Other - always served, won’t even look at it.
Joe
The only thing I knew would be on the The Thanksgiving table from year to year was turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. Everything else was pretty traditional, but not set in stone. Sometimes there were creamed pearl onions, sometimes baked squash, once in a while a tossed salad.
As far as my brother-in-law is concerned it isn’t Thanksgiving without broccoli casserole, which has cream of celery, broccoli, cheese and bread crumbs.
I made those one year because so many Dopers had it as a requirement and I always do one “new thing” a year. Huge failure, TONS of work - but I liked 'em.
I don’t know what the experiment is going to be this year, though. The butternut squash soup was a winner several years ago and is now a requirement - by the kids, no less! which is my best success. Ixnay on the real green beans. Ixnay on the earlapy onionsnay. Maybe mac and cheese, whcih was a feature of Granny’s Southern feasts but which we don’t do these days?
We didn’t have it when I was growing up, nor did we do the marshmallow/sweet potato thing. I have a weird hang up about mushrooms, so I’ve never really tried it the few times I’ve seen it.
I had never had it or heard of it until I met my boyfriend when I was 19. I detest cream of mushroom soup and I can usually taste it so it kills the casserole for me. I have made it with cream of broccoli soup or broccoli cheddar soup and I like it then.
Do you guys not know that you don’t have to use Cream of Mushroom? Ever since I’ve done Thanksgiving I’ve done Cream of Celery, but you could do Cream of Anything Soup and it would be fine. I HATE Cream of Mushroom.
The problem is that the people who grew up with it tend to get a little pissy if you alter the recipe.
When I made it for Thanksgiving, I made 2 - one was a large one with the regular recipe and one was small and for me, without any nasty mushrooms.
Pssst - don’t tell them. They’ll never know. Cream of Celery FTW.
So I thought. It didn’t work. Just like I can tell when the nasty mushrooms are in there, they can tell when they’re not. I’m sure it depends on the people. In our case, it doesn’t work.
I forgot to mention earlier - we have sweet potatoes but not as a casserole. We have them mashed. I can’t imagine the nastiness of sweet potatoes and marshmallows and I love both.
We used to have a whole bunch of veggies on the table until my boyfriend’s mom stole our copy of The Redwall Cookbook and found the Deeper’n’Ever Turnip’n’Tater’n’ Beetroot Pie. Now she makes that.
I was perusing the Target flyer and they had an ad for all the ingredients helpfully listed together- fried onions, CoM soup, chicken broth, canned bea- what? Canned?
I understand fresh green beans in November may not have been customarily available in all parts of the US during the era this tradition developed, but do you people have no frozen beans? Vegetarian Jesus wept. 
We never once had it for Thanksgiving when I was growing up (we had corn and brussels sprouts and suchlike), but it’s a staple for most of people I know. I’ve been subjected to some pretty crappy versions over the years, but done properly I love it.
I’ll be making one this year, but with all fresh ingredients, except probably the crispy onion bits.
Different animal. I love green beans. I love (some) casseroles. Turns out, I do not love fresh green beans in the traditional casserole… and neither do anybody I cook for in November. If you’d said in, say, September “Here is a dish I have made with a cream sauce and green beans and mushrooms” I would have loved it… but it is not Green Bean Casserole. Sorry.
A couple Turkey Days back I got tasked with making a gluten-free version of Green Bean Casserole for a big get-together at my brother’s. Someone brought a regular GBC too, which did not get finished, but mine did. And I thought only my celiac niece and I would be eating it, and she’d have leftovers. No such luck. The fried onions I made for on the top were so good I ate half the recipe of them before I put them on the casserole! And I used frozen beans, and fresh mushrooms… I was really pleased and amazed that other people tried it and went back for more.
My ex-husband did a similar “gourmet” gbc one year. Fresh green beans, fresh shrooms, fancy cheese and…HOME MADE onion rings on top! Completely amazing!
Our family refuses to make that shit. Canned cream of whatever soup sucks ass as an ingredient and people should learn how to make a basic cream sauce base - it isn’t rocket science.
Besides, we don’t use mushroom anything in my family, I am deathly allergic to them. If we were to make a green bean casserole, it would use a home made bechamel sauce, not canned devil ass.
If we were to add green bean anything to the table, it would be the chinese garlic green beans, we all like those, nobody in the family seems to ever want to make green bean casserole.
I chop up fresh mushroom and put in chucks of cheddar cheese. Everything’s better with cheese:D
I like gbc well enough and will eat it when it is available. I’ve had and enjoyed both the canned ingredients version and the fresh ingredients version. I attach neither moral honor nor opprobrium to which version is served or to not serving it at all.
I love the stuff. I rarely had it as a kid so my mother-in-law made it a point to serve it as often as possible because it’s my “favorite.”
Agreed. I’ve had it made with fresh beans and it’s just not the same thing. Any other time I’d prefer the fresh beans, but for whatever reason it’s just not gbc with fresh beans.
Did you (or whomever) cook the living bejesus out of those beans? If they were al dente, you’re (they’re) doing it wrong. If not, I don’t know. I’m not a fan of green bean casserole, but made with fresh beans that have been simmering for 2-3 hours or so, it’s fine.