Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole – A Thanksgiving Staple

I wasn't introduced to green bean casserole until about 7 years ago. My mother-n-law made it one Sunday after church. Now it's one of my favorite dishes. Yesterday on Madison and Shepherd, one of our 'Darn Near Impossible' trivia questions was "When was Campbell's Soup Company's Green Bean Casserole "invented".

Turns out, this recipe has been around for 58 years. It was created by Dorcas B. Reilly, a home economist for Campbell's Soup Co. in 1955. The Thanksgiving staple wasn't intended to be a holiday dish per say. Dorcas created it, along with hundreds of other recipes, for one reason...to sell more soup, but when it appeared in a 1955 Associated Press feature for Thanksgiving, that idea just stuck.

See, Back in 1955, Cream of Mushroom Soup was cheap and so were green beans. This classic recipe made a meal fast and easy, but most importantly, low cost. She added the fried onions as a way to upscale it a bit. Fried onions in those days were a gourmet novelty.

A fun fact: In 2002, Reilly presented the original recipe card to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio

Green Bean Casserole is favorite of mine at any meal but there is just something about it around the holidays. If you've never had it, give it a try this year with Campbell's Classic recipe.

I found this Mini Green Bean Casserole recipe on their site today. I WILL ask my wife make these!