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Brunswick Stew
A twenty-five cent shank of beef. A five-cent loaf of bread-square loaf, as it has more crumb, and the crust is not used. 1 quart potatoes cooked and mashed. 1 quart cooked butter-beans. 1 quart raw corn. 1 1/2 quart raw tomatoes peeled and chopped.
If served at two o'clock, put on the shank as for soup, at the earliest possible hour; then about twelve o'clock take the shank out of the soup and shred and cut all of the meat as fine as you can, carefully taking out bone and gristle, and then return it to the soup-pot and add all of the vegetables; the bread and two slices of middling are an improvement to it. Season with salt and pepper to the taste; and when ready to serve, drop into the tureen two or three tablespoonfuls butter.
This makes a tureen and about a vegetable-dish full.--Mrs. R. F Brunswick Stew.
About four hours before dinner, put on two or three slices of bacon, two squirrels or chickens, one onion sliced, in one gallon water. Stew some time, then add one quart peeled tomatoes, two ears of grated corn, three Irish potatoes sliced, and one handful butter-beans, and part pod of red pepper. Stew altogether about one hour, till you can take out the bones. When done, put in one spoonful bread crumbs and one large spoonful butter.--Mrs. M. M. D. Brunswick Stew.
Take one chicken or two squirrels, cut them up and put one-half gallon water to them. Let it stew until the bones can be removed. Add one-half dozen large tomatoes, one-half pint butter-beans, and corn cut from half a dozen ears, salt, pepper, and butter as seasoning.--Mrs. I. H.
Brunswick Stew.
Take two chickens or three or four squirrels, let them boil in water. Cook one pint butter-beans, and one quart tomatoes; cook with the meat. When done, add one dozen ears corn, one dozen large tomatoes, and one pound butter. Take out the chicken, cut it into small pieces and put back; cook until it is well done and thick enough to be eaten with a fork.
Season with pepper and salt.--Mrs. R.
Four contributors, four Brunswick stews — the variation is the point, since the dish was always built from whatever the yard and garden gave up. What they share is a long simmer, meat pulled from the bone, and a starch (bread or potato) worked in to thicken.
- The hinge: thicken with the meat, not a rouxThe meat is pulled from the bone and, in two of the four versions, explicitly cut up and returned to the pot; Mrs. R. alone carries it on until the stew is "thick enough to be eaten with a fork." That final reduction is what makes it Brunswick stew rather than vegetable soup; stir often once it thickens, because the corn and potato starch scorch readily on the bottom.
- "A twenty-five cent shank of beef"Priced, not weighed, so the size can only be guessed: a cheap soup shank would have been a few pounds bone-in, and a modern cross-cut beef shank or two stands in. The "five-cent square loaf" was likewise a commodity size rather than a fixed weight — a sandwich loaf's worth of crumb, crusts discarded and torn up, which dissolves into the broth as thickening.
- Middling and bacon"Two slices of middling" means side meat from the hog — cured and quite salty, smoked or not depending on the household; salt pork or thick-cut bacon stands in. Season at the end, after the cured meat has given up its salt.
- Butter-beans and Irish potatoesButter-beans are lima beans, fresh or frozen; a quart of shelled beans is roughly 1 1/2 lb. "Irish potatoes" distinguishes ordinary white potatoes from sweet potatoes — a standard Southern qualifier of the period.
- Grated cornMrs. M. M. D.'s "two ears of grated corn" means cut the kernel tops and scrape the cobs with the back of a knife to release the milky pulp — sweeter and starchier than whole kernels, and part of the body of the stew. Fresh corn is worth the trouble here; frozen kernels will not give the same milk.
- SquirrelLegal small game in most US states with a licence and season, but not sold in shops. A squirrel yields well under a pound of meat and needs long moist cooking. Substituting chicken is authorised by the recipes themselves, which trade one chicken for two squirrels — an equivalence by the cooks' own reckoning rather than by weight.
- The pound of butterMrs. R.'s pound of butter into one pot is enormous by present taste. The others use far less: Mrs. R. F. two or three tablespoonfuls dropped into the tureen, Mrs. M. M. D. one large spoonful at the end, Mrs. I. H. butter simply named as seasoning. Enriching at the end, to taste, is the sensible reading.
- Times and heat"Stew" is the instruction in three of the four, though Mrs. R. says boil; a steady gentle simmer suits the long cooking. Bone-in chicken needs about 1 to 1 1/2 hours to fall off the bone, beef shank 3 to 4, squirrel 2 or more depending on age. Mrs. M. M. D. then allows about another hour with the vegetables.
- YieldMrs. R. F.'s "a tureen and about a vegetable-dish full" is not a stated measure, but her vegetables alone come to about 4 1/2 quarts before the broth, bread and meat, so this is a large pot. The gallon-of-water version makes rather more, and it improves after a night in the refrigerator.
Brunswick stew is claimed by Brunswick County, Virginia, and by Brunswick, Georgia, both of which have made the argument for well over a century; the Virginia claim is traditionally dated to a hunt camp in 1828, though the story rests on later recollection rather than contemporary record. By the time Housekeeping in Old Virginia appeared, in an edition variously dated 1878 and 1879, the dish was well established as a squirrel stew made in quantity. The four recipes here, each signed with a contributor's initials, show the dish before any authority fixed it: one cook starts from a cheap beef shank, another from bacon and squirrel, and the substitution of chicken is already offered without apology — a shift that would become complete in the twentieth century, once squirrel left the market and the barnyard bird got cheap.