# Green Bean Casserole is.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2013, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354 "2013-12-03T06:54:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/1 "2013-12-03T06:54:46Z")
I know this is a little late what with Thanksgiving being over, but I was having some today, so sue me. All of the poll answers apply to THANKSGIVING DINNER only. I realize some people may make and eat GBC at times other than Thanksgiving, but for the poll purposes, it’s only for that. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/2 "2013-12-03T07:02:51Z")
It’s a must-have for the wife. I hate the stuff so I make a variation for myself. I substitute French’s Onions for the green beans and mushroom soup and then top with French’s Cheddar Onions. Best part is no waiting. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/3 "2013-12-03T07:45:43Z")
It’s a specialty of one of our guests, so we usually have it…and it’s pretty darn good! Our other traditional side dish is rice and mushrooms. (I can’t cook at all. Not a damn. I can barely boil water. I bring all the canned stuff: olives, 'shrooms, cranberry goop, etc. You really do not want me in your kitchen or near your stove! A giraffe would be less clumsy on a trampoline!) ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/4 "2013-12-03T07:49:18Z")
My sister and I always teased our mom about the green bean casserole but we always ate it. Then one year my mom didn’t make it and we were shocked and said “why didn’t you make it” and she said “well, you always complain about it” and we both replied that even though we tease and gripe about it that part is as much a tradition as the green bean casserole itself and we must always have it at Thanksgiving. Now my sister hosts Thanksgiving and she always makes the green bean casserole and my sister and I are the only ones that eat it. We also still joke about it, this last Thanksgiving she accidentally bought the cheddar french fried onions and said, “well, it can’t make it any worse”. ---
**Author:** ![JacksMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@JacksMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacksMom)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/5 "2013-12-03T08:00:48Z")
DH has to have it every year, but he let me make it from scratch this year. I even fried shoestring onions. It was the first time in almost 30 years of marriage that I ate any. it was fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/6 "2013-12-03T08:36:26Z")
We went a few years without it while my mom went a little crazy with the menu experimentation, and oddly enough I was the one who missed it. So I made Alton Brown’s from scratch version and brought it…and everyone was very nice and very polite and very disappointed. Having no green bean casserole was okay. Having this “imposter” green bean casserole was not. Everyone honestly acknowledged that it was a \*superior \*green bean casserole, but it was not \*The \*Green Bean Casserole, and thus it was unworthy to grace our Thanksgiving table. This year I made our traditional - Cream o’ Mushroom, splash of soy sauce, frozen green beans, and of course the canned french fried onions on top. And you know what? They were right. It’s not gourmet, but it’s tradition, and it’s really not bad, and it could not be any easier in a day full of cooking multiple dishes. (I don’t do canned green beans though, I suspect that’s where the line lies.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/7 "2013-12-03T08:43:14Z")
It’s the dish that very occasionally comes in from either friends or inlaws. It can be okay (not good or great) or not based on who makes it and how they make it, but it’s never something I would think is all that important. Green beans are too good on their own to need all that done to them. If you are going to doctor them up, it’s with little things where the green bean taste is still there, like adding bacon bits, parmesan, or even maybe a small amount of butter. But not a whole mushroom cream sauce. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/8 "2013-12-03T14:25:44Z")
Inasmuch as it involves green beans, it’s starting with an unsurmountable handicap. In any event, it’s never been much of a thing around the family, so I don’t have to avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/9 "2013-12-03T14:27:22Z")
It’s a hotdish, not a casserole. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/10 "2013-12-03T14:29:52Z")
Traditional must-have for us; it’s our year’s _only_ consumption of green beans, I think. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/11 "2013-12-03T14:31:31Z")
I always figured this must be a midwest thing. I would never have it at my Thanksgiving table. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/12 "2013-12-03T14:34:06Z")
We never served it, and apparently neither did any family friends, because I remained fairly ignorant of green bean casserole until college. It was a thing I’d heard of but never seen in the wild. No one in my family makes it to this day, but I’ve had it at friends’. It’s ok, I can take it or leave it. I wouldn’t go out of my way to serve it, but I’d make it on request or eat it if someone else brought it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/13 "2013-12-03T14:40:07Z")
Does it have anything to do with Thanksgiving? I mean, did the Pilgrims eat it? I don’t remember even hearing about it until recently. I must have eaten it at some point in the past, but I can live without it. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/14 "2013-12-03T15:00:03Z")
I have an aunt who brings it when she comes here for Thanksgiving, maybe every other year. I can take it or leave it. When she doesn’t come, we don’t have it and nobody seems to miss it. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/15 "2013-12-03T15:02:11Z")
I like the fried onions, but not the other parts, so I’ve never had the casserole. It’s interesting to look at the coupons for the main elements around this time of year. Whichever the coupon is for, whether the soup or the onions or the green beans, is the most prominently displayed part of the casserole in the coupon’s picture. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/16 "2013-12-03T15:18:31Z")
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had green bean casserole. Our family green bean tradition has always been the Green Giant version with almond slivers. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/17 "2013-12-03T15:19:48Z")
We ordered our meal from the grocery store this year, and one of the sides was green bean casserole. Don’t know that I’ve ever had it before this year. I wasn’t a fan. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/18 "2013-12-03T15:23:51Z")
My family uses Cheddar Cheese soup and french cut green beans. French fried onions on the top, of course. It’s nummy. StG ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/19 "2013-12-03T15:24:42Z")
It used to be a part of Thanksgiving. I’ve always rather liked it but I grew up on that sort of midwestern farm staple. Recently, I think it’s been displaced by calico beans which I don’t mind. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354/20 "2013-12-03T15:26:43Z")
I didn’t really see a choice that fit so I didn’t vote. Never had it growing up. It wasn’t part of our tradition. Never even heard of it. But my ex-wife and now my girlfriend both have it every year. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it. It’s ok and I eat some but I wouldn’t miss it if it were gone. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-bean-casserole-is/675354.md?page=2)