Description:
An award-winning barbecue cook serves up generous helpings of culinary history and lore, along with authentic recipes for this famous Southern dish.
With roots in Native American, African and European cooking traditions, Brunswick stew developed in colonial- and Federal-era Virginia, when squirrel was a necessary ingredient. By the nineteenth century, the mouthwatering delicacy had become an important part of politicking, celebrating and family gatherings. At the same time, it spread beyond Virginia, following barbecue culture into the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, author and Brunswick stew expert Joe Haynes entertains with barbecue stew history, legend and lore, complete with authentic recipes.
Review Quotes: Joe's work is significant scholarship. This is American culinary history and ethnology at its finest, researched with passion and recited with love, humor and intelligence. Joe understands and appreciates the historical depth and cultural significance of these traditions. He clearly sees and helps tease out the contributions of ancient English foodways and their adaptations to and adoptions of those of Native America, as well as the role of enslaved Africans and African Americans who often were the true masters of the barbecue and stewpot. He follows traditions as they spread and evolved through the southward and westward expansion of the nation.