Brunswick Stew from Caswell County, NC

Courtesy of the Bethel Church of Christ

 

 

 

Several churches do an excellent job with brunswick stew.  If you are a brunswick stew lover like I am, then you probably won’t be disappointed with this church recipe. It has a very nice red color that comes from the tomato products. Bethel Church has used it every year for more than 25 years. A quart sells for about $4 in 1997 dollars.  A quart is two adult servings.  Bethel Church’s brunswick stew is the best I’ve had, and I’ve tried a lot of them. It is very similar to the brunswick stew served at Bullock’s Bar-B-Cue. 

 

The following brunswick stew recipe came from Bethel Church: 

 

 

5 Gallons	240 Qt Kettle	Item
3 lb	40 lb	Cooked Chuck Roast or Canned Cubed Beef (Manco 6 lb cans, 7 total cans)
¾ lb	10 lb	Pork such as Boston Butt
1 chicken	14 chickens	Chickens boiled, deboned, reuse broth
1.5 lb	3 to 5 gallons	Chopped Onions
105 oz	11 gallons	Tomato Juice
96 oz	10 gallons	Canned Tomato
1.5 qt	5 gallons	Butterbean or Butter peas (not Lima beans)
1.5 qt	5 gallons	Corn (frozen or canned)
9 lb	11 to 15 gallons	Skinned Potatoes (11 gallons is about 125 lb)
.9 lb	12 lb	Margarine or butter
19 oz	2 gallons	Tomato Puree
9.6 oz	1 gallon	Tomato Ketchup (prefer Heinz)
3 oz	1 quart	Worcestershire Sauce
2.4 oz	1 quart	Cider Vinegar
2 oz	2-1/2 cups	Or more of Texas Pete Sauce
3.5 oz	3 lbs	White Sugar
2 tsp		Salt to taste
2.5 tsp		Pepper to taste

                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

Use tight-fitting cookware to hold in the flavor as the ingredients are boiled separately.  Cook everything in separate pots and put them together at the end.

 

Start out by slowly boiling the meats until they are tender.  Remove the bones and skins from the chickens. Re-use the broths to boil potatoes and butter beans.  Then cook the onions and corn in reserved broth.  Do not add any of the tomato products during the initial cooking process.

 

When all of the ingredients are cooked, add them together in one big pot.  Add all of the remaining ingredients and mix them well.  Bring the pot to a boil and continue stirring with a wooden spoon or a boat oar to keep it from sticking to the pot and burning. 

 

An appetizing presentation is made to the general public with someone stirring a large cauldron mounted to a tripod over an open fire.  Stir the stew for approximately one hour over the fire as it continues to get thicker with the water boiling off of it.  This step is very important, the stew must be boiled down until it is quite thick.

 

Serve stew with a mayonnaise based slaw and saltine crackers.  It is best during the colder months of the year.  Brunswick stew freezes well. 

 

Enjoy!