One of the most popular Thanksgiving dishes was put on the table by a food company.
The green bean casserole dates to 1955, when Dorcas Reilly, a supervisor in Campbell's test kitchen in Camden, New Jersey, was asked to build a recipe around two things most households kept on hand: green beans and cream of mushroom soup. She called it Green Bean Bake.
In 2002, Campbell's donated her original recipe card to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Reilly later said in interviews that she did not remember creating it. Her department turned out recipes by the hundreds, and that one did not stand out at the time. She said it was a team effort.
Compared to potatoes and turkey, this 71-year-old recipe is a virtual newcomer on the Thanksgiving table.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
