Stew

This article is about food. For the musician, see Stew (musician).

Beef Stew

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy.

Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables (such as carrots, potatoes, beans, peppers and tomatoes etc.), meat, poultry, sausages and seafood. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, wine, stock, and beer are also common. Seasoning and flavourings may also be added. Stews are typically cooked at a relatively low temperature (simmered, not boiled), to allow flavors to combine.

Stewing is suitable for the least tender cuts of meat that become tender and juicy with the slow moist heat method. This makes it popular in low-cost cooking. Cuts having a certain amount of marbling and gelatinous connective tissue give moist, juicy stews, while lean meat may easily become dry.

Stews may be thickened by reduction or thickened with flour, either by coating pieces of meat with flour before searing, or by using a roux or beurre manié, a dough consisting of equal parts of butter and flour. Thickeners like cornstarch or arrowroot may also be used.

History

Lamb and Lentil Stew

Highland stew, a common Cantabrian dish.

Sundubu jjigae, a Korean spicy stew made of soft tofu.

Stews have been made since prehistoric times. Herodotus says that the Scythians (8th to 4th centuries BC) "put the flesh into an animal's paunch, mix water with it, and boil it like that over the bone fire. The bones burn very well, and the paunch easily contains all the meat once it has been stripped off. In this way an ox, or any other sacrificial beast, is ingeniously made to boil itself." Some sources consider that this was how boiling was first done by primitive man, perhaps as long ago as ½ to 1 million years ago.

There is evidence that primitive tribes boiled foods together as a prelude to mating rituals. Amazonian tribes used the shells of turtles as vessels, boiling the entrails of the turtle and various other ingredients in them. Other cultures used the shells of large mollusks (clams etc.) to boil foods in. There is archaeological evidence of these practices going back 8,000 years or more.

The Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible records that Esau traded his inheritance to his twin brother Jacob for a meal of lentil stew.

There are recipes for lamb stews & fish stews in the Roman cookery book Apicius, believed to date from the 4th century. Le Viandier, one of the oldest cookbooks in French, written by the French chef known as Taillevent, has ragouts or stews of various types in it.

Hungarian Goulash dates back to the 9th century Magyar shepherds of the area, before the existence of Hungary. Paprika was added in the 18th century.

The first written reference to 'Irish stew' is in Byron's 'Devil's Drive' (1814): "The Devil ... dined on ... a rebel or so in an Irish stew."

Types of stew

In meat-based stews, white stews, also known as blanquettes or fricassées, are made with lamb or veal that is blanched, or lightly seared without browning, and cooked in stock. Brown stews are made with pieces of red meat that are first seared or browned, before a browned mirepoix, sometimes browned flour, stock and wine are added.

List of stews

• Baeckeoffe, a potato stew from Alsace
• Barbacoa, a meat stew from Mexico
• Boeuf Bourguignon, a French dish of beef stewed in red wine
• Bigos,a traditional stew in Polish cuisine
• Birria, a goat stew from Mexico
• Bouillabaisse, a fish stew from Provence
• Booya, an American meat stew
• Brunswick stew, from Virginia and the Carolinas
• Burgoo, a Kentuckian stew
• Caldeirada, a fish stew from Portugal
• Carnitas, a pork meat stew from Michoacán, Mexico
• Cassoulet, a French bean stew
• Cawl, a Welsh stew, usually with lamb and leeks
• Charquican, a Chilean dish
• Chankonabe, a Japanese dish flavoured with soy sauce or miso. Chankonabe is traditionally eaten by sumo wrestlers.
• Chicken stew, whole chicken and seasonings
• Chicken paprikash, chicken stew with paprika
• Chili con carne Mexican meat and bean stew
• Chili sin carne (a meatless American adaptation of the Mexican dish)
• Chilorio, a pork stew from Sinaloa, Mexico
• Cincinnati chili, chili developed by Greek immigrants in the Cincinnati area
• Cholent, a slow-cooked Jewish dish eaten on the Shabbat
• Cochinita pibil, an orange color pork stew from Yucatán, Mexico
• Cotriade, a fish stew from Brittany
• Cocido, a traditional Spanish stew. In Portugal, it is called cozido.

• Daube, a French stew
• Fabada Asturiana, a Spanish bean and meat stew
• Feijoada, Brazilian or Portuguese bean stew.
• Főzelék, a thick Hungarian vegetable dish.
• Gaisburger Marsch, a German dish of stewed beef served with Spätzle and potatoes
• Gheimeh, an Iranian stew with cubed lamb and yellow split peas
• Ghormeh Sabzi, an Iranian stew with green herbs, dried limes, beans and meat.
• Goulash, a Hungarian meat stew with paprika
• Gumbo, a Louisiana creole dish with okra.
• Hasenpfeffer, a sour, marinated rabbit stew from Germany
• Haleem, a indian lentil/mutton stew.
• Hayashi rice, a Japanese dish of beef, onions and mushrooms in red wine and demi-glace sauce, served with rice
• Irish stew, made with lamb or mutton, potato, onion and parsley
• Ishtu, a curry in Kerala, India made from chicken or mutton, potato, and coconut milk .
• Jjigae, a diverse range of spicy Korean stews.

• Karelian hot pot
• Khash, a stew from Armenia and Georgia.
• Khoresht, a variety of Persian stews, often prepared with saffron.
• Lancashire Hotpot, an English stew
• Locro, a South American stew (mainly in the Andes region)
• Nikujaga, a Japanese beef and potato stew
• Olla podrida, a Spanish red bean stew
• Peperonata, an Italian stew made with peppers
• Pescado Blanco, a white fish stew from Patzcuaro Michoacán Mexico
• Pörkölt, a Hungarian meat stew resembling goulash, flavoured with paprika
• Potjiekos, a South African stew
• Pot au feu, a simple French stew
• Puchero, a South American stew
• Ragout, a highly seasoned French stew
• Ratatouille, a French vegetable stew
• Sancocho, a stew from the Caribbean
• Stoofvlees, a Belgian beef stew with beer, mustard and laurel
• Tagine, a Moroccan stew, named after the conical pot in which it is traditionally cooked and/or served in.
• Tharid, a traditional Arab stew of bread in broth
• Waterzooi, a Belgian stew

Template:To Stew - Slang for defecating

See also

• Casserole
• Eintopf
• Jugging
• Hot pot
• Nabemono
• Steamboat (food)