# Campbell's To Re-Add Salt To Soups -- Good, I Say **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296 "2011-07-16T23:53:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/21 "2011-07-17T06:15:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, I know that my gramma’s tomato soup was excellent, significantly better than Campbell’s, despite having only a small fraction of the salt. Recipe, pls.?? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/22 "2011-07-17T06:35:44Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I’m one who noticed that Campbell’s was missing _something_. It wasn’t mere salt, that’s for damned sure. The Campbell Soup Company’s sole justification for existence winked out early in 1940, when their sponsorship of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre ended. Oh, and their Condensed Golden Mushroom soup, which is the best thing in the world when you’re too sick to fend for yourself, even if your liver whines about it like a little bitch. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/23 "2011-07-17T07:21:07Z")
As I’ve been told ('80s NPR), Campbells was a early adopter of a computerized Expert System when their main soupmaker retired and nobody knew what beyond the official recipes was needed. Nobody had asked him. Soup was not good. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/24 "2011-07-17T08:45:24Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > We’re trying to reduce our sodium intake, but I don’t want to cook every damned thing we eat from scratch, so I’m very glad to see more lower sodium choices for prepared foods. It’s true what everyone says, that when you start eating lower sodium, regular foods start tasting too salty. They can take more sodium out of a lot more things as far as I’m concerned. I feel the same way about pepper. It’s a trigger for my IBS, so I try to avoid it as much as possible, but most prepared foods and most foods at restaurants have quite a bit of pepper in them. Pepper (and salt, too) is a cheap and easy way to give a big flavor boost to mediocre food, so you’re going to find a lot of both seasonings in foods that could be seasoned on the plate. In some places, even the frigging SALT has pepper in it. I quit going to Friday’s because they don’t have separate salt and pepper shakers in the kitchen, apparently. They have one salt’n’pepper shaker, which they shake over almost all the veggies as they’re cooked. I cook from scratch most of the time, but I’d love to be able to go out and eat something without having to grill my server about seasonings before my food is slapped on the grill. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/25 "2011-07-17T16:42:56Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Gramma’s tomato soup probably used fresher ingredients and didn’t need to be masked by oversalting and high fructose corn syrup. One can get canned tomatoes with no salt added. Brands that use low-heat pasteurization have the best flavor. > > **CA** salt can be added at the end, but it is not the same. Salt added during the cooking process flavors every bit of the meal more completely and evenly than adding when eating. That said, canned soups are notoriously high in sodium, as are most processed foods. But you don’t have to add it when eating. You can add it before you heat it up. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/26 "2011-07-17T17:07:16Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But you don’t have to add it when eating. You can add it before you heat it up. Still not the same as being salted during the actual cooking, because that’s just going to make the broth saltier. When the salt is present during cooking, it penetrates the vegetables etc. as they soften. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/27 "2011-07-17T18:28:12Z")
How is it that we are “killing ourselves” with over-salting now, when in the old days, people used salt to preserve so much more of their food? Meat was saltier. When was the last time any of you ate salt beef, or salt fish? Vegetables were mostly pickled in salty brines. There’s been a few recent studies suggesting that the phobias about oversalting are overblown. By the way, hurrah for Campbell’s decision. I studiously avoid their “Healthy Request” line as hideously bland. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/28 "2011-07-17T18:34:08Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > How is it that we are “killing ourselves” with over-salting now, when in the old days, people used salt to preserve so much more of their food? Meat was saltier. When was the last time any of you ate salt beef, or salt fish? Vegetables were mostly pickled in salty brines. > > There’s been a few recent studies suggesting that the phobias about oversalting are overblown. > > By the way, hurrah for Campbell’s decision. I studiously avoid their “Healthy Request” line as hideously bland. