiment with some of the recipes I found in my cookbooks. Tomato soup is such a comfort food we can't give it up entirely!