cream of mushroom soup recipe for green bean casserole

In his 2008 article “ Thanksgiving Slumming with Cream of Mushroom Soup,” The Houston Press’ Robb Walsh discussed coming to terms with the fact that Campbell’s had its place even in the most gourmet kitchens on occasion. However, I’d argue that assumption is worth reconsidering. Where canned condensed soups once represented the height of industrialized food technology and teased promise of weeknight convenience and freedom from at least some domestic labor, now there’s a sense that using them as an ingredient is low-class, lazy or both. In the ensuing decades, both condensed cream of mushroom soup and the numerous casseroles which it thickens and binds have suffered some reputational decline. The “Green Bean Bake” really took off as a holiday dish once the name was slightly altered to the now-famous Green Bean Casserole and printed on the side of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup cans. 'Then when we got the feelings of the consumer, we were really kinda pleasantly shocked.' According to Smithsonian Magazine, Reilly, who created other midcentury comfort favorites including Campbell’s tuna noodle casserole and Sloppy Joe’s made with tomato soup, was once quoted as saying: “We all thought this is very nice,, and then when we got the feelings of the consumer, we were really kinda pleasantly shocked.” Initially, the recipe was positioned as just a normal weeknight side - and a popular one at that.

After a few casserole prototypes that included ingredients like celery salt and cubed ham, Reilly eventually settled on the final recipe for her “Green Bean Bake.” It was made with five simple ingredients: canned or frozen green beans half a cup of 2% milk one teaspoon of soy sauce a healthy handful of fried onions (traditionally French’s) and, obviously, one can of cream of mushroom soup. There were two stipulations: The recipe had to be based on ingredients that the average home cook would have on hand, and it had to include Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup.ĭorcas Reilly, who was one of the first full-time members of Campbell’s home economics department, took the challenge in stride. To further reinforce this point, the company tasked their home economics department - also based at Campbell’s headquarters in Camden - with creating a recipe for a feature that would appear in the Associated Press in 1955. Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalismįittingly, when Campbell’s first introduced their condensed cream of mushroom soup to consumers in 1934, it was the first of their products to be marketed as both a soup and a sauce.

Dorrance, who was the nephew of a company executive, invented a method to condense soup by removing water, leading to the introduction of condensed soups. A pivotal moment came for the company, and future Thanksgivings across the continent, in 1897 when chemist John T. Campbell and Abraham Anderson in Camden, New Jersey, Campbell's Soup Company began as a small canning business, producing a range of preserved goods such as tomatoes, vegetables, jellies, condiments and soups. However, they were the company that canned and commercialized the product in such a way that it has become a holiday staple, with 50% of their annual sales of cream of mushroom soup taking place between November and January of each year.įounded in 1869 by Joseph A.

Of course Campbell’s wasn’t the first to invent cream of mushroom soup food historians speculate that its creation was a natural extension of French béchamel, a velvety sauce made by whisking milk into a roux until the mixture thickens and becomes smooth. Eat this green bean casserole made with love or stop complaining about it

Cream of mushroom soup recipe for green bean casserole