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/29 "2011-07-17T18:54:18Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > How is it that we are “killing ourselves” with over-salting now, when in the old days, people used salt to preserve so much more of their food? Meat was saltier. When was the last time any of you ate salt beef, or salt fish? Vegetables were mostly pickled in salty brines. > > There’s been a few recent studies suggesting that the phobias about oversalting are overblown. > > By the way, hurrah for Campbell’s decision. I studiously avoid their “Healthy Request” line as hideously bland. Well, one hundred years ago and further back, people didn’t live long enough to start worrying about hypertension. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/30 "2011-07-17T19:11:29Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > Well, one hundred years ago and further back, people didn’t live long enough to start worrying about hypertension. Sure they did. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/31 "2011-07-17T19:19:21Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > How is it that we are “killing ourselves” with over-salting now, when in the old days, people used salt to preserve so much more of their food? Meat was saltier. When was the last time any of you ate salt beef, or salt fish? Vegetables were mostly pickled in salty brines.\ My wild-assed guess is that the sodium they got from things like salted beef or fish was a smaller percentage of their diet. Eating processed foods like we all do, we get sodium in every frickin’ thing. When people used to cook all their own food, the only sodium in it was what the cook added as she cooked. I don’t know if people working harder physically was important, too - spend a day in the fields working hard and sweating, and you need more sodium than someone who sits at a desk all day. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/32 "2011-07-17T20:01:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A little salt subtly enhances all the other flavors found in food, and is an essential component to any dish. Bullshit. 1. Adding pepper makes things taste like pepper. 2. Adding cinnamon makes things taste like cinnamon. 3. Adding sugar makes things taste like sugar (i.e., sweet). 4. Adding jalapenos makes things taste like jalapenos. 5. Adding MSG makes things taste like MSG (i.e., umami). … 1,000,000. Adding salt enhances all the other flavors. It does not add any flavor of its own. Right. Salt is a magic chemical that is completely tasteless and magically causes the flavors already in the food to come out. It rates up with fairy dust in its properties. And, of course, all that is a fairy tale. Salt makes things taste salty. If you like things that taste salty, that’s fine, but don’t give this bullshit about its magical properties. I never add salt to any recipe I make\* and the food is as good as anyone’s. It’s as essential to a dish as cinnamon. If you want to actually taste the flavor of the food, then eat the food without salt to see what it tastes like. Don’t pretend that the salt is essential to the taste of the food; it’s no more essential than pepper. It’s just another flavoring, not magic powder. \*Other than potato latkes, which I like tasting of salt. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/33 "2011-07-17T20:04:43Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > It’s like “V8”. This is a product that is aggressively marketed as a health-concious food-choice. But this vegetable juice blend also has around 1000mg of sodium per serving-not exactly what you find when you are truly on the road to improved health (which is pretty much the only reason people buy the stuff). And why is all that sodium even needed? **They offer a low-sodium variety of V8 that tastes pretty much the same as the “hypertension in a bottle” original.** I think it’s similar with the soups. One’s palate quickly adjusts to the “norm” and having modestly lower sodium-content in soups (not as an option, just the “norm”) would not even be noticed. I had to buy the low sodium version of V8 once. It does **not** taste the same as the regular version. And I say this as someone who doesn’t add salt to many things, and who finds many pre-made foods to be too salty. I tried adding salt, but it still didn’t taste right; it seemed like then it had too much chlorine. I was wondering if adding sodium bicarbonate might have tasted better, adding sodium without adding chlorine. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/34 "2011-07-17T20:19:36Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > I had to buy the low sodium version of V8 once. It does **not** taste the same as the regular version. And I say this as someone who doesn’t add salt to many things, and who finds many pre-made foods to be too salty. > > I tried adding salt, but it still didn’t taste right; it seemed like then it had too much chlorine. I was wondering if adding sodium bicarbonate might have tasted better, adding sodium without adding chlorine. I should have been more clear in what I originally said. At the very first taste, after one has been accustomed to the taste of original V8, the low-sodium variety can taste a little different (bland maybe). But after just a short time of drinking the low-sodium kind, you’d never remember what you were missing in the old high-salt stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/35 "2011-07-17T20:39:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Right. Salt is a magic chemical that is completely tasteless and magically causes the flavors already in the food to come out. It rates up with fairy dust in its properties. I never said that salt is completely tasteless. To the contrary, I went on to say that too much salt just makes things taste salty. But it does enhance other flavors, and it’s not even unique in doing so. There have been experiments done, for instance, where water was mixed with sugar alone (in the control group) or with sugar and a small amount of salt. The amount of sugar was the same in both cases, but taste-testers found the water with the added salt to taste sweeter. