That was harder than I thought....

French onion soup, I'm fine with that. But my ravioli leak...

Yep and damn proud of it. At the "country" lunch at school, I did not let anyone in on the secret either. I mean she did a project on Uruguary (the smallest country in South America - she could have chosen any country in the world) - I am glad about that realizing that no one would know if it was authentic or not.

What's wrong with packet FOS? Where I live that is all I ever use and I've never met anyone who actually makes FOS from scratch. The generic brand is cheap and I always have a good supply in the pantry. It goes into my soups, stews and casseroles. Without it the end result would be a horrible disaster. Also keep a good supply of pkts of Chicken Noodle Soup for a bit of variety as well. Generic brand of course. Shelf life is good and long too, just in case I'm not in a hurry to use them up.

While I haven't tried it, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the canned version (except that sometimes there's a lot of salt and chemicals in them).

I haven't tried it because I LIKE to cook and I'm usually fairly good at it. I like to try new recipes and soup bones and onions are cheap.

what's wrong with it? it simply doesn't taste as good as well-made French Onion soup prepared from scratch.

people have to decide whether they want to invest the time in making it - but there is a significant difference in the depth of flavour.

That seems to be very common in USian recipes....packet/canned soup. I find it extraordinary to use such things in cooking!

It is very common, because the companies that make the soups spend lots of money to develop and promote recipes that use the soups.

They all taste essentially the same, though. (Like soup. What else?)

The only recipe I make that calls for "cream of chicken" soup is chicken and dumplings in the crock pot.

i think drillersmum is from your neck of the woods, he/she was asking about big pond internet security (an aussie company if i'm not mistaken)

Interesting. I never see recipes in Oz like the ones I often see here, with all sorts of packaged ingredients....but I DO see ads on TV for packet sauces. So...maybe I don't look in the Oz recipe places that have that sort of thing?

We just like stuff like cake mix that needs the addition of an egg. Makes us feel like we are actually cooking.

DON'T you actually cook?

I have a rabbit simmering on my stove as we speak...for tomorrow.

Sure. Want my recipe for sloppy joe/spaghetti sauce?

Alton Brown has a great recipe and method:



The recipe can be found here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/french-onion-soup-recipe/index.html

THe Les Halles recipe is the best that I have had:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10006-onion-soup-les-halles

drillersmum ...

I don't say this superciliously, but I haven't bought canned soup in decades. Well, ok, once, but it was too expensive however it tasted - I was attracted by lobster bisque label, foreign here.

I now sound like a primo food snot, but really, at this point, I'd never buy a packaged thing.

Oh, wait. I did buy a couple of packages of this and that last time I was at an international market. I treat those as learners, if I like the taste.

This has happened to me re saag paneer. I liked it in a restaurant, I tried it in a box, got addicted, am now playing with recreating it myself. The packaged stuff is wildly full of salt.

You are wayyyy over my head here people. Lets start with the correct procedure for identifying a stove... characteristics, muzzle velocity, unloaded weight..that sort of thing...then we can go into stripping and assembling, field cleaning...

Stoves can be very small. Much is going on in tiny stove research... small stoves being what many use..
don't make me give you a link.

Ok, ok, a link of sorts. I suppose Bilger is writing a book.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/21/091221fa_fact_bilger

The Alton Brown video is about as basic as you can get without hiring someone to do it for you.