I Tested 13 Green Bean Casseroles to Create My Perfect Recipe | Eric Kim | NYT Cooking 

I love this as a tribute to Dorcas and I love the honoring of the tradition. I teared up when her daughter said that her father has no peers left. Seriously, great job on this video.

I liked that the final casserole was done in a real kitchen and not the NYT kitchen. It felt more authentic and like I was in the kitchen with Eric.

This was actually really beautiful and I love how Eric started us off at the root of the story and then making the original Campbell's. You can really see how intentional and thoughtful you were about honoring Dorca and her family! So special.

I did not expect a video on green bean casserole to make me cry, but here we are. Eric, this video was so lovely!

Eric you always provide such a wholesome and calming experience through your love of food. This episode was even more special with the connections and stories from Dorcas' family. Love your work and will be attempting to make your final version!

I felt that desire to eat the flat French's onion. I felt it in my bones.

Unreal! My (new) fiancée’s grandmother just asked me to make green bean casserole for the first Thanksgiving I am having with their family! I’ve never made it before and was never a huge fan of it. This looks amazing. THANK YOU FOR THIS.

Love how kind you were about each recipe even when it clearly wasn’t very good 😂 no thank you on the joy of cooking tomato soup version.

I'm glad 2 C young ppl. Keeping some old classic recipes. Yet updating them.

French cut frozen beans are a fantastic way to go.

Excited to try Millie's version, high praise! I've seen a lot of green bean recipe videos, but I've never seen anyone dive into the history this way, really interesting. One thing we've started doing that has elevated our casserole is to mix French's onions with fried jalapeno (we put the mix on half, and just onions on the other for the guests to choose), and that crunchy bit of heat is AMAZING!

As a child in the 1970's I literally started reading cookbooks to find a recipe that would make frozen green beans taste palatable. They were just one inch pieces of spongey drab green. However, the search started me on a life long journey as a cook and baker for which I am grateful. I think perhaps, just now, I have finally found the recipe I have been seeking for decades. Thanks Eric Kim! I admit to still being a little skeptical, but am I am very much looking forward to trying this.

This time of year is like a series of games leading up to a culinary superbowl. I love it! I love Eric too. Not a huge fan of any green bean casserole admittedly, but i'll watch an Eric Kim cooking video for the wholesome, calming mood he sets.

Honestly I really enjoy these series! 🤗 It teaches me a lot about how 1 change or tweak to a recipe affects the outcome of the dish

I'm the only person I know who is obsessed with green bean casserole! I make it every year just for me lol loved seeing the variety of recipes-- Absolutely starving now!

I make personal sized green bean casseroles all the time. This was a great video idea!!! Can’t wait for more Thanksgiving and Christmas content coming!

You had me at snacking on the large French fried onions. My grandmother always used to 'snitch' food as she cooked. (sampled) So every time I do, it just reminds me of her and her sweet old grin of mischief. This is such a nostalgic recipe for so many people. An unusual dish I really like but eat it all year round and not just the holiday season is baked sweet potato with lime sour cream. You get the sweet and sour working and it is delicious. Also fabulous with sweet potato fries as well.

Love the green highlighting every time there was a new ingredient introduced!

Every time I hear someone say “fold in” I think of the iconic Schitts Creek scene of folding in the cheese.

Brilliant deconstruction and rebuild. Well done!

German here who has never seen, or eaten, a green bean casserole, and was, for the first time in her life, invited to a friendsgiving this year... with the daunting task of making the green bean casserole - in a country where there is no Campbells...This is a literal life saver. I think it's given me a good amount of pointers on where I want to go with this dish, and how to marry my cooking experience into it in a fun way. I'm putting my ideas here, so people can tell me which ones of them are horrible, bad, no-good ideas before Thursday comes around: 1. I'm definitely going to be using savory and thyme in my cream of mushroom. Savory is a herb that, in German, is literally called "bean-herb" so not putting it when using beans would make it instantly less bean-flavored for me. 2. Growing up, my family made something called Zwiebelsahneschnitzel - which is a slowroasted dish where we're marinating onions in a heavy cream and bouillon mixture for a whole day before using the mix to cover pork cutlets, marinating that some more, and then putting it in the oven on 160°C for like 3 hours. I feel like marinating half my onions that exact way and then straining them, using the strained liquid for my roux, and adding those onions back in afterwards would make for a nice depth of flavor. 2.2 I also think giving the casserole a longer time in the oven on low and only adding additional, crispy onions on top only at the halfway point should help infusing things. I'm thinking 2 hours total? (I think it should be mentioned I'm not roasting a turkey and will have ample oven space, so time is not a restricting factor) 2.3. I'll be french frying my own onions from one half of those marinated ones - the other half going on there unfried. I do hope this'll turn out delicious. I'm really getting excited now :)

