VD Stew

[hannnah]

substitute freshly caught and skinned squirrel for rabbit

Any tips on catching squirrels? Looks like Varmint's gonna need 'em.

I'm still trying to decide if I can make it for the pickin. If I do, I volunteer to do all I can to run over as many squirrels as possible, and scoop them off the road, on the way down from Washington DC.

I have a monstrous yard squirrel who's been chowing on apples all summer - if anybody wants to come get him, I'll happily donate him for the pot. I suspect he's pretty good eatin' by now.

[donk79]

How to Catch a Squirrel

1. Load .22.

2. Sight on head of squirrel.

3. Pull trigger.

For beginners step 1. may be replaced with loading a 20-gauge shotgun.

In all serious, a squirrel has so little meat that if you really want it to have an impact on the stew you should have at least half a dozen for a pot. What may help with your chicken complaints is to go over to goose. This also hyappens to probably be the best way to prepare goose. Back home we have always considered venison an essential component for Brunswick stew. I wouldn't recomment leaving it out if you can get it.

[peechdogg]

all this discussion of B Stew, while interesting, is kind of missing the point: it's a simple stew. use what ingredients are available and don't embellish too much or you've totally lost any semblance of authenticity by making some gussied up bastardization of a dish eaten by regular folks.

folks can argue 'til Haley's Comet comes again and won't get any closer to one "true" recipe ... it just ain't that type of dish. sort of like arguing over the "correct" way to make clam chowder.

a mix of meat(s), vegetables, liquid, and seasoning is the game here. worrying about whether rabbit, squirrel, some other varmit, or Upland grouse from Scotland or New Zealand venison is the appropriate meat is kind of overkill (oops, that's a bad pun). if the dish isn't easily reproduced, it's not worth doing in the first place.

i grew up in Savannah (not far from Brunswick, GA) and have eaten B Stew for 35+ years. always thought the dish got its name from there, but my current understanding is that the first published recipe is from a cookbook published in Brunswick County, VA in 1796. that's what the Colonial Williamsburg Cookbook says, anyway. whatever it's origin, it's just good stuff.

i've made it, been served it at friends', potlucks, church suppers, picnics, and of course at Q joints too numerous to count in nearly every state on the east coast.

after looking through my collection of cookbooks and based on what i know from experience, here's what i see:

** chicken is always a part of the deal. if it's only got squirrel in it, folks call it burgoo (and then ya can get into a whole new set of discussions on the "one true" burgoo recipe ... another exercise in futility).

** squirrel is the most commonly listed varmit.

** pork is often used, especially in Q joints where there's a ready supply of pulled pork. if smoked pork is not available during preparation, a couple smoked ham hocks will work. a few of my cookbooks mention this as a standard ingredient. i have rarely seen beef used in B Stew, but i do like making mine with a couple short ribs and have a couple recipes that do list beef shin bones as an ingredient. the advatnage of using short ribs is this helps produce a broth with good flavor and some thickening from the extracted gelatin.

** vegetables: corn, butter/lima beans, potatoes, tomatoes are common to all the recipes i looked at. onions are often listed as an ingredient and i do add them. one of my cookbooks does mention celery and i've had it in B Stew and do like it.

** liquid: since you won't be offering a comparative taste analysis option at the pig pickin', dwelling on this really is a waste of time. i've never heard of or seen recipes using vegetable broth, but if that works for you, then make it a part of your recipe. use what's convenient and makes sense. personally, i use the liquid from cooking the meat(s).

** seasoning: lots of different things happen here in the recipes i've seen, but the common elements i see are salt and pepper. some recipes have cayenne, thyme, basil, bay leaves, vinegar. my personal preference is to have a strong black pepper presence and i like to use a couple bay leaves, too.

as far as vinegar, or some other acid, i don't use any, but i always have a vinegar based Q sauce handy, for those who like to add that sharpness to the dish.

the areas where i see lots of differing opinions is the consistency of the liquid and the size of the cut vegetables: some folks will pass the vegetables, except for the beans, through a grinder. others leave the veggies in larger pieces; i don't care one way or the other on this point, but think the smaller cut veggies make for a nicer presentation.

as far as the consistency of the liquid, i prefer thicker consistency and don't enjoy a broth-like soup .... this is a stew, afterall.

i'm sure with all the research & testing & input, you'll produce a fine dish. looking forward to pictures of your next experiment.

