Outdoor Cooking: Shore Lunch Cheddar Potato Soup Vs. Bear Creek Cheddar Potato Soup

Outdoor Cooking: Shore Lunch Cheddar Potato Soup Vs. Bear Creek Cheddar Potato Soup

As far as just add water soups go these two potato cheddar soups are some of the best I have had to date (Only competition that is even close is Bear Creek Gumbo- Link HERE). I'm honestly not a big fan of potato soup other than a very select few homemade soups and that is what surprised me the most about these just add water gems. If you love cheese these are camp meals that you simply can't pass on! My only complaint is that if you follow the directions to a "T" then you will wind up with a runny soup and I can't stand a runny soup. So I highly recommend you do one of the following: 1) cut back on the water, 2) add instant potato flakes, or 3) the route I recommend is to slowly simmer your soup until it thickens to your liking. So on to the comparison, be sure to check out the conclusions at the end!

Shore Lunch Cheddar Potato Soup: 

1) So whats not to love for $1 or the occasional $0.50 sale. Found at the local Dollar Tree, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Giant Eagle and Shop N Save.

2) Directions are as always simple: boil the required water, pour in soup mix, stir and let it thicken up to your desired level.

3) At first I will admit this is not the most appetizing looking soup in the world, but give it 15-20 minutes to simmer and I promise amazing things will happen over your camp fire. Also please remember to stir as often as possible as you don't want a bunch of burnt potato stuck to the bottom of your bush pot!

 4) The finished product is a a cheesy delicious mixture fit for the king or queen of any camp fire.

So from someone who simply cannot stand most potatoes soups out there comes a glowing recommendation. This one took me by great surprise and has convinced me to not judge a package by its cover. If you are on the trail this package is perfectly compact and will go a long way to keeping you warm on those cold nights that you're tucked deep into that MSS  with 3' of snow piling up around you!  

Bear Creek Potato Cheddar Soup:

 1) $3.33 regular price at Wal-Mart everyday and currently on sale at Kroger for $1.00.

 2) Directions are simple as always: bring water to a boil, pour in soup mix, reduce heat, stir until the soup is the desired thickness.

 3) As you can see the mix is fairly thick and appears to have a little dehydrated milk in the mix (notice the white color).

4) thirty minutes or so later it is thick enough for me to have a little dinner.

5) I highly recommend a little pepper, but that may be just me as I love pepper and I'm not huge on potato soups.

As always Beer Creek soup mixes don't disappoint! While I didn't like it as much as the Gumbo (LINK) it was a hearty meal and tasted nearly as good as home cooking. Defiantly worth $3.33 as it is easily a filling meal for up to three adults. Don't hesitate to try this one out!

Conclusions:

While the taste is essentially the same between these two soup mixes I would give a slight advantage to the Bear Creek Mix as it was a little thicker, had more potato flakes and seemed to be more filling. Price and packaging easily goes to Shore Lunch as two of their packets could fit in the same space as one Bear Creek package and they are also 1/3 of the price of the Bear Creek. So with that said I would more than likely stick with the Shore Lunch variety going forward due to its ability to pack, lower price point and minimal difference in taste. Also for those of you who only ever cook for one and don't use a bush pot for camp cooking I will be doing a post soon on how to split a few of these packages up into single serving meals in the near future.

As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:

http://www.topprepperwebsites.com/vin.php?s=7ps
You are only able to vote once DAILY using this site! Currently we are just outside the top 40 on this site.
                        AND

http://bestprepperwebsites.com/
You are able to vote DAILY on this site! We are currently ranked # 2 on this site!