Moore Please

Article and photography by Joshua Fitzwater. Lead photo: Danny Moore and his father William Moore

Early morning dew saturates the ground on a balmy May morning in Emporia, Virginia. The city, dubiously known to locals as a speed trap, is also the birthplace of one of our country’s oldest and finest stews. Evident from the inviting chicken muddle stew smoke trickling over the roof from behind Danny Moore’s house, the city could benefit greatly from a new marketing campaign. Instead of conjuring up images of flashing blue lights, aviator sunglasses, perforated papers, clip boards and inevitably ink stained hands, how great would it be for the city if iron pots, vertical standing oars, burning wood, billowing smoke, tender stewed chicken and strong stew masters came to mind.

A retired warehouse manager, Moore’s bald head, not unlike the wet grass beneath his feet, beads up with perspiration as he pushes his oar through the ever thickening chicken muddle stew. The process of stirring is constant throughout the entirety of the cook as ingredients are added and the stew develops so as to avoid anything sticking to the blazing hot bottom of the iron pot. This batch of muddle today, however, is less labor intensive and is a smaller size. Gone are the days of the two hundred quart cooks Moore earned a reputation for.

Above: Danny Moore making chicken muddle in Emporia, Virginia

These days, though a stranger would never know, Moore is straddled with a heart condition that requires a pacemaker. You can tell by the size of his hands, which have destroyed multiple latex gloves during this cook, that in the past, he had no problem moving oars for hours and cranking out large cooks of chicken muddle. He learned how to handle and perfect these large cooks from his late father William Moore who himself was a highly celebrated stew master in Emporia. “Other people make it [chicken muddle] but I’m the only one who knows my daddy’s recipe,” Moore explained. “There’s no shortcuts, no deviation. I follow his recipe.”

Above: Stew master Danny Moore making chicken muddle with his partner

Around 20 years ago, Moore began helping his father make muddle for their local church’s fundraising efforts, and William, who made it for years even before that, would use two large iron pots for the church cooks to make big batches. The clamoring for and reputation of those delicious cooks by William, and later Danny, helped to solidify the Moore family’s chicken muddle to the people of Emporia, but they were not the only stew masters with a formidable chicken muddle in the family.

Patrick Moore, Danny’s relative some twenty years ago started learning the craft from his father Paul Moore. Patrick loved to cook, as his wife Rachel explained, “sometimes as soon as he walked through the door he headed straight to the kitchen.”

Above: Photos of Patrick Moore provided by the family

A true Virginian stew master, Patrick swore by the use of wood when making muddle and zero deviation from his father’s recipe was paramount. “He never had any interest in changing or putting a spin on his fathers recipe,” Rachel said. “It was about tradition for him.” A laborious process, Patrick and his wife and daughter would sometimes do cooks as big as three hundred quarts. “It’s a lot of work. The night before you’re cutting potatoes, onions and prepping all the ingredients. Then the next day it’s a 6am-1 or 2pm process,” said Rachel.

Patrick’s large muddle cooks, which were done for churches and various community organizations, resulted in a nickname. Rachel said, “people would come up to him and be like, ‘Oh my God, it’s the chicken muddle man! People would always be so excited for his muddle and he did it with his heart. That’s why it was so good.”

Above: Rachel Moore in front of her husband Patrick Moore’s iron muddle stew pot.

Along with doing muddle cooks in Emporia, Patrick and his family would eventually move to Hopewell, Virginia, where he brought the delicious tradition with him. Unfortunately, Patrick fell ill in October 2021, and passed away far too soon. Today, the large family iron pot Patrick used in his prized muddle cooks with his father still sits covered out back next to the Moore’s garage.

Rachel, who has cooked muddle with it since he passed, explained with tears in her eyes, “he asked me to keep it going. He made sure that I knew exactly how to do it right. He wanted to keep it in the family. So until his brother fully takes it over, I’ll be doing it.”

Above: Emporia, Virginia chicken muddle. Moore’s family recipe. Cooked by Danny Moore.

Moore Please is part of the sold out 016 edition of Southern Grit Magazine. For more Virginia food and history articles in print, back issues of Southern Grit Magazine are available for purchase at southerngritmagazine.bigcartel.com