I have both of those recipes from "The Joy of Cooking" in my mother's 1946 copy, which was compiled by Irma Rombauer. The recipes have been moved and shortened for the 1964 edition that she did with her daughter, Marion. My second version of the book, published later, still contains the two recipes. I haven't unpacked the most recent version, but my bet is that the New York editor who refashioned the original book in many ways I think of as being "New York," and not in a particularly flattering way, I haven't unpacked from my recent move. I'll check it, but my bet is that it has béchamel made from scratch, because that's what she did to the tuna casserole recipe I've used most of my life, which calls for canned cream of mushroom soup too. I can only remember what it was like when I was married, working full time, and had a young son, it was outside my wheelhouse to come home from work and make béchamel for tuna casserole. Cream of mushroom soup was just fine in those days, and faster. Actually, Whole Foods carries haricots vertes frozen that are pretty good on their own. I prefer them frozen to the regular frozen green beans, I think. The squeaky thing you mention, to me, makes them seem more like fresh beans, which is preferable to mushy frozen or canned beans.

I highly recommend you use Campbell's Golden Mushroom soup instead of the regular Cream of Mushroom. Also just use heavy whipping cream instead of milk. Super easy changes for a big improvement.

I am so craving this now. I really like Millie's recipes too.

Really really enjoyed this video. I'm doing my annual Thanksgiving homework and I feel quite blessed to have discovered this. Thank you so much for doing all that work. What stood out the most for me was your assertion that a longer cooked green bean gives "that flavor, that original green bean casserole flavor". So, I'll be keeping that in mind for sure. Very excited to start cooking now. Top notch content.

So TLDW: Use frozen green beans and boil half of them in chicken stock, add half right before baking, and add celery salt to the bean broth and the roux. Using the green bean boiling broth in the roux adds more green bean flavor while the celery salt helps the soup taste more like the canned version. A lot of the techniques that made for a better casserole went against the perceived spirit of the original by taking more time, but if you have the time, consider roasting the beans and mushrooms on a sheetpan rather than boiling. Personal tip: if you want another type to try, toss some of the French's onions in a food processor along with some fresh-grated Parmesan and unflavored bread crumbs and blend it into a crumby texture, add melted butter, press the mixture into your casserole pan to make a crust and blind-bake it. Add whatever version of the casserole to the crust and bake as normal. (I wouldn't recommend using any Campbell's soup in this version though, since the salt content will be through the roof.) You can even make this in a round pan and treat it like a green bean casserole pie.

I saw you in Brooklyn once, but I was too awkward to say hi 😕 Love your work!

A story told through a casserole. Lovely!

IN the past I've used the Roasted Garlic Mushroom Soup instead of regular, the roasted garlic adds another good flavor to the mix, that I think would be a good addition to this.

If you can believe it, I just had a discussion with a family member about Green Bean Casserole, and how, if we were going to have it for TG, I wanted an updated version. And here comes Eric Kim with a response to my wish! Thanks. Gonna try yours for a meal for 25. Happy Thanksgiving.

Awesome story with the family’s input!

The canned cranberry sauce in the back 😂 Love it.

Love everything about this video! Eric is the best and I hope to see more from him! Can't wait to try his new recipe.

Green bean casserole is great! The original. Great video!❤

My favorite green beans are canned French cut/style. I fold cooked bacon, caramelized onions, extra sautéed mushrooms and a little Monterey Jack cheese into my casserole. It's so flavorful and creamy. The family loves it!

String beans are my favorite food, can't wait to watch this :)

I am of firm belief that making your own onions for this recipe is a fool's errand.

This was so sweet 🥹 I did not know the history of this dish!!

wow this was so charming ! wonderful hommage

I loved the variety of Mmmmms after each test. They were so different from each other. I waited for each delightful rendition

What a lovely video!! Yummmm 😋

Thank you! My dish for thanksgiving and Always made Cambells soup version. Going to change it up this year.

Loved watching this, dang it I'm hungry now!

Yeah! I'll make this!

tracking recipe edits like this is genius!

Wow!! What a great video.

