Canned Cream Soup ie. Basic Gravy, Soup, Sauce

It seems that this is a nearly forgotten art in the typical kitchen.
But given its simplicity, it could be your new favorite skill.
Once the basic technique is mastered you can adapt the skill to make amazing soups, gravies, and sauces of an astonishing array.

All you need is: a fat (lipid), flour, heat, liquid
With this you have the order and base for anything.

side note: Dried Mushroom
Your secret ingredient, that you can leave out or add in various amounts and will make you feel like a truly amazing artist, is Dried Mushrooms (esp. powder). With their concentrated flavor they give anything a more complex taste and with a larger amount, gives an authentic canned cream of Mushroom soup taste. They are from the same family as msg flavors and in a smaller amount just add an unidentifiable "yum" to your dish that is compatible with nearly anything and any vegetable.
Now you can make food at least as good as your favorite canned, bottled, and packaged foods... And besides feeling better, you might even like it better ;)

Basic Skill: Your Base for any Soup, Sauce, or Gravy

Butter, Olive Oil or Coconut oil
Salt, Pepper
optional: herbs, spices, &/or Kelp powder (which is flavorless if added very early)

Flour (&/or arrowroot powder)
Stock, Broth, Milk, &/or Cream
optional: mushroom (powder), veggies, cheese (at the end of the cooking time)

In a pan, melt a fat such as butter, sprinkle with flour. Cook gently for just a few minutes As you add initial seasonings. When it starts to dry out or it starts to change color, add a liquid. Stir and allow to thicken. Add any additional liquid, salt and seasoning (flavor will weaken when with a dish.)

Be sure to 'cook' the flour before adding (the bulk of) liquid or you'll think I'm crazy....
Arrowroot powder is gluten free, but has other differences as well. It has no taste and loses it's thickening ability if cooked for too long, so it is added near the end of the cooking time and the flavor will be a bit lighter.
See side recipe card

Basic Skill: Bone Broth

Bones (such as chicken bones)
vinegar or Lemon Juice

clean water (filtered)
optional: Onion, herbs, seaweed

Put chicken bones in pot, Cover with water, Pour a bit of vinegar or lemon juice in, Add a chopped onion (optional: herbs, celery, tasteless seaweed..), Turn on heat and bring to a boil, Spoon off any foam. Lower heat and Simmer for 8-12 hours (or in a crock pot works great), Add water if needed to keep bones covered. Turn off heat. Allow it to cool, then Strain and put the liquid in the fridge, freezer, or a jar... Done.

Use in any sauce, soup, or add a little salt and drink straight for an amazing feeling -yum. For more Info see Broth is Beautiful

End side note
Here's the long wordy rendition:
-broken into so many steps just so that you have break points!:

1. Put your fat in the pan a couple Tbs will do a whole pot - you can pour in olive oil, chunk in some butter, or dollop some coconut oil in. Turn on the heat and Move it around to get it all spread out quickly and melted.
2. Sprinkle across the oil an equal or greater amount of a flour. I've used lots of types of flours, so I imagine any flour will work. By sprinkling it across (even if it's a thick layer) then it gives it a head start in the cooking of the flour. If you just dump the flour in, you then have to stir it all together with your fat and then spread it out again. It's not bad, but you'll end up adding your broth/water right away to get it cooking and it will take a wee bit longer to make sure it is all cooked through.
   
3. If you continue to cook the flour until it is brown, before adding the liquid, then it creates a whole different flavor and color (think: brown gravy!)
   
4. Just let it cook for a few minutes, stirring it or adding liquid only if you need to. This is essentially a roux - see?! you are amazing! Have water handy to add in at a moments notice if you see your flour is burning or just needs it right away. Never walk away at these early steps! This is how I discovered that step 5 is best next.
   
5. Add your base seasonings: Salt, Black pepper, any green ones (such as basil, rosemary, bay,...), kelp powder, garlic/onion powders and your cloves/allspice... The flavors will penetrate through the whole dish but as a base foundation/depth and subtle direction. You will need to use them again (except for kelp since it would not have time to turn tasteless) near the end of cooking for them to be flavors that you taste and possibly recognize.
6. Add your liquid a little at first, and then increasingly more until it is half as much as you're total amount, allowing it to simmer the whole time. If additional thickening is needed, this is a good time. Arrowroot powder is great since it's thickening properties actually cook out if it is cooked too long, but is competely tasteless and so would not have to be cooked longer as more flour would. Taste test before adding milk/cream and again after - this will better tell you what you need to add now and will teach you how much salts and other seasonings to add in the future creations. Even if it is a creamy milky dish as the end goal, I use broth and/or water at the beginning. Milk products get a skim if brought to a boil, so if you are doing a fancy dish then don't let you pot boil once you've added any milk or cream.
   
7. By the end, your total combination of broth, (oh, delicious, nourishing, gelatinous broth!), stock, pan drippings, butter, milk, cream, and any combinations of those, are what will give the base the direction it is to go.
8. The limitless possibilities of vegetables & herbs & spices & even cheese that you have on hand are what put the potentially innumerable number of finished dishes on different continents.

Amazing, isn't it? .....that that is all it takes to never have to buy a canned soup, gravy envelope, or pasta sauce again!
link to: ingredient breakdown from product label such as Cream of Mushroom soup

MSG

Written out as Monosodium Glutemate, msg is just an addicting, physically damaging processed chemical. Cheap and addicting are good for profits, but not good for people. There is plenty of internet reading regarding the dangers and effects of MSG and the related chemicals. MSG is just the most commonly used tag line. MSG can go by many names and variations that can go by different names, as well as similar chemicals; all of these are neurotoxins. The many possible symptoms can vary from person to person. However it is a neurotoxin in every individual, meaning it damages or kills the brain neuros in humans.
Generally speaking, it is bad for everyone but the effects for many are subtle or ignorable because it is something that has become "normal" to feel. For some, at some point in their life, they may begin to have headaches that they can't trace to a cause, Others may feel sick or even others label it as an allergic reaction. In others, unfortunately often in our unsuspecting children, the symptom or reactions are more intense than they are even in their own parents' bodies.

As an ingredient, MSG is mimmicing a taste family (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and the msg family is a kind of savory) this family includes Mushrooms, asparagus, and some seaweeds. You can add that "can't get enough of it taste" that Msg gives by using mushrooms, asparagas, or kelp powder in your foods. Even those that "don't like" these foods, will find they like what they were cooked in once they don't have a "mouthful" of it. So use dried mushroom powder or add chopped mushrooms at the very beginning of cook time, and/or add a sprinkling of kelp powder when you salt during cooking time and the most discerning of taste testers will be unlikely to turn away.

For an eye-opening moment, See these pages for lists of alternate names to avoid in the ingredients labels and foods that contain it without being listed.

For those who are highly sensitive, extra caution is needed. Nearly every soy product could cause reaction as well as other highly processed foods. For example, Gelatin (such as jello) is so highly processed that it can have a measure of neurotoxicity as well.

Also, companies, sadly, either ignorantly (such as those who unknowingly do so by using 'cheap' soy sauce) or when attempting to "hide" their use of msg use lesser known names or less potent versions such as Autolyzed Yeast Extract. These are not necessarily less damaging, but when asked if they "use msg" then they can say "no". :(