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Brunswick Stew
This is named from a county in Virginia and is a favorite dish in that section of the country. Two large squirrels; one quart of tomatoes, peeled and sliced; one pint of butter beans or limas; one and one-half teaspoon of pepper; two teaspoons of white sugar; one onion, minced small; six potatoes; six ears of corn, cut from the cob; one-half pound of butter; onehalf pound of salt pork; one tablespoon of salt; four quarts of water. Cut the squirrel in pieces, as for a fricassee. Add the salt to the water, and boil five minutes. Put in the onion, beans, corn, pork, potato, pepper and the squirrels. Cover closely, and stew two hours; then add the sugar and tomato, and stew one hour more. Ten minutes before removing the stew from the fire, add the butter, cut into pieces the size of a walnut and rolled in flour. Boil up again, adding some salt and pepper if needed, and turn into a tureen. This is to be eaten from soup plates.
A long-simmered game stew that behaves like a thick vegetable soup. The proportions are generous by modern standards and the whole thing is finished with a flour-and-butter thickening at the last minute.
- Squirrel and its substitutesTwo large squirrels yield roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb of bone-in meat, dark and lean. Squirrel is still taken in season in much of the United States, but a 3 to 4 lb stewing hen or two rabbits give the same texture and cooking time; young broiler chicken will fall apart well before the three hours are up.
- The hinge: keep the tomato out until the endThe recipe holds back the tomatoes for the last hour. Whatever the author's reason, it works in the cook's favour: acid keeps shell beans firm, so butter beans added at the start with tomatoes present may still be chalky after three hours.
- Salt in two placesA tablespoon of salt in the water plus half a pound of salt pork is a lot of salt for a pot that will reduce for three hours. Use half the added salt at the start and correct at the end, as the recipe itself allows.
- Four quarts of waterThis is a lot of liquid for the amount of meat and vegetables. Note that the recipe says to cover closely, so little will evaporate in a modern heavy pot with a tight lid; start with three quarts, or expect to simmer the finished stew down.
- Corn and beansSix ears cut from the cob is about 3 cups of kernels. A pint of butter beans means fresh or frozen shelled limas, not dried; if using dried, soak and pre-cook them before they go in.
- The butter finishHalf a pound of butter rolled in flour is a beurre manié by another name. Work the flour into softened butter, drop the pieces in, and stir until it thickens — dropping bare flour into a boiling pot will lump. A quarter pound is plenty for most modern palates.
- PotatoesSix potatoes of medium size come to roughly 2 lb. Cut them into large chunks, or three hours will dissolve them into the broth.
- YieldAs written this fills a tureen and feeds eight to ten as a main course, served in soup plates with bread.
Brunswick stew is claimed by at least three places: Brunswick County, Virginia, which this book names; Brunswick, Georgia; and, less plausibly, Braunschweig in Germany. The Virginia claim is traditionally traced to a hunt-camp cook named Jimmy Matthews in the 1820s, though the story rests on later recollection rather than contemporary record. The earliest recorded versions, like this one, are squirrel stews; the dish later became a chicken and pork dish as small game left the everyday table. The structure is the giveaway: whatever meat was to hand, cooked to shreds with corn, beans and tomatoes until the whole thing thickens itself.