I just love the idea of "Make it your own" . Since I've reconstructed the SweetPotato & reinvented the Creamed spinach/broccoli side-dishes, I'm now the official got-to Holiday Guy.

I love this site! I'm going to be a new subscriber!!! 👏👍Thanks.🙂

Eric you are such a gem

Fan of Eric and Millie Peartree.

I love that they left Eric’s joke in this time.

How are we not talking about “Eric’s taste tester”?!!

This is sick!😮 i love it

This dish is my favorite. I base it off of Smitten Kitchen but add truffle powder

It's interesting that Eric felt like Millie's recipe was transcendent and then in his own version subsequently deleted all the ingredients he took from her recipe 😂

You guys are the cutest!!!! ❤❤❤

I think removing the mushrooms worked in the final recipe because liteally, it did not use the canned cream of mushroom. I guess the other recipes added the mushroom simply to amp up the mushroom flavor and additional "meaty" nonmeat component (plus the umami)

We just discussed the creation of the recipe during our thanksgiving dinner, in Canada. What a coincidence.

OMG THAT PUPPY!!!!!!!!!

Thise chairs though 🐓🧡

my favorite GBC is Babish’s! But might have to try the roasted green beans style

the fake typing KILLED ME, always love your videos

the secret, late-night green bean whisperer

Main takeaway: never doubt the almighty power of the beloved Millie Peartree

I don't like green beans. I never have. I watched this entire video because I find this series (and Eric) interesting and entertaining. I hope we get to see more.

I LOVE GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

Hum no mushrooms in the end dish. 😢

I HAVE THAT CAT CUP

Casserole means something quite different in europe. You can no longer buy Campbell's soup in the uk.

Cool have you ever consider the dish with sausage or chicken? Maybe use the sausage to thicken the dish

My feeling about green bean casserole is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I like the familiar taste from my childhood and don’t want garlic, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, bread or cracker crumbs or cheese!

Think I will try this but add some cream cheese and maybe some moz.

i don't know about whispering but they say that singing to your crops in the morning helps them grow lol loved this video

Is his shirt from the Uniqlo brand?

This is so slay 🙂

This might be an unpopular opinion, its probably nostalgia based, but frozen/fresh green beans just dont have the right texture for me. They're not mushy enough? I do a variation of allrecipes but would like to incorporate elements of Millie's and Eric's recipes! Still can't beat all cans for last minute holiday parties/potlucks though.

Jeez, they either pay really well at NYT cooking or Mr. Kim is wealthy. That is one nice house!

Let's face it, the only reason people keep on making green bean casserole is because of those crispy French's onions on top.

he’s so cute

French green beans is so much better

smellavision hasnt been invented yet so i really dunno Eric! :/

You need a new ‘do.

End product SUPER too loose (too much bean broth)...should be creamery...just saying.

Thank you for the link, I was afraid I was going to have to spend time patronizing the garbage company new york times for the recipe.

dont bite your fork, bad for the teeth

Couldn't help but feel underwhelmed that the final result had no mushrooms, barely any spices, and no cheesiness. Obviously to each is own and Eric's palate is what called the shots on his version, but I wasn't tempted by it. Also, making 13 (!!!) recipes seemed really redundant and wasteful at some point - food waste is a huge issue anyway and cutting 5 of those recipes wouldn't have really affected the final product.

Ok look. It's unnecessary to hide the recipe behind a paywall. Please stop doing this!!!!!!!

The point of the "original" original recipe was the miserable 1955 canned beans, and to find a way to elevate them with other humble ingredients into an actual vegetable dish that people would like in winter. But why aspire to this conciliatory 1955 pantry staple approach to vegetables today when, every month of the year now, we can get decent fresh green produce? It's tradition, it's nostalgia, it's people's remembered idea of holiday food, but is it better than fresh green beans prepared so they still look green and taste fresh? I thought Eric might change my mind on that but, well, he didn't.

U didn’t even give us the recipe for us to try! That was a scam and disrespectful!

All the damn drama..DUDE! Nobody gives a fk, Just give the recipe my guy... .

Great idea for a video. I love green bean casserole. However, the editing and host made this a really painful experience to watch

just say it jfc

It's a horrible creation. Why waste time trying to re-create a losing recipe. Just make fresh beans. Scatter with onion rings. Done.

I have ordered our dinner, but I will use your recipe later this season! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🔥👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🤗🤗🤗🥰🫶🏻🫶🏻💋🇺🇸🌸