West Virginia Venison Stew
EVEN BEFORE THE WESTERN PART OF VIRGINIA broke away from the state in 1861 to form a separate Union government, frontier settlers, who depended heavily on wild game for survival, organized church and civic get-togethers called “soups” or “stews,” where everybody contributed some corn, potatoes, onions, and various meats to a huge stew pot. Today, […]
Arkansas Catfish Stew
WHILE LIVING IN MISSOURI, I ATE MY FIRST ARKANSAS catfish stew when I visited a friend one weekend at his family’s home in Carson. What I remember most was that the stew was cooked outdoors in a heavy washtub—evidently an old tradition in towns all along the Mississippi River. I also recall that the catfish […]
Georgia Ham and Cowpea Stew
IN MOST RURAL AREAS OF GEORGIA, BLACK-EYED PEAS are still called cowpeas. I can remember this hearty stew one of my great aunts outside Macon once threw together for dinner after we’d spent much of the day picking Elberta peaches in a neighbor’s orchard. I often use fresh or frozen peas in this stew, the […]
Maryland Terrapin Stew
PERHAPS NO DISH IN SOUTHERN COOKERY WAS EVER more relished or respected than the rich terrapin stews prepared in Baltimore’s “turtle-soup houses” in the early nineteenth century—to such a degree that by the middle of the century, the stew had become the pride of the city’s Maryland Club and other elite social venues. Small diamondback […]
Memphis Quail and Vegetable Stew
WHEN I WAS GROWING UP IN NORTH CAROLINA, GOING quail hunting on Saturday mornings was almost a rite of passage, and a certain guarantee of roasted or fried birds or a rich stew that same evening. Of course, in some areas of the South, quail are generally called bobwhites (a name supposedly derived from the […]
Plantation Oyster and Benne Seed Stew
THIS IS NOT ONLY ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL BUT also one of the oldest antebellum stew recipes in the South Carolina Lowcountry repertory. I first read about the dish in a book that related tales about the food served on the old rice plantations between Georgetown and Charleston, but the author never revealed the […]
Stewed Ham Hocks and Butter Beans
ALTHOUGH SOUTHERN BUTTER BEANS ARE technically a variety of lima beans (native to the Americas), make no mistake that the appearance and flavor of the two are distinctly different. Speckled butter beans (or “specs”), in particular, with their white skins dotted with red and purple, are the most popular type, turning a beautiful copper color […]
Brunswick Stew
IT SEEMS THAT I’VE SPENT A LIFETIME INVESTIGATING the origins of Brunswick stew, not to mention cooking and eating it. Georgia crackers are fully convinced that the lusty stew was created in Brunswick, Georgia, in 1898 at a July Fourth celebration, and to make the claim official, the town has mounted the original pot at […]
Kentucky Burgoo
“NO, NO, NO, THAT’S ALL WRONG,” EXCLAIMED A LOCAL at a Kentucky Derby party I attended in Louisville when I began telling how I make burgoo and failed to mention pork and veal shank, chopped cabbage, okra, and a slew of seasonings. Of course, Kentuckians are as sensitive about their burgoo as Virginians are about […]
Frogmore Stew
ONE OF THE MOST EXCEPTIONAL PHENOMENA IN THE United States is the coastal Gullah culture that still exists between Georgetown and Charleston, South Carolina, and on the area’s remote Sea Islands. Historically, Gullah was the language spoken by black slaves (also called Geechees) on the vast Lowcountry rice plantations. While much of the African patois […]