Grandma Sallie's Brunswick Stew
Dec 04, 2024
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As the firstborn grandchild, I was the apple of my maternal grandmother's eye, and I've been told all my life that she spoiled me outrageously. I don't really know about that, but I do know that she often went to great lengths to prepare my favorite foods; even inventing new recipes to approximate unfamiliar dishes that she thought I'd like.
Now Grandma wasn't a conceited or highly-educated culinarian, but she did, as far as I was concerned, manage to make everything that came out of her kitchen a masterpiece of eating pleasure. One of my favorites was her Brunswick Stew.
Legend has it that Grandma formulated her Brunswick Stew recipe in a moment of inspired desperation, when all of her children and their spouses, along with their broods, descended upon her for supper, nearly without warning. Since she hadn't had an opportunity to shop in preparation for the event, she was limited to whatever she had in-house.
Now Grandma grew up on the farm, and had grown and preserved her own produce pretty much her entire life, and the timing was such that she had a full freezer of different things from the garden that she and my Grand-daddy alway kept. The only thing she was lacking was a large chunk of meat to roast and put on the table. She did, however, have a pound or two of ground beef with which she could improvise.
As stressed out as she was, she morphed that ground beef, along with some fresh and frozen vegetables, some salt and pepper, and a small bottle of tomato ketchup, into one of the most delicious stews I've ever had. The whole clan thought so too! In fact - and here's the part that demonstrates how special I was to her - my aunt Nell was forever begging Grandma to make the stew, but she refused, only relenting when I was to be in attendance!
Now, as a seat-of-the-pants kind of cook, Grandma never measured her ingredients with any precision, nor recorded her recipes in writing; and as people are wont to do, everyone (including myself) sort of assumed that she would always be around to cook our favorite dishes. You know how this ends. Only my Honey ever tried to capture her methods or the recipes for many of her special dishes - including the Brunswick Stew - and after she re-entered the work force, her notes became MIA; so the knowledge of how Grandma prepared her dishes went to her grave with her... excuse me... even thinking about her being gone breaks me up...
Anyway, although my brother makes a dynamite (albeit much more complicated) Brunswick stew, it ain't Grandma's; so I felt driven to try and develop a scaled-down clone of her recipe, and this is what I came up with.
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Suggested Equipment:
- Stock pot - 5 qt or better
- Fry pan, 10"
- Common kitchen tools and measures
Ingredients:
- Most folks insist that the traditional recipe calls for a mix of meats, usually chicken, beef, and pork in various ratios. The real tradition, however, is to use whatever meat you have available - including any wild game that you are fortunate enough to have acquired. The only meat that Grandma consistently had on hand was ground beef, so that's what was used!
- Nominal 15 oz can.
- Optional, not part of the original recipe.
- Or to taste.
- Back in the day, ketchup could be purchased in 10 and 12 floz bottles; so Grandma could just say she used "one small bottle". Today it is practically impossible to find a (non-portion-control) package smaller than 14 floz!
| Item | | Amount |
|---|
| Beef1 |
Lean-ish, ground |
1 |
lb |
| Corn |
Whole kernel, canned2 |
1 |
ea |
| Potato |
Diced, canned2 |
1 |
ea |
| Peas |
English/sweet/garden peas, canned2 |
1 |
can |
| Tomato |
Diced or stewed, canned2 |
1 |
ea |
| Peas |
Field peas with snaps, canned2 |
1 |
ea |
| Onion |
Dried, flakes |
⅓ |
cup |
| Celery3 |
Fresh, finely diced |
1 |
cup |
| Bell pepper3 |
Fresh, finely diced |
1 |
cup |
| Salt |
Common, granulated |
1 |
tsp4 |
| Pepper |
Black, dry, ground |
½ |
tsp4 |
| Worcestershire Sauce3 |
|
1 |
Tbs4 |
| Hot Sauce3 |
|
1 |
tsp4 |
| Ketchup |
Tomato |
10 |
floz4,5 |
| Oil |
Peanut oil/ lard/bacon drippings/whatever |
2 |
Tbs |
Directions:
Begin by soaking the onion flakes. Place them in a mise bowl and cover with water. Check frequently, adding water as necessary to insure that the flakes remain submerged for 15-30 minutes. Stir occasionally, to avoid having "dry spots". This should result in nearly a cup of diced, reconstituted onion, that didn't make you cry.
Measure the oil into the fry pan, over medium heat, and scramble the ground beef. Use a spatula to un-stick the cooking meat, if necessary, and to break up any large lumps of meat that may form. Cook until the meat has browned to your satisfaction - or at least until it is well-done. Ground beef these days usually contains a lot of water. I usually cook the meat until nearly all of the water has boiled off - the meat doesn't really start to brown until then. Transfer the well-cooked meat to the stock pot.
If you aren't using the optional celery and bell peppers, you can skip this step; otherwise, add these components to the hot fry pan, and sauté until the celery becomes transparent. Add the cooked celery and bell peppers to the stock pot.
Add the rehydrated onion flakes to the stock pot.
Deglaze the fry pan with a little water, or even wine, and transfer the deglazing liquid to the stock pot.
Add all remaining ingredients to the stock pot - do not drain the canned vegetables! - and apply medium heat. When the stew begins to boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
Makes somewhat more than 3 quarts - 6 to 8 generous servings. Serve in appropriately-sized soup bowls. Cornbread is a great accompaniment.
Now one could modify this recipe to use all fresh and/or frozen vegetable ingredients (like Grandma used), if one were inclined to do the conversions. If you do that, you'll probably have to add extra liquid to make up for the canning liquids that you don't have. I'd recommend using a meat broth, like beef or chicken bouillon. If you decide to use a fresh or frozen onion, you'll probably be best served by sautéing a full cup of diced onion, in a manner similar to my description of preparing the optional celery and bell peppers. I'll leave all that up to you!
The thermophiles among us will undoubtedly wish to use much more hot sauce than I have specified; however, I recommend that one should stick to the recipe in that regard. Not everyone you might be serving can handle the burn, and adding more to your own bowl, at the table, works very well (personal experience)!
Of course, I realize that this recipe isn't an exact duplicate of the dish Grandma produced - if only because, as I said, Grandma never precisely measured anything - and I'm also sure there will be no end of people who are willing to beat that dead horse; but, in the absence of any data to the contrary, it's best I can come up with, and maybe it'll help remind some of us of what Grandma's cooking was like...
Meat, Beef, Soups, Stews, Comfort Foods