Two Old Recipes to Feed a Generous Crowd
Brunswick stew and booya for everyone
As promised, I present Tuesday’s post recipes. Neither calls for squirrel. Sign up for a free subscription so you won’t miss next week’s story about the adventure of growing saffron in Brooklyn!
The first step in cooking Brunswick stew and booya is to acquire an extremely large kettle like the one shown above and something similar to a canoe paddle to stir. Many kettles are inherited through generations, but occasionally you can find a good used one on eBay. If you do, the family that once owned it probably parted with the kettle under trying circumstances.
The one place I found where you can buy a new kettle is Agri Supply. Theirs hold 90 gallons, enough to satisfy a good-size gathering. It’s very handsome and comes with its own stand, but you’ll have to cook a few batches before it’s seasoned enough to contribute an essential ingredient—layers upon subtle memory layers of all the meat, vegetable, spices, and herbs one needs to offer a superb stew.
The second step is to open a savings account to buy the necessary provisions. I met one woman at a booya cook-off in South St. Paul, Minnesota, who thought nothing of befriending a man simply because he worked in a local stockyard. He’s been happy to contribute the two hundred pounds of beef, pork, and oxtails required for their award-winning stew.
The following recipes were recorded by the WPA’s Federal Writers Project (FWP) in the late 1930s. Consider them jumping-off points for you to add your own touches. Clarifications about ingredients and procedures are in bracketed italics. The proportions given accommodate the sizeable crowd they were meant for, each serving two cups—the Brunswick stew for 16 people, the booya for 120. I leave it to you to cut them down to family-size portions, since dyslexia continues to make me math illiterate.
I urge you to try your hand at them even if you are not cooking for a fundraiser or community event. Gather together family and friends. The weather in most parts of the country is still pretty warm to host the feast outside. If there’s a chill, light a pit fire or a handy barrel for warmth. Haul out ice chests full of beverages. Then, while the air plumps with succulent scents, exchange tall tales and long-winded jokes in the manner that such congregations are wont to do.
Brunswick Stew
(From the Virginia FWP office, 1938)
Serves 16 people
10 pounds bone chicken, either whole and cut up or bought cut [You may also consider throwing in a mixture of beef shins, pork butt, or ham hocks with the chicken. One renegade cook at the annual Richmond, Virginia charity cookoff incorporated a deeply flavorful Cajun touch by adding andouille sausage and shrimp. If you’re adding additional meats, portions would be one to one—5 pounds chicken to 5 pounds meat.]
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup chopped onions
4 cups skinned and seeded tomatoes
6 cups butter beans
enough water to cover the ingredients
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne [much more depending on taste]
4 cloves
6 cups corn, cut from the cob
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce [or more depending on taste]
In a large iron kettle, Dutch oven, or soup pot to comfortably fit all the ingredients, sauté the chicken [and any additional meat] slowly in the shortening until lightly brown. Remove to a platter.
Sauté the onions in the fat until golden, then place the chicken [and meat] on top of the onions. Add the tomatoes, beans, water, and spices, and bring to a simmer. Let cook until the chicken [and meat] is cooked and falls from the bones.
[If you are using a combination of meats, reserve the sautéed chicken to add later because the meat will require a longer cooking time to become tender. Add the chicken and continue cooking until all the meats falls off their bones. Some cooks don’t remove the bones before serving because the broth will be more flavorful. No one I’ve seen at all the benefits I’ve been to seems to mind eating their way around them. But to minimize the risk of choking, try to fish out the smaller chicken bones.]
About fifteen minutes or so before you’re ready to serve, stir the corn kernels into the broth [you want the kernels to retain a little resistance]. Add the Worcestershire sauce and adjust the rest of the seasonings. Or offer them at the table. [Some regulars include various kinds of hot sauces, paprika, salt, and pepper.]
Booya
(From the Kentucky FWP office, 1932)
Serves 120 people
30 pounds oxtails, or 20 pounds oxtail and 10 pounds veal [if you don’t like oxtails and shy away from veal, use beef or pork]
10 pounds beef soup bones
4 fat hens
water to cover
1 bushel tomatoes, peeled, or 2 gallons of canned puree[d] tomatoes
4 or 5 large onions, peeled and chopped
2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped
2 pounds of celery, chopped
10 large potatoes, peeled and cut
2 bunch[es] of kohlrabi, peeled and chopped
2 bunches of rutabagas, peeled and chopped
6 heads of cabbage, cored and chopped
4 [24-ounce] cans of corn, drained
2 [12-ounce] cans of peas
2 pounds of dry navy beans, soaked 12 hours
1 pound fresh string beans, remove string and chop
2 tablespoons allspice [more or less according to personal taste]
1 tablespoon paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Place all the meats in a very large soup pot or booya kettle. Cover with enough water to cover the meat. Bring to a boil then lower to a gentle rolling simmer, stirring occasionally. Cook the meat until it is done. [As in Brunswick stew, you can remove the bones or leave them in to continue adding flavor to the broth. But try to remove the hen bones because they may pose a choking risk.]
Add the vegetables one at a time and stir until thoroughly incorporated before adding the next vegetable. Add more hot water if needed to keep ingredients covered.
Now add the seasoning. Taste and add more if necessary. [The seasonings proportions here are not a lot—it’s a very subtle stew and, in fact, some people are horrified at the notion of allspice even though it’d been in the recipe since forever. It bears repeating to feel free to add your on own favorite mix. Just don’t tell another booya cook.]
Continue to cook until you think it’s done—no more than 12 hours and always better the next day after a rest.
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