Many of the nutrient that make up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner party have long and complexorigin account . That ’s not the case with fleeceable bean casserole . We experience exactly who create the dish and when it first seem — and the original six - ingredient recipe can still be found on the back of Campbell ’s Cream of Mushroom Soup cans today .

Campbell ’s test kitchen supervisorDorcas Reilly , who decease away in October 2018 at geezerhood 92 , made Thanksgiving story when she slash up the recipe for immature bean casserole — originally call The Green Bean Bake — in 1955 . Her line involve developing bag that feature the company ’s ready - made soup products as whizz ingredient . Hundreds of her macrocosm were printed on the backs of soup cans , but none had the same level of impingement as her vehicle for green bean and condense mushroom soup .

Reilly ’s green bean plant casserolerecipedoesn’t call for any fancy technique or hard - to - generator ingredient . It consists of one can of Campbell ’s Cream of Mushroom Soup , half a cupful of milk , four cups of green beans , a teaspoon of soy sauce , a bolt of grim pepper , and one and one - third cup of French deep-fried onions . After setting away one-half of the onions for a topping , the other element get meld together in a casserole dish and baked for 25 minutes in a 350 ° F oven . The stay on onion are then sprinkled on top , and the casserole go back in the oven for five minutes until the inside is hot and champagne and the top is brown and crisp .

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The sweetheart was in the first place conceived as a means to sell Campbell ’s product , but the fact that it uses prepared , ledge - unchanging ingredients serve make it a hit . The Associated Press feature it in a 1955 story on Thanksgiving , and home cooks were happy to contain the easy recipe into their frantic vacation preparation routines .

Reilly ’s original casserole is still a precious part of Thanksgiving dinners today . According to Campbell ’s , about a third of all Cream of Mushroom Soup cans sold are used to make her “ Green Bean Bake . ” If you do n’t already have a soup can at home , you may find the formula on Campbell’swebsite .

A version of this story ran in 2019 ; it has been updated for 2022 .