{"id":40587,"date":"2018-10-25T11:02:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T15:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=40587"},"modified":"2023-08-03T15:05:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T19:05:25","slug":"remembering-the-inventor-of-the-green-bean-casserole-dorcas-reilly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/remembering-the-inventor-of-the-green-bean-casserole-dorcas-reilly.html","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the Inventor of the Green Bean Casserole: Dorcas Reilly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article \u2013 to honor Dorcas Reilly, the inventor of Green Bean Casserole who died last week \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about this popular dish and shares some recipes. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week, on 15 October 2018, the inventor of the Green Bean Casserole, Dorcas Reilly, passed away at age 92. Originally called \u201cGreen Bean Bake,\u201d this familiar recipe \u2013 invented in 1955 at Campbell\u2019s Soup Company\u2019s test kitchen \u2013 offered everything the 1950s housewife could want: few ingredients, short prep time (5-10 minutes), and a finished dish that made green beans appealing to both adults and children.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Washington), 10 November 1996, page 104<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A memorial to Dorcas Reilly on the Campbell Soup Company website states:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs one of the first full-time members of Campbell\u2019s Home Economics department, Dorcas created \u2018the mother of all comfort foods\u2019 by simply combining two things most Americans had on hand in 1955: green beans and Campbell\u2019s Cream of Mushroom Soup.\u201d*<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dorcas Reilly worked for Campbell\u2019s which, like many companies, employed home economists to work on creating new recipes using their products. Reilly, when interviewed about the recipe in the 1990s and later, didn\u2019t remember the exact circumstances around the invention of the legendary green bean dish \u2013 but in the newspaper article below, she remembered it was a group effort:<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew green beans were popular and went very well with mushroom soup. We added soy sauce and a dash of pepper and french fried onions, which gave a nice flavor.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She went on to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an economical dish, and green beans are universally popular, even with kids. Numerous people have told me that it\u2019s the only way their children will eat green beans. It\u2019s a nice dish for a covered dish supper. You know most people will enjoy it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
State Journal-Register (Springfield, Illinois), 12 December 2001, page 16<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Decades Old and Still Popular<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 1996 newspaper interview with Reilly states that the most popular soup-based recipe is \u201cthe Green Bean Bake, with an estimated 20 million cooked, served and eaten during the year-end holiday season…\u201d The original recipe accompanies the interview. Notice that the original recipe calls for an ingredient missing from today\u2019s less-sodium recipe versions: soy sauce. Other measures have been employed by home cooks to make the recipe friendlier to those who are watching their sodium intake, including using fresh green beans and low-sodium cream of mushroom soup. You may be tempted to take a cooking shortcut and try a microwave version of the recipe, but Reilly believed that it was not as tasty as the original because microwaves can\u2019t crisp the final layer of onions.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Washington), 10 November 1996, page 104<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that eventually a classic recipe would evolve to include various interpretations. Obviously, there are slight changes to the original recipe that most are familiar with such as using frozen vs. fresh or canned green beans, but searching for the keywords \u201cGreen Bean Bake\u201d in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> since 1950 results in all kinds of recipes, ranging from small changes, such as substituting one type of canned creamed soup for another (cheddar cheese soup instead of cream of mushroom) and adding ingredients like meat or rice.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), 15 January 1964, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
Newark Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey), 18 March 1964, page 23<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

50th Anniversary<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2005 Green Bean Casserole enjoyed a 50th anniversary, and 13 years later it proves to be as popular as ever. Newspaper articles at the time celebrated the recipe\u2019s silver anniversary by reporting that Campbell\u2019s estimated \u201cthat it sells $20 million worth of cream of mushroom soup each year just to people following Reilly\u2019s recipe, or version of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
State (Columbia, South Carolina), 22 November 2005, page 41<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your Thanksgiving Table<\/strong><\/p>\n

The original recipe card Dorcas Reilly used to record Green Bean Bake was donated in 2002 to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. While Dorcas helped create hundreds of other recipes for Campbell\u2019s, that single casserole dish is part of her legacy. The simplicity of the recipe makes it a popular choice with just about everyone. I do realize that some people don\u2019t care for Green Bean Casserole, but at my house I always have to triple the recipe in order to have enough for post-Thanksgiving leftovers.<\/p>\n

How about your family? Are you big fans of Green Bean Casserole? How many years have you been preparing the recipe? Will it be found on your Thanksgiving table this year?<\/p>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

* \u201cIn Memory of the American inventor Dorcas Reilly,\u201d Campbell Soup Company (https:\/\/www.campbellsoupcompany.com\/newsroom\/news\/2018\/10\/19\/memory-american-inventor-dorcas-reilly\/<\/a> : accessed 24 October 2018).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To honor Dorcas Reilly, the inventor of Green Bean Casserole who died last week, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about this dish and shares some recipes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12427],"tags":[36727,19013,36731,36729,2020],"class_list":["post-40587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-recipes","tag-dorcas-reilly","tag-food-and-recipes","tag-green-bean-bake","tag-green-bean-casserole","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/photo-1025-2018-featured-graphic-green-bean-casserole.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40587"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93567,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40587\/revisions\/93567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}