It’s that time of year – green bean casserole recipes and ads for the ingredients everywhere.
Me – never even had it, I don’t think, partially because I’ve never been at a meal where it’s been offered.
What say you, how essential is it to your holiday happiness?
I had never tasted it, since I think it’s an American thing and I grew up in Canada, but I had seen it in holiday commercials for years and wondered what the heck it was.
My first Thanksgiving here in the States, someone brought a green bean casserole to dinner and I tried it tentatively. I liked it a lot. I know there’s not much to it and it’s not fancy, but it’s surprisingly yummy. I wouldn’t be upset if it wasn’t on the table, but I’d definitely eat some if it was.
I’ve eaten green beans in a number of different forms. I don’t know if one of them counted as a casserole or not.
It’s as integral to the Thanksgiving feast as the slices of jellied cranberry sauce.
I’ve never had it and don’t remember ever seeing it at any meals. I grew up in a family that likes our vegetables to taste like vegetables (not cheese sauce or soup), so we kept them simple.
It is always there but I never eat it. I like green beans. I like cream of mushroom soup. The two should not be together though. Blech! Everyone else loves it though so it shows up at every holiday dinner and they scarf it down. They are welcome to it! I will have some extra potatoes and be perfectly content.
My family never makes it, but I’ve had it at Tgiving elsewhere. I’d rather have something else. I see Tgiving dinner as a fancy meal, and green bean casserole seems out of place, like bringing Mcdonald’s to a potluck or Oreos to a cookie exchange, or having guests over for dinner and serving them a frozen meal, a boxed mix, or jarred pasta sauce. Maybe if most (or all) of it didn’t come from a can.
I grew up in the US, but my family never served it. However, I’ve had it at various restaurants, and I like it. I’ve never made it myself, though.
My family serves broccoli, rice, and cheese, which is basically cooked broccoli and rice with a cheese sauce, and it’s delicious.
Sometimes served but I never eat it. Hate green beans.
You forgot several options–namely, all the options where one never eats the foul stuff.
My family has never, ever served it. I’ve had it other places, and found it indescribably repulsive.
I treid to make it on e because my wife thought it was traditional. I’ve never seen it. It was a big fail. I’ve never tried again so I consider that I’ve never seen it. My wife, not being American, has never suggested it again. I suspect I wouldn’t like it.
We never had either green bean casserole, or slices of jellied cranberry sauce, or marshmallows on our sweet potatoes. And I’m glad.
Quoth Ruken:
If it were meant to be a fancy meal, the main course wouldn’t be turkey. The one thing all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods have in common is that they’re all cheap and easy to make for a large number of people. I mean, seriously, at what other meal would you ever serve your guests meat that costs less than a dollar a pound?
As for myself, I find it rather tasty, considering how simple it is, and as a general rule, I’ll take a little something of everything at the Thanksgiving table. But I wouldn’t be heartbroken or anything if it wasn’t there. At worst, I might be a little disappointed if there were no vegetable dish at all, but that could be almost anything. The only essentials for a Thanksgiving dinner are turkey and pies.
I like it, I eat it, I make it. Usually not at Thanksgiving though. But it is Christmas staple if we aren’t eating out.
I asked my husband if I had to make it this year and he said that everyone wants it. 
The couple who were bringing the GB casserole can’t make it, so I was hoping for a substitution. I’m going with the version from the Cook’s Illustrated/America’s Test Kitchen group, from their The New Best Recipe cookbook. It’s fast, made in a skillet - my oven will be full of turkey, thank you - and uses chopped fresh mushrooms, fresh green beans, and real cream.
It’s always a dish at Thanksgiving…everyone in my family (myself included) loves the stuff.
My turkey doesn’t cost that little, but I’m buying a fresh, locally-raised one. So I want to go fancy!
But no. One sister-in-law is bringing the standard sweet potato casserole, and I’m betting we’ll see marshmallows on it.
Before I started Weight Watchers, we used to make it a couple of times a month probably. Yum.
Last year my sister (the Tday cook) decided to eliminate the GBC from the menu. It did not go over well. It’s back on again this year. I love the stuff, but then again I grew up in a Midwestern Lutheran home where Campbell’s cream of soups were a staple ingredient.
I took over the sweet potatoes a few years ago - prior to my making an almost souffle, the standard was open a can, toss on some walnuts and marshmallows, and bake. I made it once without marshmallows and (like the year without GBC) it did not go over well.
No matter how we eat on a daily basis - my sister has become quite a very good and experimental cook, I like trying new things, my nephews and their wives will try things they had not grown up eating - TDay is traditional ‘our family’ stuff. Turkey, stuffing, GBC, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas/corn, wild rice hot dish, polish sausage, pieroghis, cranberry sauce from a can, and then the usual desserts. Try and change it up and people will be irked.
Love it. It’s intimately connected with childhood memories of very good times: holidays and church potlucks. I’ll have some every time.