Stew Recipes For The Coldest Of Days (2024)

FAQs

What is the oldest perpetual stew? ›

Wikipedia shares that one perpetual stew was allegedly kept going in Perpignan, southern France, from the 15th century till World War II, when its custodian ran out of ingredients to keep it going during the German occupation.

A perpetual stew, also known as forever soup, hunter's pot, or hunter's stew, is a pot into which foodstuffs are placed and cooked, continuously. The pot is never or rarely emptied all the way, and ingredients and liquid are replenished as necessary.

In Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok), there is an award-winning restaurant called Wattana Panich, where you can order and then eat a beef and goat soup that is 49 years old.

The most important key to making stew meat tender is being sure to cook it for a long time. If you want super tender beef, you'll need to cook it on a low heat in a Dutch oven on the stove or a slow cooker for at least a few hours.

Kept in a cauldron just above the 'danger zone' of 60 degrees celsius, the stock would be made of ale, bread, beans, salted pork, cabbage and whatever else might be at hand, constantly evolving depending on what had been thrown into the pot each day. It would then be served up as a cheap meal for weary travellers.

A restaurant called Wattana Panich in Bangkok, Thailand is known for their specialty soup that has been cooking for 48 years.

However, while some may be worried about the cleanliness of the age-old dish, Kaweeantawong reassures that it is safe to eat. “Lots of people think we never clean the pot. But we clean it every evening. We remove the soup from the pot, then keep a little bit simmering overnight,” he explained.

An ancient diet expert suggests our early cousins knew how to boil their meals. Neanderthal cooking likely wouldn't have won any prizes on Top Chef, but a paleontologist suggests that our ancient cousins knew how to cook a mean stew, without even a stone pot to their name.

Bacteria known to cause food-borne illness flourishes at temperatures between 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius), but can't survive the heat of a constant simmer.

Perpetual stew is essentially a stew that transcends time. Essentially, people turn on their crockpots to make a stew that keeps cooking, eating some of it, replenishing the leftovers with additional ingredients, and, well, you get the idea. A kind of bottomless, never-ending-stew.

Can you over stew stew? ›

Don't Stew the Stew Too Long Either

Your beef will be tough if you don't cook it enough and it will be tough if you cook it too much. It's just science, take it from us!

There are flavors in tomatoes that are alcohol-soluble, so adding red wine along with tomato paste also helps to enhance beef stew." Laurence has a few other tricks I've borrowed to create the best beef stew, including adding Worcestershire, which gets a serious umami punch from anchovies.

Your onions will be fine, but mushy potatoes and carrots are a no-no. Instead, add them about 20 minutes before the end of cooking. When they're tender, the stew is done.

The choice becomes easier when you realize that simple baking soda can be an ideal meat tenderizer that helps to bring out all the aromas and flavors in every sizzling beef stew or charburger.

Nettle Pudding

Originating in 6000 BCE, England; it is the oldest dish of the world that's rich in nutrients.

Wattana Panich, a roadside restaurant located in the heart of Bangkok, serves a Thai-Chinese stew that's simmered for over half a century.

The oldest known Chinese master stock is over 100 years old.

Neil is sure that some restaurants in China have master stock dating back 300 years or more.

The world's oldest recipe for soup is approximately 6000 years old. It apparently calls for hippopotamus, sparrows, vegetables, lentils and spices.