so we're headed to the Kleins they
collect Campbell Soup everything okay
I mean they have anything in everything
Campbell's everything about it is just
Americana yep you're talking about a
company that started in the mid 1800s
the Campbell Soup Company the world's
largest soup producer was first
established in 1869 producing vegetables
jellies and condiments until everything
changed in 1897 when company chemists
John T Dorn's introduced the world to
condensed soup with the reduced
proportion of water in the condensed
version the soup became shippable shelf
stable and convenient for the home cook
today Americans consume roughly 2.5
billion bowls of its most popular soups
every year and the Kleins have something
that's very rare in their collection
something you think we're gonna be able
to eat I do I mean I'm hoping we can't
try it what exactly is that nobody
you're just gonna have to wait all right
this is my wife Barbara
I'm Richard Klein from diamond-- down
Michigan we've been collecting Campbell
Soup memorabilia for 40 years now our
collection has more than 5,000 items
runnin here this is the man cave on you
know I had some of the trains and some
of the banks there we got a fire truck I
love that I had this exact same Bank
that's really cool man yeah this is
fantastic
what a cool trip down memory lane for me
you know what's amazing to me is through
time it's still pretty much the same
label it's never changing it's always
the same oh he's just saying as a logo
in it yeah so iconic this this color
pattern it's an executive back in the
day was at a Cornell Penn football game
Cornell's jerseys were red their pants
were white and he thought what better
way to promote my brand than making it
that that beautiful red and white two
years later in 1900 Campbell's took
their product to the Paris World's Fair
where it received a medal
product excellence proud of their
achievement the company slap them
adalian on the center of their cans
where it's remained ever since oh wow
see now this is your kind of stuff I'm
talking about this is called the mug
room over here there's a ketchup bottle
look at that this thing is from like
1953 I didn't even think they existed
anywhere anymore
there's not a whole lot of these out
there what's the chance of us being able
to open this and try it no I'm not gonna
happen
okay I mean your collections amazing but
you know we're trying to try some old
Campbell's products and you said you had
it is it in this room it's right down
here oh there we go
Wow look at this it's called cream Oh
potato soup mix it's red kettle yeah
red kettle was there freeze-dried brand
freeze drying you're removing every bit
of the moisture out of there so you
could get about eight servings out of
the two little pans that are in there
versus your condensed soup it's
basically cooking half the water out of
it here you're gonna get what two and a
half servings eight servings here versus
two and a half servings in that can that
makes a big difference all these things
back there in yeah so why freeze-drying
makes sense but they were only making
red kettle soups from like 1961 to 1966
so they weren't around for very long you
know honestly I don't know why I didn't
take off but this is amazing so what do
you think do you think we can try this
well I'm very interested to see what its
gonna taste like and we do have two cans
okay yep all right let's do it
okay hi thanks for letting us invade
your home usually with cans like this
our biggest fear is compromising on the
outside of the can
it does say it's rheumatic we sealed yes
it doesn't look to be compromised that
doesn't mean that it isn't not don't
like here an old cream and anything it
can get pretty funky yes obviously when
we get it open we'll find out for sure
exactly you have a can opener I'm
guessing that's gotta be candles relator
it it looks like a soup can over there
oh yeah oh well nothing you just turn it
around and look at that okay so here we
go do you see the puff of smoke yeah any
pretty dry I'm gonna get the 16 ounces
of water you pour that in the pot there
and there's a lot of chunks in it
it's freeze-dried potato there we go and
then I gotta add one cup of milk
reheat to boil while stirring you know
this is gonna take a decent amount of
time we got to bring this to a boil
simmer for 10 minutes and then bring
back to a boil with milk you know this
takes 20 minutes huh a normal can of
condensed soup you put the water in it
you heat it up it's done five minutes
max right I don't know if the labor was
the reason that the red kettle brand
didn't catch on quite like their
condensed soup look at that all right
ladle this out a nice little Bowl fool
be careful okay well here we go down the
hatch
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as pretty is it awesome it's it's great
it really really is very good
it has that like beautiful potato
consistency it's a thicker soup you can
taste those those vegetable spices the
celery the salt the garlic
it's a tangy creaminess yes it's
slightly salty but that's where you get
that tangy flavor that comes in this is
exploding with flavor but honestly I
cannot tell the difference between this
55 year old Red Kettle Campbell's versus
something that you'd give I off the
shelf right now I would have no idea
this is absolutely perfect it is
honestly I think that's the freeze-dried
aspect to this since this was sealed
properly we have a perfect soup 55 years
out so basically it's not the taste that
drove people away it was a perfect I
gotta be the prep time so I think we can
say that this is
[Laughter]
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