The Victorian Thanksgiving menu was similar to ours in some ways, with turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, stuffing, potatoes on the menu. Very few of us today include the Victorian favourites of mincemeat pies, scalloped oysters, clams, plum pudding, and boiled onions.
Sweet potatoes have long been a Thanksgiving staple, but it wasn't until 1917 that it became popular to top them with toasted marshmallows. A marshmallow company created a recipe book featuring marshmallows as an integral star to help spur sales. Among the book was the first recorded recipe for marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole. Green bean casserole wasn't invented until 1955. Developed by Dorcas Reilly in the Campbell's test kitchen in 1955, green bean casserole is now a common Thanksgiving side dish in some households. Not bad for a dish that Campbell's had commissioned specifically to improve their sales of cream of mushroom soup!