I love it. Though it’s really just a vessel for the bacon and fried onions.
Bacon would certainly be good in GBC, but it’s not in any of the recipes I’ve seen (the one on the bag of beans, nor the one on the can of soup, nor the one on the can of onions). And we’d never have it that way in my family, due to the high proportion of vegetarians (the rule at our table is “if you can’t tell whether it’s vegetarian, it is”).
I grew up in the Midwest, so naturally, if it involved canned cream of mushroom soup, Mom would make it. I can’t remember a Thanksgiving without it.
This is the only way I’ll eat any green beans. I wouldn’t even swallow them when I was a kid, and I still hate canned/overcooked ones.
My family’s version of a traditional dish no one really likes is succotash - canned lima beans and canned corn mixed together and heated through. I managed to skip it this year, though, since my mom is gone and my brother was out of town. Mr. Legend didn’t notice it was missing, so I got away with it.
To me, green bean casserole just seems like a cultural relic from a time when canned food was new and chic because you couldn’t just buy fresh green beans 12 months a year, and when opening cans and cooking them in the microwave was considered cutting-edge cuisine for the overworked housewife.
That being said, the handful of times I’ve ever been served it, it was alright, but I’ve never included it in any Thanksgiving where I put together the menu.
I voted ABOMINATION, but I actually fall between that and the one above: It’s something that we never have for Thanksgiving, and I don’t like it.
We have it every Thanksgiving, as well as several other times during the year. My mom and I love it and the rest of the family likes it.
My Mother is from Minnesota, so we had a lot of casserole dishes growing up, and green bean casserole was a staple of Thanksgiving dinner. I liked it fine.
But then I went away to college and learned how to cook on my own, and I learned that food tastes a lot better when it isn’t prepared at a lowest-common-denominator level, i.e. for nursing home residents. I started to buy raw food from farmer’s markets (I went to Wisconsin - Saturdays on the Capitol Concourse was a revelation) and you could eat the beans raw - they would give a loud snap when you bit into them.
I eventually learned that parboiling the beans for a couple of minutes and plunging them into ice water to stop the cooking left them in the perfect state to dress them. Lemon and garlic was an early favorite. The bean seller recommended I try them with a crumbled blue cheese and sent me to a fromagier a couple of booths down. She sold me some gorgonzola that was perfect. The sharpness and saltiness of the cheese was the perfect foil for the beans and another favorite was added to the recipe stable. Crumbled bacon over the top can’t be beat for simplicity and flavor.
There is nothing inherently wrong with traditional green bean casserole, but there are so many better options and the casserole will never be seen on my Thanksgiving table, even when I am in a nursing home!
The basic casserole is pretty bland, but with some spices, some bacon or ham, you can puch it up a notch or two.
I’d rather just have the beans!
I don’t know if my recipe is exactly like Alton’s, but is probably very similar. Only so many ways to vary it. I’ve made this twice now. Once we used half for beans and half for a leftover chicken casserole. Yesterday we had it over grilled hamburger patties with rice.
8 oz fresh mushrooms, some sliced & some chopped up teensy
3 T butter
3 T flour
3 T fresh minced garlic (or less if you aren’t from Nawlins)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups of broth (veggie/chicken a cooks choice)
1/2 cup cream or milk
Cook your mushrooms down in the butter until they’re tender and their liquid is released. Add garlic and sauté a couple minutes longer. Sprinkle your flour in and stir well. Cook flour 3 or 4 minutes. Add broth or stock slowly. Stir well and taste to see how much s & p it needs. Add your cream and bring to a simmer again.
It’s not super thick, but you can adjust the thickness by adjusting your liquids or your roux. It’s quick and simple. I made it ahead for the GBC. It keeps well.