a dishBrunswick stew

A thick tomato stew of chicken or pork with corn, butter beans (lima beans), onion and, in the east, potatoes, cooked in big pots and served in a cup beside the barbecue. Virginia and Georgia both claim it; North Carolina makes it without argument at barbecue houses, church suppers and fundraisers, where it holds the place that hash holds in South Carolina. The name is a county in Virginia or a city in Georgia, both named for the German duchy of Brunswick. The squirrel of the first recipes has given way to chicken, and at a barbecue house some of the chopped pork goes into the pot.

Two states keep the argument. In Brunswick, Georgia, a twenty-five-gallon iron pot on a plaque is called the vessel in which the stew was first cooked, in 1898, on St. Simons Island; the Virginia General Assembly answered in 1988 with a proclamation that Jimmy Matthews, a Black cook, made a squirrel stew for Creed Haskins in Brunswick County in 1828 and gave it the county's name. The Virginia Writers' Project guide of 1941 tells it as a hunting-camp story — the cook left behind throws everything into the pot — and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings passed on the tale in 1942 that it was a favourite of Queen Victoria and came from Braunschweig. None of the claims traces to the ground. North Carolina stays out of the fight and eats the stew. Kennedy's Barbecue in Greensboro was advertising 'Barbecue, Brunswick stew, slaw and hush puppies' in 1949, the plate that became the state's standard. Our State printed Mary Scott's recipe on November 10, 1951: the governor's wife's pot held a five-pound chicken, corn, lima beans, tomatoes, onion, potato, okra and chopped barbecue. At Melton's in Rocky Mount the stew sat beside boiled potatoes, slaw, corn sticks and hushpuppies until the house closed in 2005. Tradition holds — the eastern stew has potatoes in it and the Piedmont's may not, and church stew-masters cook it overnight in iron pots for the fall fundraisers, with a paddle and a crowd.

A whole chicken, or chicken and pork, boiled until it falls apart and picked from the bone; the stock takes tomatoes, corn cut from the cob, butter beans, onion and, in the east, potatoes, and simmers for hours with a long paddle going round until the meat has shredded into the vegetables and a spoon stands up in it. Salt, black and red pepper; at a barbecue house a ladle of chopped pork and its sauce. Served hot in a cup or bowl beside the tray, or by the quart to take home.

A standing side at eastern barbecue houses and at the Greensboro-line pits of the Piedmont; Melton's priced a plate with slaw, hushpuppies and Brunswick stew in 1988. Tradition holds — churches and fire departments across the Piedmont sell it by the quart at fall stews.