I went from a bar of soap (30yrs ago) to foam..... then I bought one can of Nivea Gel and that clogged my cartridges....did not use it till last year when I started shaving DE and using a brush. Well one day I decided to try that horrible gel again but lathered it with a brush and it worked OK!! Try that....it's a good back up, or maybe an option before tossing that can of gel.
Over the years, I've used all sorts of canned foams and gels. For canned, I'd have to give the nod to Edge gel. But my recent initial use of Proraso Red, in a tube, has swayed me to that. Give yourself a shot at that in a bowl with a brush. You might be surprised. I was!
Back in the day, it was either Edge Gel (Schick) or Gillette Fusion Gel, depending on what was on sale.