[hwilson41]

all this discussion of B Stew, while interesting, is kind of missing the point: it's a simple stew. use what ingredients are available and don't embellish too much or you've totally lost any semblance of authenticity by making some gussied up bastardization of a dish eaten by regular folks.

If a newbie might be allowed to chime in, Peechdogg has it dead on. This was a simple, country dish, made with whatever was available. In the days when this dish was created, nobody went anywhere to buy anything except maybe flour (made from your corn or wheat). You shot it, trapped it, or wrung its neck, skinned or plucked it, cleaned it, and into the stew it went. Bones came out later, after the meat was falling off (same with the original chili). And you wasted nothing. Liver, giblets, etc., all went into the stew.

One suggestion I might add that hasn’t been mentioned, if anybody’s game (no pun intended ), a Have-a-Heart trap baited with a little peanut butter is a great way to catch squirrels. Then you get to decide when to do the butchering, and can feed the little bastards what you like in the meantime (you'll need a pretty fine wire mesh cage). Peanuts, old tomatoes, and of course acorns are prime candidates for squirrel fodder. And don’t forget to add the squirrel brains to the stew (these are also awesome with scrambled eggs, BTW). Lots of cheap protein, and in the cooking time usually associated with B stew, they will disintegrate and serve as thickener.

I've got Bill Neal's cookbooks, and will try to do a bit more homework on this as time allows, but you folks are doing noble work on this. More power to you.

Best to all,

THW

P.S. Just an aside from a newbie, this is probably the coolest site I've blundered into and the most fun I've had since I discovered......well, whatever .

[maggiethecat]

P.S.  Just an aside from a newbie, this is probably the coolest site I've blundered into and the most fun I've had since I discovered......well, whatever  .

Dear h:

Thanks for your contributions here, welcome to eGullet, and post more of your Good Stuff.

[Dave the Cook]

Sorry it's been so long since I given an update, but stuff happens.

I have not been idle in my absence, however. Since the last report, I've made VD Stew Mk II. With apologies to all those who contributed incredibly interesting stuff on authenticity, particularly with reference to the original simplicity of Brunswick Stew and its ingredient list, I have to admit that we've gone in a different direction. I remind you of the original charge: to make a "fucking awesome stew." In other words, and I've confirmed this with my supervisor, authenticity takes a back seat to awesomeness. Besides, while the stew shouldn't compete with the star attraction (a whole slow-roasted pig), it nevertheless needs to have some character of its own, or risk being labeled forgettable.

Unfortunately, the original Brunswick Stew really is kind of bland. A friend even went so far as to say, "have you considered the possibility that it's just not that good?"

Well, no. Neither my ego nor my mission permits such thinking. But it's true that a simple stew of mild meats and sweet veggies is going to have a tough time keeping up. So I explored some avenues toward giving it some life and body, most of them based on suggestions made here.

As for adding game to the pot, it's simply not practical. Given the scrawniness of your common grey squirrel, I figure we'd need about 20 of them. I ain't gonna peel 'em all, and there's no truth to the rumor that CafePress offered to buy the skins for a special Pig Pickin' fur-lined thong.

To make a long story short, the recipe for VD Stew Mk II I switched the chicken to a stewing hen and added a duck. I used all their innards (plus a good handful of chicken livers to boot), and I bumped up the seasoning overall, plus a few other small tricks I picked up from Guajolote's version and some other posts on this thread. I also added a healthy shot of Worcestershire sauce. The result: the best damn chicken (well, chicken/rabbit/duck) and vegetable soup I've ever had. It was really, really good with some soft-flour biscuits and a glass of chardonnay. But in my heart, I knew it wasn't good enough for VD Stew. It wasn't awesome, let alone fucking awesome.The fact of the matter was, it was just too damn nice. No edge. No verve, no vim and vigor (whatever vim is, Mk II didn't have it). It was more suited to a rainy afternoon than a crisp fall evening drenched in the redolence of smoking pig.

