Green Bean Casserole

Green Bean Casserole is a baked dish from the United States. The term casserole originates from the name of the dish or pot used for baking, which later came to refer to foods prepared by cooking all ingredients together in a single pot before baking. The concept has its origins in France. As for Green Bean Casserole, its key ingredients include green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and crispy fried onions. It is classified as a side dish and is widely enjoyed during the Thanksgiving holiday. Its highlight lies in its simplicity, as the original recipe uses entirely ready-made ingredients.

After World War II, canned foods played a significant role in American culinary culture. What started as survival food during wartime evolved into widely appreciated household staples. Well-known canned food companies began publishing cookbooks or even printing recipes directly on their product labels to encourage consumers to use canned ingredients in their everyday cooking. This included the famous canned soup brand Campbells, which was experiencing great success under its new president, William Beverly Murphy.

In 1955, Dorcas Reilly, who served as the head of the Home Economics Department at Campbells (later known as the Campbells Test Kitchen), was assigned to develop a new recipe to be distributed through the Associated Press. The dish needed to be made from ingredients commonly found in every household and had to include Campbells canned mushroom soup and canned green beans.

Reilly and her team tested numerous recipe variations, experimenting with adding or reducing several ingredients such as celery, ham, and salt. Eventually, they finalized a recipe that consisted of just six basic ingredients. In addition to the three main components, the dish was seasoned with milk, soy sauce, and black pepper. They also refined the preparation method so that the dish could be made as easily as possibleby mixing all ingredients except the crispy onions (used as topping) in a pot, then baking the mixture for 25 minutes.

In its early days, the dish was called Green Bean Bake, and it was not very popular at first. Its popularity increased dramatically after Campbells printed the recipe on the label of their cream of mushroom soup cans, making it more widely accessible. The simplicity of preparation and unexpectedly delicious flavor aligned perfectly with cooking habits of that era, which emphasized convenience. The dish quickly gained popularity starting in the 1960s. Campbells later revealed that over 40% of their canned mushroom soup sales were used to make Green Bean Casserole. The dish remains popular to this day, with estimates suggesting that in 2020, more than 20 million households in the United States made this dish using Campbells soup. Even the posting of the original recipe on the companys website has accumulated more than 4 million views.

Although it was not originally intended to be a holiday dish, Green Bean Casserole eventually became a shared memory among many families. Over time, it evolved into a Thanksgiving staple that brings everyone back together. Lucy Long, a folklorist, has written that casseroles made with multiple ingredients and baked in large dishes represent communal eating, sharing, and generosity in American cultural values. This aligns with how Green Bean Casserolean authentically American dishhas come to symbolize a holiday centered around family gatherings and shared meals: Thanksgiving.

You can find all the ingredients for your family meals at every Rimping branch.