Brain Game: Good Food

By Sandy Wood

Good luck with today's mentalfloss.com Brain Game Wednesday Wordplay challenge. During the winter, soup becomes a favorite meal of mine. (I'm partial to old-fashioned Campbell's tomato, myself. How about you?)
By changing one letter in each step to form English words, and leaving all other letters in their original positions, convert CANS into SOUP in the fewest possible steps.
C A N S_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ S O U P
Here is a 5-step SOLUTION.
A 5-STEP SOLUTION:
C A N S
C O N S
C O O S
C O O P
C O U P
S O U P
Did you come up with a different sequence of words (shorter, longer, or the same length)? Feel free to share your solution with us in the comments below. Thanks for playing!