The problem rolled around in the back of my head for two weeks: how to make VD Stew a barbecue dish, without making it out of barbecue. Through a roundabout way that would be interesting only to me and selected abnormal psych deprtments, I was reminded of the classic New Orleans dish of barbecued shrimp. What's interesting about this dish is that, despite its name, it never comes within spitting distance (not that shrimp can spit all that far anyway) of a grill. And yet, something about it says "barbecue," even though you can't point to a single component and identify it as singularly cue-ish.

I've got a pretty decent collection of Cajun and Creole cookbooks, and I paged through them, hoping to pick up a clue: some method or ingredient that would transfer from shrimps to birds and bunnies, and imbue them with the essence of 'cue -- without making them seem like a pale echo of pig. I found what I needed in Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking: a reduction of shrimp stock, Worcestershire, lemon and white wine, along with several herbs and spices. I've had this dish, both at Emeril's and at home, and I swear to its awesomeness -- just the sort of balls that VD Stew needs, and the ingredient list is happily authentic (at one point, I considered adding dried porcini to the stock, but Varmint whacked my pee-pee for exceeding my authority and offending Southern sensibilities).

For the next, and probably final trial run of VD Stew, I'm going to steal Emeril's idea, substituting a stock made from hen and duck scraps. I'll also alter the herbs and spices to reflect the change in ingredients, and modify the technique slightly (mainly the timing Emeril outlines; shrimp shells only need about 20 minutes to give up their best, but poultry backs and necks take a good bit longer. Also, I'll roast the birdy bits for more depth and a slight smokiness).

Then the problem becomes one of proportion: how much of this should be added? The recipe is no help, because in it, the reduction is tempered with cream and served straight up. My solution is to make a quantity of reduction, use only half of it and hold the rest in reserve -- adding it at the end if necessary. Finally, I needed a handle -- a name I could give it for reference purposes, instead of calling it "that lemon-garlic-Worcestershire stuff we got from Emeril."

The following is what I'm making tonight. If it's not pretty damn close to awesome, I'll be showing up at Varmint's with a case each of Campbell's vegetable soup and KC Masterpiece.

VD Stew, Mk III

1 5- to 7-pound stewing hen, cut up, including giblets, back, neck and wing tips reserved

1 3-pound rabbit, cut up, including giblets

1 5-pound duck, steamed, cut up, including giblets, back, neck and wing tips reserved; skin julienned and rendered to yield at least two ounces of fat

2 ounces smoked bacon, chopped in 1/4-inch pieces

2 ounces rendered duck fat

3 medium onions, frenched, divided

1 cup celery, sliced on the bias

2 cups fresh corn kernels, cobs reserved

2 cups butter beans

1-1/2 pounds russet potatoes, cut 1/2" x 1/2" x 1"

3-1/2 pounds tomatoes, cored, diced, and chopped, juice reserved; or 2 28-ounce cans chopped tomatoes, undrained

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

1 recipe LSD (recipe follows)

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. fresh thyme

3 each fresh bay leaves

1/2 tsp. cayenne

salt and ground black pepper

1. Simmer the hen parts, half of the onion, one-teaspoon salt and one bay leaf, in water to cover, for 45 minutes. Add the rabbit and duck pieces and all the giblets. Return to simmer for another hour.

2. Drain pot, reserving meat and stock separately, and discarding everything else.

3. Cool stock and skim fat. Add the corncobs to the liquid and reduce to two quarts. Set aside.

3. In a large Dutch oven, render bacon in duck fat over medium heat until crispy. Bloom cayenne in the fat, then saute celery, garlic, jalapeno and remaining onion until tender, about five minutes.

