BRUNSWICK — You know stew season has arrived in Brunswick not by the chill in the air but by when the notoriously mild-mannered locals start slinging verbal tomatoes at “those posers from Virginia.”
The 25th anniversary Brunswick Rockin’ Stewbilee is Jan. 25 at Mary Ross Waterfront Park, a downtown greenspace best known for a monument topped by a stewpot. Close to 5,000 attendees are expected for a community celebration centered around a Brunswick stew cooking competition. The event also features a classic car show, a dog parade, live music and arts and crafts vendors.
Then there’s the traditional pot stirring over the stew’s origins.
Brunswick shares its name with another stew-loving locale in rural Virginia. In the 1980s, after decades of debate, the Virginians claimed ownership of the dish based on a historical account dating to 1828 — 70 years earlier than the first recorded cooking of a tomato-and-meat-based stew on the Georgia coast. Virginia lawmakers turned the disagreement into a rivalry in 1988, passing a resolution affirming their state’s residents’ position.
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Credit: Ligaya Figueras
Just like a good stew, the all-in-good-fun conflict thickened as it simmered in the years that followed. Georgians stole the stew master’s trophy from a Virginia cookoff one year in protest of what they considered biased judging against them. Another year, the Virginians visited the coast for a competition and were arrested and taken to the jailhouse for serving a dish impersonating Brunswick stew.
“We acknowledge there’s a Brunswick in Virginia, but we don’t acknowledge their claim,” said state House Rep. Rick Townsend (R-Brunswick) in a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Townsend has long served as master of ceremonies for the Stewbilee. “There’s no question that Brunswick, Georgia is the birthplace of that stew.”
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Stewing over the details
The Georgia version is distinct from that made in Virginia, say the local stew experts. “Real” Brunswick stew leans heavily on smoked proteins, particularly pork butt and dark meat chicken, and sugary sauces. Georgians slow cook the dish using a layering method as they add ingredients. The stew is stirred frequently to avoid what Stewbilee co-founder and multi-time cookoff winner Ron Adams calls the “dreaded scorch.”
The Virginians’ stew is believed to have started as a hunters’ camp concoction, with meat from small game animals killed along the trail, such as squirrels and rabbits, as the base. Over time, chicken has replaced what Georgians derisively call the “roadkill” as the main ingredient in the Virginia dish. Butter beans, another key item favored by the Virginians, is typically absent in the Georgia version.
“I’ve had their stew and it’s nothing but chicken soup,” said Griffin Bufkin, a longtime stew maker and the co-proprietor of Southern Soul Barbecue on St. Simons Island. “You don’t taste any smoke in it or any gamey flavor. I don’t get the controversy.”
Credit: Photo courtesy of Brunswick Rockin' Stewbilee
Credit: Photo courtesy of Brunswick Rockin' Stewbilee
Yet there’s plenty of stew-spute over the tastiest Georgia stew. In the Stewbilee’s early years, when it was a combination food and music festival that lasted three days and featured performances by renowned acts such as the B-52s and KC and the Sunshine Band, more than 40 teams from across the Southeast came to compete.
The Great Recession triggered a great scale back — the Stewbilee became a 1-day event with fewer than 30 teams and no more marquee bands. Almost all the competition teams were from Brunswick or the Golden Isles, a mix of restaurant professionals, backyard chefs and stew novices cooking on behalf of nonprofits.
That mix has stirred a subtle evolution in what makes superb stew. Adams’ batches are based on a recipe pulled from a church cookbook and “seasoned with love.” Bufkin’s formula is one refined over the years at his uber-popular restaurant that incorporates two Southern Soul signature barbecue sauces along with the secret ingredient: Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce.
Many frequent contenders use family recipes passed down orally over the generations. Others mix and match from online resources.
Competitors swear by different cooking techniques, but all agree on what signals a stew is done: When it’s thick enough the wooden stew-stirring paddle can stand straight up in the middle of the pot without the master’s assistance.
“You end up with a lot of different flavor profiles,” Bufkin said. “Some are sweet. Some are savory. There are no rules, and don’t get me started on the so-called purists. They can go to the cookoff in Virginia.”
Credit: Photo courtesy of Brunswick Rockin' Stewbilee
Credit: Photo courtesy of Brunswick Rockin' Stewbilee
The interstate rivalry is again top of mind as the Stewbilee approaches. Townsend, the event MC and General Assembly member, is prepping legislation that would name Brunswick stew as the official stew of Georgia, much like lawmakers passed a resolution last year installing shrimp as the state’s official crustacean.
“I’m working with legislative counsel to get it worded right,” he said. “That’ll show them up there in Virginia.”
Brunswick Rockin’ Stewbilee. 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Jan. 25. Mary Ross Waterfront Park, Brunswick. brunswickstewbilee.com.
Credit: Courtesy of Southern Soul BBQ
Credit: Courtesy of Southern Soul BBQ
Southern Soul Barbecue’s Brunswick stew
This St. Simons Island restaurant’s competition stew has been a work in progress since even before the eatery opened in 2007. The stew master, Mark Hanna, operates under the slogan “Have paddle, will travel,” and has cooked the dish at contests across Georgia and the Carolinas. The flavor profile is a unique mixture of tangy and smoky. Cooking times below assume the meat has been smoked ahead of time.
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) salted butter
- 2 large sweet onions, finely diced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
- 2 teaspoons cayenne, plus more to taste
- ¼ cup Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup vinegar-based barbecue sauce
- 1 cup mustard-based barbecue sauce
- 3 pounds smoked pork (or other smoked meats)
- 4 cups crushed tomatoes, fresh or canned
- 2 cups rough chopped Roma tomatoes, fresh or canned
- 4 cups sweet corn kernels, fresh or frozen
- 4 cups fresh baby butter beans
- 8 cups chicken stock
- Texas Pete Hot Sauce
- In a large pot over medium heat, add the butter, onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent and begin to brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Add the salt, black pepper and cayenne and stir, then pour in the Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for 40 to 50 minutes, until syrupy.
- Add the barbecue sauces and the smoked pork. Stir until the barbecue sauces and the butter-onion mixture coat the meat.
- Add the crushed and chopped tomatoes, stir and cook for 1 hour.
- Add the corn, beans and chicken stock. Stir and taste to adjust seasonings. Simmer 2 to 3 hours over medium heat, until a wooden spoon or stir paddle stands straight up in the pot without assistance.
- Add 10 shakes of Texas Pete, stir and serve.
Serves 15-18.
Per serving, based on 15: 567 calories (percent of calories from fat, 60), 20 grams protein, 37 grams carbohydrates, 16 grams total sugars, 6 grams fiber, 38 grams total fat (17 grams saturated), 97 milligrams cholesterol, 2,064 milligrams sodium.
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