Brunswick Stew
When I make this stew, an extremely old-fashioned and indigenous example of the “poor people” food that the South was built on, I feel like I’m cooking a piece of my own history. The origins of this piquant, thin stew, which is loaded with meat and vegetables, are hotly disputed between Brunswick, Georgia, and Brunswick County, Virginia (I’m a Georgia product myself, so you know which side I’m on). I always make this for a crowd. A big crowd. Like those at my cooking school, which typically draws more than fifty students. I have my own professional-size meat grinder, and what I often do is grind the onions and potatoes together with the pork and brisket. You don’t need to do that at home; you can just mix them together. And feel free to cut this recipe in half (or quarters, whatever you need), but I suggest you make it for your next snow day, and bake up some cornbread to go with it—feed the whole block and you’ll have friends for life, trust me.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 50
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 300˚F.
Step 2
Combine the potatoes, onions, meats, sugar, canned vegetables, tomato sauce, and vinegar sauce in a very large roasting pan or two medium roasting pans. Cover the pan(s) with aluminum foil, place in the oven, and cook, stirring frequently and making sure no meat sticks to the bottom of the pan, for 4 hours or until the onions are thoroughly cooked. Serve warm, in bowls.
