If cream of mushroom soup has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 483 recipes to try it in.

What is cream of mushroom soup?

Cream of mushroom soup is the condensed canned soup that gets called the "house gravy" of American cooking. It is a thick, gray-tan paste of chopped mushrooms in a salty, buttery flour base, barely loose enough to slide out of the can.

Almost nobody eats it as soup. Cooks keep it for what it does to other food: a ready-made roux that already carries earthy mushroom flavor and a heavy dose of salt. Stir it into a dish and it thickens and binds while tasting like a sauce you made from scratch.

That shortcut is why it is the most-reached-for can in the casserole aisle.

How to Use It

Condensed means the water is left out. The label expects you to add a canful of milk or broth, but in a baked dish you usually skip that and let the soup loosen into whatever liquid is already there.

Its signature job is binding a casserole. It is the glue and the gravy at once. Original Durkee Green Bean Casserole leans on it for the creamy layer under the fried onions, and it carries the sauce in Campbell's Turkey Tetrazzini and Slow Cooker Beef Tips With Gravy.

It also makes a fast pan sauce for meat. Spoon it over browned patties and simmer, the way Salisbury Steak Deluxe does, and you get mushroom gravy in minutes.

Heat it gently. The flour-heavy paste scorches fast on a dry hot pan, so add a splash of liquid and stir over medium rather than blasting it.

Flavor and Pairings

The flavor is mushroom plus salt plus fat, mellow and a little savory, never sharp. That earthiness is what lets it disappear into beef and chicken instead of fighting them.

It loves the things gravy loves: egg noodles, rice, potatoes, green beans, ground beef. Beef stroganoff made the quick way is essentially this soup with sour cream and seared beef over noodles.

Watch the salt. One can carries a large share of a day's sodium, so taste the finished dish before you reach for the shaker. Most cooks find they need far less added salt than they expect.

Brands and Substitutes

Campbell's has made it since 1934 and still sets the standard. Their "Healthy Request" line and the store-brand versions cut the sodium if that matters to you. Cream of celery or cream of chicken swaps in one for one when you want a different background note.

You can also skip the can. Melt 3 tablespoons butter, whisk in 3 tablespoons flour, cook the paste a minute, then add 1 cup broth and ½ cup milk and simmer until thick.

For the mushroom flavor, sauté a handful of chopped mushrooms in the butter first, then build the roux on top. Season with salt and pepper and a splash of Worcestershire. It beats the can and takes about ten minutes.

Buying and Storing

A standard can runs about 10.5 ounces (roughly 298 grams), which is the "one can" nearly every casserole recipe assumes. Condensed and ready-to-serve are not the same product, so grab the condensed version for binding. Pass on any can that bulges, leaks, or shows rust.

Unopened, it keeps in the pantry a year or more, usually well past the printed date.

Once you open it, scrape leftovers into a sealed container and refrigerate three to four days. Never store it in the open can.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find cream of mushroom soup: Cream of mushroom soup is usually found in the canned goods section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Soup, cream of mushroom is a member of the Soups, Sauces, and Gravies US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

奶油蘑菇汤

British (UK) term

Soup, cream of mushroom

en français

crème de champignons

en español

crema de champiñones

How much does cream of mushroom soup weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 cup	251 grams
1 cup (8 fl oz)	251 grams
1 can (10.75 oz)	305 grams

Related

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Recipes using cream of mushroom soup

There are 483 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 483 cream of mushroom soup recipes

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