The dish is a starting point for exploring a wider food story. The guide below looks more closely at its background and different forms. When you want to cook, visit the recipe collection for ingredient quantities and step-by-step methods.

In this storyOverviewHistoryTypesList of stews

Overview

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, pork, venison, rabbit, lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, stock is also common. A small amount of red wine or other alcohol is sometimes added for flavour. Seasonings and flavourings may also be added. Stews are typically cooked at a relatively low temperature (simmered, not boiled), allowing flavours to mingle.

Stewing is suitable for the least tender cuts of meat that become tender and juicy with the slow, moist heat method. This makes it popular for low-cost cooking. Cuts with a certain amount of marbling and gelatinous connective tissue give moist, juicy stews, while lean meat may easily become dry.

Stews are thickened by reduction or with flour, either by coating pieces of meat with flour before searing or by using a roux or beurre manié, a dough consisting of equal parts fat and flour. Thickeners like cornstarch, potato starch, or arrowroot may also be used. Stew is very prominent in England, with beef stew and dumplings having been one of England's national dishes in the 14th century. Other European countries also have their own recipes.

History

Stews have been made since ancient times. The world's oldest known evidence of stew was found in Japan, dating to around 5000 BC during the Jōmon period.They made seafood whose ingredients varied with the seasons. The food was cooked in large conical or rounded pots with tapered or pointy bottoms that sat well in the soil and ash of the bonfire or hearth.

Amazonian tribes used the shells of turtles as vessels, boiling the entrails of the turtle and various other ingredients in them.

There are recipes for pork stews and fish stews in the Roman cookery book Apicius, believed to date from the 4th century AD. Le Viandier, one of the oldest cookbooks in French, written in the early 14th century by the French chef known as Taillevent, has ragouts or stews of various types in it.

Types

There are a large variety of stews, ranging from those including meat or seafood, to those that are vegetarian or vegan. Meat-based white stews also known as blanquettes or fricassées are made with lamb or veal that is blanched or lightly seared without browning, and cooked in stock. Brown stews are made with pieces of red meat that are first seared or browned, before a browned mirepoix and sometimes browned flour, stock and wine are added.

List of stews

Baeckeoffe, a potato stew from Alsace

Beef bourguignon, a French dish of beef stewed in red burgundy wine

Bigos, a traditional stew in Polish cuisine

Birria, a traditional stew from Mexico

Bo kho (bò kho), a beef stew in rich seasonings, served with bread, noodle or plain rice from Vietnam

Bollito misto, consisting of beef, veal, and pork simmered in an aromatic vegetable broth from Italy

Booyah, an American meat stew

Bosnian pot, a stew with beef or lamb which is a national dish in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bouillabaisse, a fish stew from Provence

Brongkos, a spicy Javanese meat with beans stew from Indonesia, made of Pangium edule, coconut milk, and various spices

Brunswick stew, from Virginia and the Carolinas

Burgoo, a Kentuckian stew

Brudet, fish stew from Dalmatia regions, known in Greece as bourdeto

Caldeirada, a fish stew from Portugal

Carbonade flamande (stoofvlees), a traditional Belgian beef and onion stew made with Belgian beer

Cawl, a Welsh stew

Chakapuli, a Georgian stew made with lamb chops, coriander and tarragon leaves, and white wine

Chanakhi, a Georgian lamb stew with tomatoes, aubergines, potatoes, greens, and garlic

Charquicán, a Chilean dish

Chicken mull, whole chicken and seasonings

Chicken paprikash, chicken stew with paprika

Chili con carne, a meat and chili pepper stew originating in Texas

Chilorio, a pork stew from Sinaloa, Mexico

Cincinnati chili, developed by Macedonian immigrants from Greece immigrants in the Cincinnati area

Cholent, a slow-cooked Jewish dish

Chorba (also spelt "shorba"), a stew like soup dish found in various North African, Middle Eastern, Central Asian, South Asian, and European cuisines

Cochinita pibil, an orange color pork stew from Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico

Cocido, a traditional Spanish and Portuguese strew with many variants (madrileño, montañés, à portuguesa, etc.)

Cotriade, a fish stew from Brittany

Cream stew, a yōshoku Japanese white stew

Crow stew, a sour cream-based stew made with crow meat, popular in the United States during the Great Depression

Daal, the Indian legume stew that has many varieties, a staple food throughout Asia

Dalma, a traditional dish of Odisha, India; contains pulses with vegetables

Daube, a French stew made with cubed beef braised in wine, vegetables, garlic, and herbs

Dinuguan, pork blood stew from the Philippines

Eintopf, the German word for a stew: many different regional specialty recipes for Eintopf are known in Germany. For example, the Kassel area has a type called Lumben un Fleeh in the local dialect (Standard German: Lumpen und Flöhe – ), which is quite similar to Irish stew. There are thicker German stews such as or ; these would not usually be considered an Eintopf, though the technical difference is minor (longer cooking times and fewer vegetables)

Estofadong baboy, pork stew from the Philippines

Ewedu, vegetable stew from Nigeria

Fabada asturiana, an Asturian bean and meat stew

Feijoada, Brazilian or Portuguese bean stew

Fårikål, traditional Norwegian stew with lamb or mutton and white cabbage

Főzelék, a thick Hungarian vegetable dish

Gaisburger Marsch, a German dish of stewed beef served with Spätzle and potatoes

Gheimeh, an Iranian stew with cubed lamb and yellow split peas

Ghormeh sabzi, an Iranian stew with green herbs, dried limes, beans, and sheep meat

Goulash, a Hungarian meat stew with paprika

Gumbo, a Louisiana creole dish

Hachee, a Dutch type of stew with wine or vinegar

Haleem, an Indian-Pakistani lentil and beef stew

Hasenpfeffer, a sour, marinated rabbit stew from Germany

Hayashi rice, a Japanese dish of beef, onions and mushrooms in red wine and demi-glace sauce, served with rice

Irish stew, made with lamb or mutton, potato, onion, and parsley

Ishtu, a curry in Kerala, India made from chicken or mutton, potato, and coconut milk

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