The Family Stew

 Every fall, my family gathers together to make the annual fall stew.  It must be fall if we're having the stew.  This year we did the stew a little early, but Saturday was chilly and rainy, so it felt right.  This stew is not only tasty, but it comes with a rich history.  This year, my cousin Kelli and I decided that we needed to document the making of the stew so that we can continue the tradition for years to come.  Kelli wrote down the ingredients and I took pictures.  Here's some history about food, family, and this old cauldron...

The idea of a stew dates back to colonial times in this country.  People in those days made all different types of stews.  This recipe that we use today is from my great grandma Byrd (Kathryn's mom).  The Byrds cooked this stew mostly in the fall.

The Byrds used to use any type of meat that was easily accessible to put in the stew.  Common meats were squirrel, rabbit, or turtle.  Another type of meat that they used were guineas.  Kathryn told us that guineas are very stupid and they would not even move when a train was coming down the track.  Therefore, after the train came by the house on Saturday evenings, the men would go out to the tracks and pick up the fresh road track kill.

They usually cooked the stew next to the tobacco barns.  The Byrds were farmers and mostly raised tobacco.  Neighbors and family would come over to contribute to the stew, help stir the stew, and of course eat the stew.

Kathryn's father - known as Papaw or Alfonzo Atkins Byrd - hand carved the wooden paddles that we still use to stir the stew.

Kathryn's mother - known as Mamaw or Irene Chrismon Byrd - bought the 20 gallon iron cauldron used to cook this stew when she got married in 1932.  The cauldron weighs about 70 pounds.  The cauldron’s intended purpose was to be a wash pot.  This was just important back then as a washing machine is today.  Clothes have been washed in the pot and soap was made in the pot.  This pot has been used through generations.

Here's the final product -

I show the final product because I will admit that stew is not the most pleasant thing to look at while it's cooking.  Just keep the final product in mind.  Here's how you make it:

Pour the chicken broth in the cast iron cauldron.  This is the chicken broth that was made from cooking the chicken the previous day.  Lisa cooked 4 whole chickens to create the broth (and we will put the chicken meat in the pot later).  You want to put this in the pot before you start the fire because if you start the fire under an empty pot, the pot will crack.

After the broth is in, light the fire in the pit around the cauldron.  Use pine cones and kindling to start the fire.  Don’t use paper because the paper will get into the pot.  You don't want ashy stew.

Make sure that you have a good wood chopper.  My dad had wood chopping duty.

Once the fire gets going, put the vegetables and meat in the pot.  Put 6 pounds of potatoes in the pot.  The potatoes were cooked in chicken broth the day before and kept in the chicken broth; therefore, throw in the potatoes and the chicken broth.  Put about 5 quarts of corn in the pot.  This corn was Kathryn’s frozen white corn from this summer, but she said that you could use frozen Shoe-Peg Corn also.  Just thaw out the corn before putting it in the pot.  Put in 3-5 pounds of onions – whatever you want.  The onions were cooked the day before in chicken broth.  Put the onions and broth in the pot.  Put in 6 pounds of fresh lima beans.  These were cooked in chicken broth too.  Put the beans and broth in the pot.  Put in the meat of 4 chickens.  The chickens were cooked the day before. Put in 3 pounds of pork and 3 pounds of beef.  These were cooked the day before.  We used a pork tip and a beef roast.  When it was finished cooking, cut it into pieces.  Kelly and Eric contributed a can of beef from Eric’s parents’ farm.  They raise cows and sell and eat organic beef from the cows.  Here's Kathryn and Lisa putting veggies in -

 Lisa getting ready to put the pork and beef in -

Immediately begin stirring the stew once the ingredients are in.  Constant stirring is a necessity for the success of the stew.  This is part of the reason you need a large crowd - you need lots of arms to stir for the next few hours.  Once all these ingredients are in the pot and the stirring has begun, keep the fire going until it’s at a rapid boil.  The idea is for the contents in the pot to change from a soupy consistency to the consistency of a stew. Kathryn got us started stirring - 

Kelli and I posing for a pregnancy pic.  I'm due December 5th and Kelly is due February 1st.  We are both having boys.  I'm carrying one boy, but she's carrying 2 boys!  It's going to be wild in a few years!

This is what the stew looks like early on - 

Kelly taking notes of the ingredients and the history of the stew -

Dad taking to the cat.  Does he ever do anything besides talking?  It's okay though because there's never a dull moment - 

Ray taking his turn stirring - 

 Sitting close with Ray because it was chilly!

 Lisa's turn to stir.  Ray was giving baby Bower a hug -

Once the stew boils down and gets thicker, add 6 quarts of tomatoes.  These are awesome tomatoes from my parent's garden.  Yum!

Kathryn crushed them before putting them in the stew - 

Now it's time to start seasoning the stew.  This is the tricky part.  This is what we added initially: 5 sticks of butter, 3 quarts of chicken broth (from boxes), 2/3 cups of sugar, ¼ cup of salt, and 3 tablespoons of crushed red pepper.  

After about a half hour, we started tasting the stew.  Here's Kathryn getting a taste of the stew - 

 We all passed it around, had tastes, gave our opinions on what it needed, and we adjusted the seasonings.  Mostly, we decided that it needed more salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper.  You must taste the stew.  It's amazing how much you can learn from tasting while you cook.

We continued to cook the stew for another hour or so, and the stew got a little too thick before it was ready, so we had to add some water to keep it from getting too thick.

All around the stew and doing some more tasting - 

 It's getting much closer!

 The stew and the stew's master - Kathryn -

 That fire kept us nice and warm while we were stirring -

 Eric getting his turn to stir -

 Letting the fire die down because it's just about finished -

 And it's finished.  We like to eat it with corn bread and coleslaw.

 Fall has officially arrived since we've completed the family stew.

I love this family tradition!