Autumn brings comfort foods to mind, like homemade soups, chili and especially a good thick stew. I grew up eating what I think is a typical stew made of beef with potatoes, carrots and onions served in a savory gravy. I started adding sherry or a bit of apple sauce to my stew a few years ago and my husband immediately fell in love with the slightly sweet flavor it added to a simple old-fashioned recipe.
I'd never tasted Brunswick Stew until I moved to Florida. My first Brunswick Stew was served to me at the B. A. Pig Restaurant at Fernandina Beach, Florida, just a few miles south of the Florida/Georgia border, near Jacksonville. There are as many variations on the story of where this stew was created as there are recipes. Some stories say it came from Brunswick County, Virginia, while others say it originated in Brunswick, Georgia. In the old days, it was cooked for hours in a dutch oven and left to simmer over an open fire. I've seen recipes that included wild game (usually squirrel or rabbit), but typically you'll find it made with chicken, beef, pork or a combination of any of these meats. B. A. Pig's stew was especially tasty. They cook their stew with onions, limas, and tomatoes, but you'll find some recipes also throw corn, peas or okra into the pot.
B. A. Pig's satisfying stew definitely qualifies them as one of our favorite restaurants, but I also have to mention their delicious pulled pork barbeque and noteworthy baked beans. To be mentioned for their barbeque is a bonus point for this restaurant because we are definitely barbeque snobs! The biggest disappointment I've had at B. A. Pig is when we drove there for Sunday dinner and they were already closed. For that reason, I'm including their hours in this article.
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B.A. Pig BBQ
4768 Wade Place
(north of the Shave Bridge)
Fernandina Beach, Florida
(904) 491-7704
Hours: 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday
*****
Here is the stew recipe we serve at our house. It is a combination of several recipes that suited our tastes:
BRUNSWICK STEW
1 four lb. chicken, cut up
3 pounds pork loin
2 large cans tomatoes, chopped and undrained
1 large vidalia onion, diced
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cans lima beans, undrained
2 cans cream-style corn
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter or margin
1 tablespoon salt
1 tsp . pepper
2 tsp. hot sauce (or add more to your taste)
Season chicken and pork with ground pepper and garlic salt. In a large pot or a Dutch oven, bring meat to boil. If desired, season pork with a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes or until tender.
Remove meat and set aside, reserving 3 cups of the broth in the pot.
Pour limas and liquid through a wire-mesh strainer into the pot. Reserve beans.
Add tomatoes to pot and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring often, for 40 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by one-third. While the broth reduces, skin, bone and shred chicken. Pull pork into shreds. Set meat aside.
Mash the limas. Add back to pot along with onions, potatoes and shredded meat. Cook over low heat, stirring often for 3 1/2 hours. Stir in corn and remaining ingredients. Cook over low heat for 1 additional hour, stirring often.
Serve in bowls with bisquits or corn bread on the side.
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