4. Add reserved stock, tomatoes (with their juice), the Worcestershire sauce, one-half of the LSD, thyme and remaining bay leaves. Simmer 20 minutes.

5. Add lima beans and potatoes, simmer another twenty minutes. While simmering, chop giblets and shred meat.

6. Add corn, meat and giblets, simmer a final twenty minutes, or until sufficiently thickened, stirring often to prevent scorching.

7. Adjust seasoning, adding more LSD if necessary. Serve.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liquid Seasoning Decoction (LSD)

Reserved backs, necks and wingtips from hen and duck

1/2 C chopped onion

1/4 C minced garlic

6 bay leaves

6 lemons, peeled and cut crosswise in 1/8" slices

1 C Worcestershire sauce

1/2 C dry white wine

1/2 tsp. salt, divided

1/2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme

1/2 tsp. chopped fresh oregano

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1/8 tsp. cayenne

1. Roast bird parts at 425 F until browned and crispy, about 40 minutes.

2. Pour fat off roasting pan, strain and reserve. Deglaze the pan with water.

3. Put bird parts and deglazing liquid in a saucepot. Cover with water and add 1/4 tsp salt.

4. Bring slowly to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for two hours. Set aside to steep for 30 minutes, then strain into a glass container.

5. Chill stock and skim fat. Reduce or add water to make one quart.

6. Over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in a little of the strained duck fat until tender.

7. Add the stock, seasonings, lemons, Worcestershire sauce and wine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

8. Remove from heat and steep for 15 minutes. Strain into a small saucepan, discarding solids. You should have about 3 cups.

9. Bring stock to a boil. Reduce to 3/4 cup.

------------------------------------------------------------

Comments appreciated.

[Varmint]

OH

MY

GOD !!!!!!

This does appear to be fucking awesome, and I am currently having a bit of a salivation problem! Plus, it preserves the essential elements of traditional Brunswick Stew and just adds a few elements.

Folks, if you had any doubt before, you should now realize how brilliant I am to have given this task to Dave. This is amazing, simply amazing.

I can't wait.

[maggiethecat]

OH

MY

GOD !!!!!!

Yup. That about handles it; I can hardly wait.

(Re Abnormal Psych Departments: If Mrs. Dr. V. has any Psychiatrist medical colleagues in attendance at the Pig Pickin', I wonder what he or she will make of the assembled eGulls.)

[Varmint]

(Re Abnormal Psych Departments: If Mrs. Dr. V. has any Psychiatrist medical colleagues in attendance at the Pig Pickin', I wonder what he or she will make of the assembled eGulls.)

I've already retained one to help me with the recovery process.

[Al_Dente]

All that effort, wow. Thanks DavetheCook, I'm even more thankful I'll be able to make it to the shindig.

I can' t get this image out of my head though of what I imagine to be you as a mad scientist in a dark dank lab surrounded by bunsen burners and various colored bubbling liquids in test tubes. You're wearing goggles and a white lab coat (maybe some streaks of blood on it from the various critters you're experimenting with) with sweat pouring from your brow (secret ingredient?) from the intensity of your experimentation.

I look forward to getting some VD.

[maggiethecat]

I can' t get this image out of my head though of what I imagine to be you as a mad scientist in a dark dank lab

Yeah. With a lightbulb in his mouth!

[Dave the Cook]

Boy, you guys are good.

[=Mark]

Is it just me, or is the title "VD Stew" just a tad, well, septic?

[Varmint]

Just part of the charm, Mark!

[guajolote]

I look forward to getting some VD. 

Even better is the fact that the VD contains LSD.

[Varmint]

I look forward to getting some VD. 

Even better is the fact that the VD contains LSD.

And it'll be served at the PP.

[Al_Dente]

I look forward to getting some VD. 

Even better is the fact that the VD contains LSD.

That would mean you'd be dripping and tripping at the same time!

[maggiethecat]

So...how did it turn out? Tasting notes?

