The Washington Post, The New York Times, Southern Living Magazine and many other publications have all dedicated ink over the years to the simmering Brunswick stew origin debate between Brunswick County, Virginia and Brunswick, Georgia. There are other claims stirring out there as well but the ownership of this dish burns hottest in these two states.
Decades ago, Georgia erected not one but two stew pot monuments. Not to be outdone, the Virginia Assembly in 1988 issued a degree proclaiming Brunswick County, Virginia, as the birthplace of Brunswick stew. The following proofs are taken from conversations with author Joseph R. Haynes, and are detailed in his book Brunswick Stew: A Virginia Tradition, and they make a strong case that the commonwealth is the birthplace of this classic stew.
1) John Lewis Herring (1866–1923) was a Georgian newspaper editor and columnist. In his book Saturday Night Sketches published in 1918, he wrote of barbecues in 1870s Georgia when he was a youngster, “there was no Brunswick stew in those days.” That first-hand testimony indicates that Brunswick stew was not a well-known food in Georgia until at least after the end of the Reconstruction era.
2) On July 1,1871, the Savannah Daily Advertiser published the menu of a local restaurant that featured “Old Virginia Brunswick stew.”
3) In 1862, The Atlanta Confederacy, a Georgia newspaper, printed a recipe for Brunswick stew the author referred to as “Virginia Stew.”
4) Georgia’s strongest claim for being the birthplace of Brunswick Stew comes from a monument Georgians erected in Brunswick, Georgia, in 1946. It’s a black kettle that features an inscription claiming the first pot of stew was cooked nearby on St. Simon Isle in 1898. However, 1898 is some years after the aforementioned Savannah Daily Advertiser ad of 1871 and The Atlanta Confederacy recipe of 1862.
5) Published letters in the 19th-century and early 20th century reference Virginian James Matthews of the Red Oak District of Brunswick County as the founding creator of the dish. Most notably, the Tar Heel letter, published in the Macon Telegraph on August 19, 1886, and the Brunswick stew letters later published in 1907 for the Brunswick County Virginia: Information for the Homeseeker and Investor corroborate each other.
For the complete Virginian Brunswick stew story, visit HERE
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