It appears that there are three Southern towns that swear they are the home of the original Brunswick Stew. This is no small matter to joke about either. Brunswick Stew is serious business in the South. And can you blame them? If your home town was famous for cooking a stew made with squirrels and the recipe lived to be famous and beloved by many for over a century. Wouldn’t you want your home town to fight for that honor? I know I would.

Here is the little that I know about this tasty stew that is considered to be a traditional side dish when serving a barbecue. In fact, should you attend a barbecue and your hosts are not serving a small bowl of Brunswick Stew to go with it; be suspicious. Most likely you have not been invited to the home of a true Southerner. True Southerners know better. Anthony Bourdain knows better. I am sure that Anthony not only has eaten Brunswick Stew at all the barbecues he has attended; I would be willing to bet he ate Brunswick Stew made with squirrel.

More bad news. If you didn’t get Brunswick Stew with your barbecue. You not only were deprived of dining at a real Southern home, you weren’t at a real barbecue. This means you can forget bragging about your culinary experience when you return home from your trip. Someone will catch on, especially when they ask, was there a squirrel in your Brunswick Stew?

I know you are dying to hear about the squirrel, aren’t you? Did she dare cook this stew originally made with squirrel, with a squirrel? Nope! I must say not because I didn’t try. My failure was not because I couldn’t find a squirrel. If you look out my back yard or front yard, in fact you can see tons of squirrels. But this stew was cooked without a squirrel because my dog Scout couldn’t catch one. This fast and mighty Springer Spaniel has gained too much weight because of my cooking and he is slow, slow, slow…… I almost hate to mention it. Scout is shamelessly lying with his head in the corner out of defeat. It is quite obvious that he is devastated. It seems only a year or so ago that he was in tip top shape and was this close…….. to catching one of those little buggers. Even the old ones out ran him yesterday. It was just awful. And of course, I was of no help to Scout. I can’t run for beans. It seems like only yesterday that I too, was in tip top shape.

So here is the longover due quick history lesson. The only location with official written documentation to prove they made this stew first. Goes to……………..Richmond, Virginia! Yes, Uncle Jimmy Matthews first prepared this stew in Brunswick County to feed a large hunting party. The main ingredient: squirrel. I am not kidding either. Those wealthy farmers were out hunting for game of all sorts, and after a long hard day in the woods, they come home to a stew made with squirrel in it-lots of squirrels. They either had no sense or were lousy hunters.

Next town in the stew argument; Brunswick, Georgia. Brunswick swears they are the hometown of this stew. On July 4th in 1898 they made an official claim saying so. They even have the original pot mounted at the Welcome Center to prove it. You can smell the stew for miles. Of course we can’t have a good argument without the Tar-heels, can we? They say that Brunswick County, North Carolina is the official hometown of this stew. Their reasoning? They created barbecue. Any respectable barbecue has Brunswick Stew served with it. They say it makes sense that they would have created the stew to serve with the barbecue. Now my question to them is the following: If in fact this stew originated with you as a side to accompany the big juicy large pig roasts that make a fabulous barbecue, then why would you make a stew with scrawny squirrels? If this recipe did originate with you. I dare say, you have no sense or some cook was playing a joke on you and you too them seriously.

Now that the history lesson is out of the way, let us move on to cooking a good Brunswick Stew. First question, how am I going to cook my stew without a squirrel? Well, being smart and able to read a current recipe, I substituted chicken. In fact at the turn of the century (not 2000, the century before,) someone had the sense to leave out the squirrels included in the original recipe, and thank goodness. I am still flabbergasted at the thought of squirrels in my Brunswick Stew. Squirrels are all tail. Just look at my squirrel pictures I’ve posted. They only eat nuts. How could anyone think they would make a stew tasty?

Having secretly kept it under lock and key for over 20 years now, I have the killer of all Southern Brunswick Stew recipes in my possession. My recipe is tattered and torn, with lots of smudge marks. The marks of a treasured recipe. Not bad for a Yankee, huh? But, it is not the stew I made yesterday, for two good reasons. The first being, my recipe includes a whole pork rump cooked on the grill and my grill is kaput. The second reason is that my recipe requires a whole bottle of ketchup. I did not have it in me to cook with ketchup. This is light of the crushing blow I spoke about two days earlier. For those that haven’t read my ham post, my mother informed me that she puts ketchup in my beloved ham spread. Cooking with ketchup is to traumatic for me.

Here is a recipe for the runner up Brunswick Stew. This recipe is courtesy of James Villas, The Glory of Southern Cooking. James is a Southerner. He thinks this is the best stew he has ever eaten. Apparently he has eaten a lot of stew. He is most confident that his stew is the best. Well, wait till he tries my stew. One taste and I am positive that he will get the appropriate papers signed that will make me an official Southerner. Just as soon as my grill is up and running.

Brunswick Stew

James Villas; The Glory of Southern Cooking

1/2 cup vegetable oil

One 4-pound chicken(preferably a hen), quartered

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery (leaves included)

1 medium ham hock

3 large ripe tomatoes

1 small red chili pepper, seeded and minced

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

paprika to taste

2 1/2 quarts water

1 1/2 cups each corn kernels, sliced okra, Lima beans (fresh or frozen)

1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes

• In a large stock pot, heat 1/4 cup oil over moderate heat and brown the chicken.
• Transfer to a large plate.
• Heat the remaining oil and over moderate heat, add the onions, celery and cook about 2 minutes.
• Add the browned chicken, ham hock, tomatoes, chili pepper, salt and pepper, paprika and water.
• Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer 1 hour.
• Remove the chicken from the pot with a slotted spoon, and simmer the mixture 1 hour longer.
• When the chicken is cool, skin, bone and shred the meat, set aside.
• Bring the mixture in the pot to a boil, add the corn, okra and lima beans , reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Stir from time to time so it doesn’t stick.
• Remove the ham hock and shred the meat.
• Put shredded chicken and ham hock back in the pot along with the mashed cooked potatoes.
• Simmer for about 15 minutes till nicely thickened.
• Serve with biscuits or cornbread alone or as a side dish with barbecue.

Cooks Note: James says, he hasn’t seen a squirrel used to make this stew since he was a child. Even though it appears modern day cooks are not cooking with squirrels anymore. If I were you, I would take precautions. When served this wonderful hearty stew. I would ask, is there a squirrel in my Brunswick Stew?