Brunswick stew: Georgia or Virginia, and how to order it

Brunswick stew is a thick, smoky, slightly sweet stew of meat and vegetables, served in a bowl or spooned beside barbecue. Two states claim it, a town in a third state may have lent its name, and every cook has a view about the right recipe. Here is the argument, what is in the pot and how to order it on a trip through Georgia or North Carolina.

What is Brunswick stew?

It is a stew built on tomatoes, corn, lima beans, potatoes and onions, with shredded meat that may include pork, chicken, beef, rabbit or, in older versions, squirrel. It is cooked down for hours until it is thick enough to hold a spoon upright, with vinegar, hot sauce, Worcestershire and sugar for tang and sweetness. In the Southeast, it is a common side at barbecue restaurants, served in a small cup or a bowl, and cooks guard their recipes. Church suppers and fundraisers sell it by the quart, cooked in large iron pots over a fire.

It is also known as a way of using up the pig. Early recipes used whatever game or fowl was at hand, and cooks stretched it with vegetables from the garden. That economy, combined with long cooking, turned humble ingredients into a dish served at celebrations, political rallies and church picnics. The same spirit explains why it appears in so many forms, and why people argue about it so happily.

What is Georgia's claim?

Brunswick, Georgia, has a plaque on a large iron pot stating that the stew was first made in 1898 on nearby St. Simons Island. Local tradition holds that the stew was first cooked there, and the town celebrates the dish. The claim is told as a local tradition rather than documented history, and the plaque offers little detail. Brunswick holds a stew festival, and the stew is on the menu at many coastal restaurants.

What is Virginia's claim?

Brunswick County, Virginia, tells an older story. In 1828, a state legislator named Creed Haskins is said to have gone on a hunting trip, and his cook, an enslaved man named Jimmy Matthews, made a squirrel stew over a fire. The Virginia General Assembly passed a proclamation recognizing the county as the birthplace of the stew in 1988. Because the date is seventy years earlier than Georgia's, many writers treat Virginia as the earlier claimant, but historians say the evidence on both sides is thin.

Are there other explanations?

Some food writers say Native peoples of the Southeast cooked game stews long before either claim, and that the dish grew from those traditions. Others suggest the name comes from Braunschweig, known in English as Brunswick, in Germany, from a type of stew or from the region's immigrants. The truth is probably that many cooks combined local ingredients over generations, and the name stuck to different pots in different places.

How is it different in North Carolina and Georgia?

Recipes vary by region. Cooks in both states argue about the right recipe, and no two pots match. Some stews are thinner and more tomato-forward, others thick and sweet with a smoky barbecue flavor, and the meat may be pork, chicken or beef. Some cooks add okra, butter beans or field peas, and some insist on none of these. Ask the server how the local version is made, and try more than one.

How do you order and eat it?

Order a cup as a side with barbecue, or a bowl as a meal with cornbread, crackers or a slice of white bread. Pour hot sauce on it if you like heat. At a church supper, buy a quart to take home and freeze. A small cup of stew is a good test of a barbecue place, since cooks use leftover meat from the day's pit.

Some cooks stir the stew for hours in an iron pot over a wood fire, which gives it a smoky edge that a stove cannot copy. If you are lucky enough to visit a fundraiser where the pot is on the fire, watch the cooks and ask about their method. Stew is often made in winter and sold by the quart for holiday tables. It freezes well, and reheating it slowly with a splash of water or stock restores the texture.

What about dietary needs?

Brunswick stew contains meat and often pork, so it is not suitable for vegetarians or people who avoid pork, and some versions use bacon fat or beef. It is often gluten-free by ingredients but may be thickened with flour or served with bread, so ask. People with allergies to celery, soy or tomato should check.

Where can you try it?

Look at barbecue restaurants across Georgia and North Carolina, at coastal restaurants in Brunswick and on St. Simons Island and at church fundraisers, which post signs on the roadside. Check hours, since many such places close on Sunday and Monday.

If you are building a trip around the stew, travel in the cooler months, when church fundraisers and community cook-offs are most common. Ask for a taste before you buy a quart, since the sweetness and the heat differ from pot to pot. If you are buying frozen stew to take home, bring a cooler, and keep it cold on the drive. Some barbecue restaurants ship pints, and a few sell cans.

How do you remember the Brunswick stew you liked best?

Every pot is a little different, sweeter here, smokier there, and after three cups the differences run together. Mosey is a food app for finding, rating and sharing places to eat, and it rates by the dish, so the stew beside the barbecue gets its own score and a tag such as Must-Try or Hidden Gem.

Keep a stew list for the road, share its invite link with the friends in the car, and follow people who know the barbecue towns. Next time someone asks which pot to try, the tags answer for you.

Rate the stew you would order again in the Mosey app.

More guides to read next:

• Georgia's Golden Isles food guide: St. Simons, Jekyll and Brunswick
• College game day in Georgia: where and how to eat in Athens and Atlanta
• Macon and Augusta food guide: hot dogs, pimento cheese and river towns

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