You can. The gamma wavelengths used are fairly penetrating. Not sure about electron beam, will have to look it up. You have to count with the attenuation, though.
The cans are difficult for pulsed electric fields. But nonconductive boxes and plastic pouches can handle that.
You donât have to be a paleo freak to know âit has to be pasteurizedâ canât be the only reason canned soup tastes worse than homemade.
How about âitâs made from the very cheapest processed ingredients not explicitly forbidden by law to maximize profits, and then over-salted to mask the fact cheapest-ingredient-foods donât taste very goodâ? Thatâs an easy one.
Maybe that obvious factor is more relevant than even the largest mythical jackalope carrots?
I wonder what the nutritional content of canned soup is vs dehydrated soups you see for camping. In my experience the dehydrated stuff tastes pretty great.
And yes, WE CAN DO IT (etc).
Hereâs a good âany-vegetableâ cream soup recipe/guide from the always well-researched and delightful Serious Eats.
From the article: "If the ultimate in smoothness is your goal, finish off your puréed soup by using the bottom of a ladle to press it through a chinois or an ultra fine mesh strainer. ".
It is my experience that this step is one of the biggest differences between âhome made soupâ and ârestaurant soupâ. And it is souper easy to do.
Bravo.
I recently received leeks in my farm box and made viccyssoise myself. The comments on the recipe were along these lines:
âI made mine hot; I donât like it coldâ
âI used low fat milk instead of cream to reduce the caloriesâ
âI added two teaspoons of cayenne pepper to spice it up. Too bland.â
Supposedly, the original Joy of Cooking was all about using cans of soupâIâd like to think that it was mostly casseroles, but Iâd probably be wrong.
I have a 90s vintage Joy of Cooking and donât recall a single recipe calling for canned soup.
OTOH, many of my slow cooker recipe books call for Cream of Whatever soup, and things like whole cans of tomato juice (the beverage).
Which is fine by me, as long as there are lots of fresh ingredients. In other words, the soup is a seasoning, not the base.
Thatâs pretty awesome. âLetâs make some vichyssoise, but make it not taste like vichyssoiseâ 
(I do things like that all the time, and am also guilty of adding hot sauce)
In the 90s, they substantially revised the old Joy of Cooking.
Hereâs a slate article on the 75th anniversary edition
But the past has to be handled with care, or all weâre going to see is a lot of artificial sepia tinting. In Irmaâs day, for instance, convenience foods were a miracle of progress and efficiency; she used them happily at every opportunity. The new book is less naive, but itâs shameless about reclaiming Joyâs history by any means necessary. Hence thereâs an odious page of the canned-soup combinations she adored. (Put two kinds together and hope the end tastes better than the means.) Conceivably, theyâre here to honor her memory. But whatâs the excuse for a beef stew made with canned tomato sauce, canned onion soup, and frozen vegetables? And the disgusting curry that sat in my refrigerator for three days before I finally threw it out? These honor nothing but the triumph of the food industry over common sense.
I had a Better Homes and Gardens from the 50s and there was a lot of soup in that one.
Ya. Can you recommend any similar-but-better sites?
This is where you guys screwed up. That crust IS the flavour developing! You threw it out just as it was getting good.
Sorry for the bit of pedantry, but the claim that cooking at home is somehow more expensive needs to be addressed. Youâve brought out the home economist in me.
Based on current prices at Safeway the straightforward soup recipe linked totals to $16.67. Because it is November, if I were to substitute the tomatoes for canned and green beans for frozen (the two priciest items) I can bring that down to 13.54.
By my estimation the recipe linked makes 9 pounds (144oz - volume or weight) of soup. You would easily get 14 10oz portions from the recipe. That comes out to a total cost of $0.12/oz (0.09/oz for the seasonal subs above).
Basic Progresso vegetable soup also from Safeway comes to $0.13/oz.
On the subject of difficulty - the recipe linked is in no way an âintermediateâ recipe. Itâs a beginner recipe that could be cooked by any 12 year old. In fact, I remember doing exactly these calculations and cooking a very similar soup in home economics, in 1995, in junior high.
The reason we are at the mercy of the prepared foods is not that we are lazy or making it ourselves is more expensive. It is almost always cheaper to make food at home. To address the time - almost all of the time is âhands offâ, and with a recipe making 14 portions you can easily eat this meal over two nights, cutting the time per meal in half. If youâre a single this is literally a weekâs worth of meals.
We do not teach children how to cook anymore. Weâve accidentally created a situation where the only people who cook at home are âfoodiesâ, with fancy ingredients and even fancier equipment. We have forgotten that people can cook for themselves simply and cheaply.
iâm pretty into craft beer, but iâll still buy a coors every so often.
by contrast, iâm also into good soup, but canned soup is about as appealing to me as regurgitated soup. i place the blame mostly on the hydrolyzed/modified shit and the use of canned pasta (i suppose keeping a package of dry orzo or stelline around is too difficult). i donât generally have a problem with processed food, but canned or SysCo soup almost always makes me ill. dunno exactly why.
I clicked over to the comments so I could complain about this claim that soup is difficult or expensive to make at home, or to see how many people beat me to it. And what do I find but people trading recipes in the comments! Good on ya!
How much easier can it be than chopping a bunch of stuff, putting it into one pot and letting it simmer for 2 hours? Is it complicated because the ingredients might go in at different times? Dried beans and fresh produce are not that expensive, and the way to make cheap meat more tender and palatable is to cook it for a long time. Like in a frickin soup!
I thought all American cooking involved canned soup? 
'Walking Soup.
