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Farm-to-Table Trend Hits Campbell’sSelect Harvest Soups and Banquet Select Recipes frozen entréesWhat's new? What's great? What's weird? Our columnist samples offerings from supermarket aisles and fast-food menus. |
Campbell’s Select Harvest Soups
By: Campbell’s
I Paid: $2.55 for a 19-ounce can (prices may vary by region)
The current marketing campaign for Campbell’s Select Harvest line shows a blindfolded taste-tester with a preternaturally gifted palate pointing out the MSG and other artificial ingredients in a competitor’s soup. In the same breath, the tester praises Select Harvest for the quality of its chicken—“from the Peterson-Johnson farm, if I’m not mistaken,” or some similar hogwash. Farm-to-table, meet your smug, prime-time, mass-market appropriation.
Still, the claims are clear: The soups contain no MSG and no artificial flavors, and a number of them are marketed as heart healthy, high fiber, full serving of vegetables, etc. It’s canned soup marketing to people who care about what they’re eating. It’s also another example of a big company trying to put ingredients first in an effort to win over increasingly well-informed consumers.
Result? Success. Across the board, Select Harvest soups taste fresher, richer, and “cleaner” than most of the competition, including regular old Campbell’s non-Select soups. The Chicken with Egg Noodle variety is not too salty or greasy, with delicate noodles and chicken that tastes less processed than you might expect. This isn’t chicken that comes in eerily perfect little cubes; it actually looks and tastes like bits of meat. The overall soup is too gently seasoned, but it’s soothing and well-executed for a store-bought soup. The Split Pea with Roasted Ham is even better: rich and smoky; correctly seasoned and balanced. And while the Italian Sausage with Pasta and Pepperoni is a bit weak in terms of its watery tomato-based broth, it offers a pleasantly spicy low-key burn, sharply flavored sausage, and tender yet robust pasta.
By: ConAgra Foods
I Paid: $1.79 per entrée (prices may vary by region)
Banquet’s new Select Recipes entrées occupy strange territory for a heat-n-eat meal. The types of food offered are lowbrow familiar: pot roast, enchilada, beef burrito with cheese sauce. But the “Select” designation suggests classiness.
Shockingly, the meals do have a select-ness about them. The green beans in the Home-Style Pot Roast are snappy and fresh-tasting, and the beef is tender but not falling apart. Carrots and potatoes taste, oddly enough, like carrots and potatoes. The cheese sauce on the Smothered Burrito is rich but not overly salty or heavy; and though the beans come out as a brown paste, they’re a flavorful brown paste. The burrito itself is a mix of bean, beef, and textured soy protein, but you’d never guess that the last of those ingredients is there without reading the package. Both the burrito and the Enchilada Combo Meal are constructed with “authentic hand-rolled tortillas,” and while they won’t exactly whisk you off to Mexico, they’re tender and surprisingly delicate—quite an accomplishment for a frozen entrée.
The only (minor) hitch is that the calorie count varies wildly. The Home-Style Pot Roast clocks in at a meager 180 calories, or about two-thirds of a Snickers bar. The Enchilada Combo Meal is 360 calories; the Smothered Burrito is 530.
Glad one person is enjoying the Campbells... because the general consensus on this board is that the new line is not very good at all and (aside from some possible health benefits of no MSG) offers no taste improvement over other canned soups.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5596...
I tried a variety of the Campbell's Select Harvest Soups--they were on sale so I picked up six different cans. I agree with Mellicita and others; no taste improvement. I recall one having meaty bits that had the same fake, processed, space-food texture found in other Campbell's offerings.
I also want to smack everyone involved in the marketing--"hogwash" and annoying.
I tried the Select Entrees burritos (they were on sale at my local supermarket for $1.29 so I was like "what the hell"). James is pretty spot on, although I noticed the tortilla toughening up as it cooled and the rice was kind of bland. For a buck twenty-nine, it could have been a lot worse.
I forgot lunch for work one day, so I swung by the store and picked up a can of the new Campbell's soup. I was going for a health kick at the time, and thought it would help. It was the worst 30 minute lunch break I ever had...the soup was simply awful. It was bland with chewy, processed chicken. The MSG is a small price to pay for the superior taste of Progresso soups. I don't eat canned soup often enough to worry about MSG in it, and the Progresso Chicken and Wild Rice is simply amazing.
And I agree with sigari...the marketing for the Select Harvest soups makes me want to slap the people who came up with it, it's so stupid.
I think these soups are terrific ... for canned soups.
The first post is incorrect. As of this comment, seven posters in the Chowhound thread liked the soup. Some of the people who didn't like it said it wasn't as good good as homemade.
I think people who don't like them are addicted to the salt-laden regular canned soups, especially the split pea.
People always complain about the additives and junk in most canned goods. A product like this should be applauded. Maybe other companies will follow suit.
I would definately buy the chicken noodle and Italian wedding soups again. The only one I didn't like was the tomato basil because I didn't like the taste of the basil.
These products would never even make it near my mouth! The fact that CH "tastes" these products is a testament to the con agra lobby. Factory produced homogenized crap. Buy local, support farmers!