21 comments

  1. Husband was from Alabama, he made this always on July 4th, but anytime was good too! Miss it.

    1. I tried making it once, it was OK but nothing like Dad’s.

    2. Sandra Craft same here! Ha!

  2. So very similar to “camp stew” which is predominately made close to Montgomery Al.

    1. We always called it Camp Stew. The Volunteer Fire Dept. in Slapout/Holtville make really good Camp Stew.

    2. I always called it camp stew and I grew up in Montgomery. Brunswick stew was the stuff in a can to me.

  3. I grew up on Brunswick stew from Big Bob Gibson’s, Decatur, AL. I’ve tried others but none other compares!

    1. Love Big Bob Gibson’s!

  4. Growing up in south Alabama my mother made this several times a year. Her recipe include pork, no small peas, and no store bought sauce. My father told me it was very similar told Hobo Stew (Camp Stew) made during the depression by hobos traveling the country by train.

  5. With this cool snap coming in this weekend, i was just thinking of this!

  6. I’ve made Brunswick Stew twice. The best I have ever had was made in a big outdoor kettle at a country school in the 1960’s. It was their fall fundraiser.

  7. I like Brunswick stew, but I like Pozole, which is sort of a Southwestern couisin, even better. But I ❤️ hominy

    1. Do you just eat hominy? I tried it but, mmm, nah. I figure there is something you put in it or, something!

  8. I learned to love it from a roadside BBQ sale in Notasulga that my parents stopped at on the way to Auburn games in the 60s and 70s, then later as a student at AU where the War Eagle Cafeteria made a pretty decent one. Alas, a good one is hard to find north of highway 14, so Birmingham is pretty much a Brunswick Stew desert. My Black Belt relatives call it camp stew but I can’t tell a difference other than camp stew may also include whatever game is available (which I’ve also heard about Brunswick stew).

  9. Folks around here always cooked it in a huge cast iron pot over an open fire. It included chicken, beef and pork but NEVER any green or bell peppers!

  10. My aunt Ginny perfected it. I miss that lady

  11. I am wondering what young folks will think is a “dressed hen”. After all any chicken other than a 4 lb. broiler is hard to come by let alone figuring out how to clothe it:-).

  12. Growing in Alabama, we always had this stew several times a year my mother would always put chicken, pork and beef in her stew along with the veggies, and make a sweet BBQ for the sauce and let that simmer all day long..My grandfather who was from New York would come down to visit every summer loved the stew, but hated chicken, He would eat several bowls of my mothers stew, bless his heart we never told him that it had chicken in it.