While instant food may feel like a relatively new phenomenon, crafted to cater to the ever-busying modern lifestyle, versions of instant food have actually been around for quite a while. Think, for example, of long-lasting, portable foods like pemmican, which Indigenous populations used for easy, calorie-rich meals on the go. However, while the more recognizable instant foods you might be familiar with today received a substantial amount of love in the mid-1900s, marketed to busy housewives as a convenient option, now, some home cooks turn up their noses at instant foods.
They're deemed ultra-processed and lower quality than their from-scratch counterparts. While no one's arguing that most instant food is ultra-processed, , and the times and situations wherein an instant version of a food can be just as good as the real deal. Here are a few examples of when that might be the case, and what you'll need to keep in mind to get the most out of some favorited instant foods.
Condensed soup in casseroles and similar dishes First introduced to the world in 1897, condensed soup is basically just soup that's been boiled down to such a degree that the majority of the water content has evaporated. The manufacturer adds some extra thickeners and flavorings, and the result is a cheap, readily available, long-lasting product that only requires a bit of water or milk, and a few minutes on the stovetop to produce what some claim is a perfectly fine bowl of soup. Unfortunately, condensed soup .