Let’s Make Green Bean Casserole!

Did you know that this classic dish actually has Jewish roots? Find out more about Cecily Brownstone, a Jewish, Canadian-born food editor, who brought this delicious dish to the holiday table in the 1950s.

Writers at Tablet Magazine tell us more:

With an ingredient list dominated by fat and convenience products, green bean casserole sounds like it emerged from the dog-eared depths of a 1950s Midwestern church cookbook. But the recipe actually landed on the American table via an unlikely source: a Jewish, Canadian-born, New York transplant named Cecily Brownstone.

From 1947 to 1986, Brownstone was the food editor for the Associated Press. For almost 40 years, her writing, and the pieces she commissioned, were among the most widely syndicated stories in the country. That includes a piece she wrote in 1955 about a press dinner she attended at citrus magnate John Snively Jr.’s Florida home. During the meal, a green bean dish caught the enthusiastic attention of the table—enough so that Snively’s wife shared that she had recently served the same dish, to similar acclaim, to the visiting shah and queen of Iran. The queen, Mrs. Snively said, had asked the butler which ingredients each dish contained before taking a bite. She did it so frequently that the butler eventually lost his patience and, when she inquired about the casserole, he allegedly snapped back, “Listen, lady, it’s just beans and stuff.”

Brownstone knew a compelling story when she heard one, and set out to write an article about the queen and her green beans. She just needed a recipe to go with it. Variations of green bean casseroles—some studded with chopped hot dogs, others topped, cobbler-style, with biscuit dough—dated back to the 1930s, when Depression-era cooks found ways to stretch limited ingredients to feed their families. But Brownstone wanted to capture the magic of the dish Mrs. Snively had served. As was common at the time, she called up a food manufacturer, in this case Campbell’s Soup Co., to help develop a recipe that would appear in newspapers across America. And so the modern green bean casserole, in all of its soupy, crunchy-topped glory, was born.

Read the full story now.

Ingredients

• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans green beans, drained
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (6 ounce) can French fried onions
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Place green beans and soup in a large microwave-safe bowl. Mix well and heat in the microwave on HIGH until warm (3 to 5 minutes). Stir in ½ cup of cheese and heat mixture for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer green bean mixture to a casserole dish and sprinkle with French fried onions and remaining cheese.

Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven until the cheese melts and the onions just begin to brown.

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