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/36 "2011-07-17T20:44:37Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Bullshit. > > 1. Adding pepper makes things taste like pepper. > 2. Adding cinnamon makes things taste like cinnamon. > 3. Adding sugar makes things taste like sugar (i.e., sweet). > 4. Adding jalapenos makes things taste like jalapenos. > 5. Adding MSG makes things taste like MSG (i.e., umami). > … > 1,000,000. Adding salt enhances all the other flavors. It does not add any flavor of its own. > > Right. Salt is a magic chemical that is completely tasteless and magically causes the flavors already in the food to come out. It rates up with fairy dust in its properties. > > And, of course, all that is a fairy tale. Salt makes things taste salty. If you like things that taste salty, that’s fine, but don’t give this bullshit about its magical properties. > > I never add salt to any recipe I make\* and the food is as good as anyone’s. It’s as essential to a dish as cinnamon. If you want to actually taste the flavor of the food, then eat the food without salt to see what it tastes like. Don’t pretend that the salt is essential to the taste of the food; it’s no more essential than pepper. It’s just another flavoring, not magic powder. > \*Other than potato latkes, which I like tasting of salt. If you believe that all things only taste of themselves, and don’t combine in any way, I don’t want to taste your cooking. If you are cooking anything tomato based, it will be incredibly dull if you don’t add salt during the cooking - not because it won’t taste of salt, but because it won’t taste of tomato. It’s possible to get a similar effect by adding loads of sugar, but that’s both less healthy and less effective. The same goes for eggs, for potatoes (as you mention), and many other things, including sweet dishes. In short, salt is about as close to a “magic powder” as you will get in cooking, not to mention an essential part of a healthy diet. Too much can be bad for you, but less immediately than too little. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/37 "2011-07-17T20:47:01Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Bullshit. […] Salt makes things taste salty. This is an embarrassingly simple-minded assertion to make so forcefully. Anyone who has stood at the stove and done the salt/taste/salt/taste/salt/taste routine intuitively knows that adding salt does more than simply overlay a flavour of sodium, and this is born out when you look at what happens with perception. Adding salt modulates the overall perception of flavour. Here’s a little synesthesiac thought experiment: Imagine a colour which is approximately an equal mix of red and blue. Now add to that colour an amount of green which is about half as strong as the red or blue. Have you made that colour look green? Greener? Of course not. Now imagine a palette which omits the green channel altogether, and apply it to a photo of any scene. (Even one which depicts no “green” objects.) Will it be satisfying? Our perception of taste has a direct analog in the way we process vision (at the retinal level, at least.) It’s just that taste is a five-channel system and therefore a couple of orders of magnitude more complex. When you salt a dish, you modulate its flavours in much the same way as if you are tweaking colour processing by amping up one channel. It’s possible to take a flavour from something that isn’t really all that appealing and bring it into the sweet spot, (if you’ll pardon an unfortunate metaphor) and it really has bugger all to do with anything as simple-minded as liking “salty” as a dominant flavour. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/38 "2011-07-17T20:52:59Z")
[Here’s an article](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/09/why-salt-enhances-flavor/)about salt as flavour enhancer. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/39 "2011-07-17T21:17:59Z")
[Here’s one.](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/health/research/04salt.html?_r=1) > [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296/40 "2011-07-17T21:22:00Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > [Here’s one.](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/health/research/04salt.html?_r=1) “In fact, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention felt so strongly that the study was flawed that they criticized it in an interview, something they normally do not do.”-This is the second paragraph in your cite. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/campbells-to-re-add-salt-to-soups-good-i-say/589296.md?page=3)