[Huevos del Toro]

I'd like a small amount of gaminess in the finished dish.

I've used juniper berries when making mock wild boar stew. They lend a subtle gaminess.

[annieb]

Edna Lewis has a good recipe in her book In Pursuit of Flavor. I have served it up many times to Chicagoans, who are always ignorant of it. She tosses in a stick of butter at the end, which is really good.

[Dave the Cook]

I am very pleased with Mk III. Though it has a lot of meat, it's not really heavy, and the LSD gives it a terrific middle-of-the-mouth heat. It's not so hot that it raises beads of sweat on my ever-enlarging bald spot, which is my touchstone for Truly Hot, it's just enough to wake up the taste buds and raise the appetite. The sweetness of the veggies comes through nicely.

I taste-tested it on my assistant, a native Georgian (surprisingly rare in Atlanta). Admirably true to her roots, she declared it excellent, though not, of course, real Brunswick Stew -- she's of the deep-South beef-pork denomination. Anyway, I think I've nailed it. Except for day-of-the-making mods -- say we find juniper berries at the market, for instance -- I'm not going to mess with it anymore. (annieb, I adore Edna Lewis, but she's too late to the party. Well, an extra stick of butter is always worth thinking about.)

I will make up enough LSD so that we can put extra on the table as a condiment -- and I think it will make a great alternative sauce for the pork, too.

The next step is scaling the recipe. With 100 people in attendance, I'm guessing that we'll have 60 to 75 takers on VD Stew. So far, I've only made half-batches; based on this, I think the full recipe makes six to seven quarts (does that sound right, guajolote?). That's roughly 35 six-ounce servings.

What do you think? Double it? Triple it? The lives of bunnies hang in the balance.

[Varmint]

I'm excited that a local heirloom tomato grower is selling me about 25 pounds of maters for 60 cents a pound. I'm loading up on Black Krims, Purple Cherokees, and Yellow Brandywines. They have sufficient acidity to carry the day in this stew. Do we need some red tomatoes for color, Dave, or shall we just shock the hell out of folks with the unusual color? Some Green Zebras might be nice. Hell, how often do you have stew with duck, rabbit, and heirloom tomatoes? Whoo hoo!!!!

[guajolote]

I am very pleased with Mk III. Though it has a lot of meat, it's not really heavy, and the LSD gives it a terrific middle-of-the-mouth heat. It's not so hot that it raises beads of sweat on my ever-enlarging bald spot, which is my touchstone for Truly Hot, it's just enough to wake up the taste buds and raise the appetite. The sweetness of the veggies comes through nicely.

I taste-tested it on my assistant, a native Georgian (surprisingly rare in Atlanta). Admirably true to her roots, she declared it excellent, though not, of course, real Brunswick Stew -- she's of the deep-South beef-pork denomination. Anyway, I think I've nailed it. Except for day-of-the-making mods -- say we find juniper berries at the market, for instance -- I'm not going to mess with it anymore. (annieb, I adore Edna Lewis, but she's too late to the party. Well, an extra stick of butter is always worth thinking about.)

I will make up enough LSD so that we can put extra on the table as a condiment -- and I think it will make a great alternative sauce for the pork, too.

The next step is scaling the recipe. With 100 people in attendance, I'm guessing that we'll have 60 to 75 takers on VD Stew. So far, I've only made half-batches; based on this, I think the full recipe makes six to seven quarts (does that sound right, guajolote?). That's roughly 35 six-ounce servings.

What do you think? Double it? Triple it? The lives of bunnies hang in the balance.

When I made my batch my 12 quart stockpot was over half filled, so I would say 7 quarts is about right.

Edited October 6, 2003 by guajolote (log)

[Dave the Cook]

OK, I'm going to double the recipe.

Varmint, given the late-emerging LSD theme, I think any color tomato will fit in just fine, though the Zebras might be camoflaged amongst the celery and butter beans: stealth 'maters!

[Varmint]

OK, I'm going to double the recipe.

What, and no leftovers? This stuff does get better with age!