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An Old Virginia Recipe for Brunswick Stew

A hearty stew of squirrel, potatoes, corn, beans, tomatoes, and butter, seasoned with pepper, cayenne, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

An Old Virginia Recipe for Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Start the stew

  1. Put the water with salt in a pot and bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the onions, butter beans, corn, and sliced potatoes to the pot.

Prepare the squirrels

  1. Pepper the squirrels with ground black pepper and cayenne, cut into pieces, and lay them in cold water to draw out the blood.

Stew

  1. Cover the pot tightly and stew the mixture slowly for 2½ hours, stirring frequently from the bottom.

  2. Add the tomatoes and sugar, and continue to stew for an additional hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Ten minutes before removing from heat, add the butter cut into walnut-sized bits and rolled in flour.

  2. Give the stew a final boil, then serve for dinner.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

926Calories
22 gProtein
17 gFat
175 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Squirrelnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Corn + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Squirrels
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, helping thicken the stew and give it body.
Green corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the stew.
Butter
Adds richness, and flour coating helps it thicken the stew without lumps.
Onion
Builds savory flavor as it softens into the stew.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the pepper and cayenne.

The step that matters

Stirring from the bottom during the long stew. Starches and sugars settle and scorch on the bottom of the pot during a 2½-hour simmer, so stirring from below keeps the stew from burning and tasting bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, potato, corn, butter, walnut, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, potato, corn, butter, walnut, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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