The sourdough phase of the lockdown was quaint while it lasted, but I regret to inform you that we’ve now entered the casserole phase.
In April, we leavened our lockdowns by harnessing what was best in nature (the yeast naturally found in bread flour) to create an artisanal loaf that was at once a comforting staple and a delicious delicacy. The dough rose — like Easter and like the flowers and leaves emerging to carry us through quarantine.
Now, things have gotten grim. Much of the country is hunkering down for a long winter’s lockdown as a new COVID-19 wave washes over us. The mood doesn’t lend itself to watching a starter rise. Instead, it calls for a can opener and a can from a factory.
People are bingeing on condensed soup.
This insight into the way we live now comes from the fiscal year 2021 first-quarter earnings report of the Campbell Soup Company. Campbell’s first quarter (September, October, and November) was unremarkable but for one detail: “Sales of U.S. soup increased 21% due to retailers rebuilding inventory for the upcoming soup season, in-market gains in condensed soups and broth and moderated promotional activity.”
While the Campbell executives are probably on a cream-of-mushroom-fueled bender on a yacht right now, the rest of us are at home and sick of cooking. The working parents who had the financial security and the excuse to order something premade before the pandemic now have neither and are serving up casseroles. The locked-down singleton who taught himself to cook in the spring has now grown sick of it.
Some of it is stockpiling, of course. Things are locking down again, and people are filling their pantries, not sure what shortages are on the horizon. In the spring and the summer, it was toilet paper and Dr. Pepper. Maybe this winter, we’ll run out of condensed chicken noodle soup?
One driver in condensed soup demand is probably the Instant Pot. This pressure cooker, which became mandatory in 2018, is what economists call a “complementary good.” Chicken and rice (or pot roast or most any other comfort food) is something you can make with some meat and a can of Campbell’s soup. Alternatively, there is the old Midwestern standby casserole, which, if we’re being honest, is more satisfying than sourdough.
