It’s Cream of Mushroom season

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without water, mushrooms, vegetable oil, and modified cornstarch.

Those are the first four ingredients listed on America’s answer to the béchamel: Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup, a product that entered American kitchens in the 1950s via the green bean casserole and never left. While it's a pantry staple year round, the holiday season is where it shines—50% of the soup’s annual sales take place between November and January.

The little soup that could. Campbell’s developed its Cream of Mushroom soup in 1934 and marketed it as both a soup and a sauce, according to Salon, in case you wanted a reason to dip your chicken nuggets in it. In 1955, the soup appeared in an Associated Press recipe (created by Campbell’s) for a Green Bean Bake, and in the 1960s the dish got rebranded as Green Bean Casserole and slapped on the can’s label. From there, American cooks gravitated to the five-ingredient dish, and now the Green Bean Casserole recipe is viewed 4 million times each Thanksgiving Day, according to Campbell’s.

Big picture: Whether or not you’re part of the 20 million families who will eat the dish this holiday season, CoMS has become as much a part of Thanksgiving as hate-watching the Cowboys. Now let’s get the pineapple casserole the justice it deserves.