Brunswick Stew

Years and years ago I had a recipe for Brunswick stew that, although an involved process, produced some of the best Brunswick stew I ever ate. For those of you readers who aren’t from the South, Brunswick stew is a concoction of meat (chicken in my case), vegetables, and a thick tomato stock; it is commonly served in the South alongside pork barbeque. The restaurant chain Smoky Bones occasionally has Brunswick stew on their menu, and it’s pretty good, but not as good as the stew from the recipe I used.

Unfortunately, I lost the recipe I enjoy.

A couple of years of searching the Internet for Brunswick stew recipes has led to a lot of expensive failures.

Then I turned to E-bay.

With a little patience, I found a copy of a 1962 Chapel Hill cookbook. It was a “By Me Now,” so I didn’t have to compete against other buyers. The book arrived in the mail last week. I started the involved recipe Saturday, and cooked the stew for seven hours yesterday.

Squeeze and I ate bowls of it last night, in my case washed down with a delicious Czech beer.

Was the Brunswick stew as delicious as I recall?

Yes, yes it was.