TheBanyanTree: Grandaddy Loved a Good Brunswick Stew

[B Drummond]

"Hits gotta' have "Worster" sauce in or it aint fittin', he said.  "And 
taters, too," he added. "That "worster" sauce gives it that special sumpthin.  
Even if you're  not a mind to like worster sauce in anythang, you'll know 
hits right for Brunswick Stew the first time ya' eat it. Brunswick Stew 
without hit aint the same."  (Grandaddy said Worcestershire as "worster" 
kinda' like he said that something wasn't getting better, it was gettin' 
worster.)

"My grandaddy, your great-great grandaddy, Stonewall Jackson Johnson, now 
there was a man that knowed how to make a Brunswick Stew that 'ya could hitch 
your wagon to," he continued. "A Brunswick Stew that stuck with 'ya.  
People'd come fer miles around to get a mess a' his stew, t'weren't no doubt 
about that.  Said he learnt hit in Georgia when the family traveled from 
Caroliney to Mobile to settle down there."

"Didn't play around with his Brunswick Stew.  Put chicken, pork and beef 
innit, put corn innit, put onions and a bay leaf and hot sauce.  Cooked bacon 
up crisp like  and crumbled hit up innit, too.  And if he shot a rabbit, he'd 
throw that 'inair, too."

Grandaddy's gone now.  Died in the late 1980's and is buried on a red clay 
hill over near Tallahassee.  And I miss him; his love for the outdoors, 
smoked mullet, a good yarn,  and a good Brunswick Stew that "had a touch of 
"worster" sauce innit".

Grandaddy, in your honor:

        
Brunswick (Georgia) Stew

Ingredients:

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
    --------   ------------              --------------------------------
   8      pieces				crispy bacon
   1      pound                         round steak
   1      pound                         boneless pork loin chops
   3      medium                onions -- chopped
   1      clove                         garlic
     1/2  teaspoon              salt
     1/2  teaspoon              pepper
   7      cups                          water
                        --------------------------------
   1      3 pound       broiler chicken, skinned and halved
                        --------------------------------
  56      ounces        whole peeled tomatoes, undrained -- chopped
   1 3/4  cups          ketchup
     1/3  cup           Worcestershire ("worster") sauce
     1/2  cup           chili sauce
   2      tablespoons   Tabasco sauce
   1      tablespoon    paprika
   1      teaspoon      dry mustard
   2                    bay leaves
                        --------------------------------
  34      ounces        frozen corn
  34      ounces        frozen lima beans
  17      ounces        frozen English peas
   3      small         potatoes, peeled and diced
   3      tablespoons   white vinegar
  10      ounces        frozen sliced okra, thawed                      
 
Preparation:

Fry bacon crispy first. Combine first eight ingredients in large pot; bring to 
boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 1/2 hours. Add chicken and simmer 1 
1/2 hours more. Remove meat from broth; reserve broth. Cool meat; bone and 
chop coarsely. Set aside.
 
Add tomatoes and next seven ingredients; bring to boil. Simmer, uncovered, 1 
hour, stirring occasionally. Stir in meat, corn, beans, peas, potatoes, and 
vinegar; simmer, uncovered, 45 minutes, stirring often. Add okra; cook 15 
minutes. Remove bay leaves. Yield: 6 1/2 quarts.



This makes a boat load of stew.  But that's fine.  As good as it is, you'll 
want to freeze some and take it out later to enjoy again.

This is the real thing, my friend.  The kind of stew that would have made 
Grandaddy say,

"Now, boys, I'm a' tellin ya' right now, That there's a Brunswick Stew like 
hit had oughta' be! One that, I swear,  would'a even made Stonewall Jackson 
Johnson, the Lord rest his kind soul,  jealous!"


   bd
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