When dreaming up your Thanksgiving supper menu, there is one dish you likely can’t picture your meal without: Green bean casserole. Beyond being simple to make (you need bit more than green beans, mushrooms, and shallots), have you ever questioned why green bean casserole has become a Thanksgiving custom?
How Green Bean Casserole Was Created
In 1955, a new green classic was created at the Campbell Soup Company: Green bean casserole. Despite this fact, green beans weren’t really the preliminary inspiration behind the meal at all.

After a few initial experiments (including rolled ham and celery salt), Reilly chose to attempt green beans– a staple in numerous American homes at the time. Therefore the final casserole, called the Green Bean Bake, was produced. The original dish required six active ingredients, consisting of cream of mushroom soup, green beans, milk, soy sauce, pepper, and French’s French Fried Onions.
How It Became a Holiday Staple
Green bean casserole was considered a best meal for vacation entertaining since it was easy, inexpensive, and might easily be made ahead of time. It became referred to as a “jiffy casserole” because it went from one bowl to one pan. “Casseroles bound with white sauces became especially common throughout the Depression as a method of stretching active ingredients,” states Cathy Kaufman, president of the Culinary Historians of New York. “Luxurious variations are colonial, however it does appear that the benefit of frozen green beans brought this recipe to the leading edge in that age of benefit culinary.”
Still a Thanksgiving Favorite
Campbell’s estimates that 30 percent of the cream of mushroom soup sold in the United States today still enters into making this classic, retro casserole. The classic recipe is thought about sacrosanct by lots of families and has actually typically appeared on soup can labels since 1963, Campbell’s has actually developed practically a lots modern variations, including one with Dijon mustard and a Green Bean Casserole Italiano.
A copy of the original recipe, which Reilly composed on an 8-by-11-inch card, was contributed to the archives of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Ohio on November 19, 2002. The card was followed by a Thanksgiving meal including the casserole.
