Campbell's Cream of Celery Soup: the Conundrum of Thanksgiving Traditions

The paper is beginning to look aged and food spotted; it contains the recipe for an amazing squash recipe shared with me by my lovely Tennessee 'mama'.  The ingredients are fairly simple, but the taste is comfort to the core and each time I eat it (only during the holidays) I can visualize sitting in the basement in Nashville, TN, crowded between friends, laughing, sharing and enjoying mounds of food and blissful company.

This year as I stood in the grocery aisle and picked up the Campbell's Cream of Celery soup can I begin to question holiday traditional recipes and the ingredients we use for them.  If I alter the recipe will I be altering 'perfection'?  Will I be scoffing at tradition?

I read the ingredients...

• Water
• Celery
• Chicken stock
• Wheat flour
• Modified food starch
• Contains less than 2% of: vegetable oil (corn, cottonseed, canola, and/or soybean), salt, cream (milk), soy protein concentrate, monosodium glutamate, flavoring, potassium chloride, mustard flour, chicken fat, dehydrated onions, yeast extract, beta carotene for color, xantham gum, soy lecithin.