Canning Brunswick Stew

We recently took a vacation trip to St. Simons Island, Georgia where we visited James Gould's (Mr. Gould "Dear" of Eugenia Price's Lighthouse trilogy fame) lighthouse and attended Christ Church where the history of the island is abundant inside the beautiful old church built by the Rev. Anson Green Phelps Dodge, and among the headstones in the cemetery underneath the beautiful live oaks draped with Spanish moss. At night we stayed just up the road and across the intracoastal waterway and Marshes of Glynn in the coastal town of Brunswick.


On our return, the Canning Granny in me was bound and determined to can up some Brunswick Stew in honor of our stay on the Golden Isles of southern Georgia.


The georgiaencyclopedia.org states that...

"Brunswick, Georgia, claims to be the place of origin for Brunswick stew. A twenty-five-gallon iron pot  

outside that coastal town bears a plaque declaring it to be the vessel in which this favorite southern

food was first cooked in 1898. In truth, the one-pot meal is credited to a number of places with Brunswick in
their names, but the honor (so far as the name is concerned) must go to Brunswick County,
Virginia. There, according to an entrenched local tradition supported by a 1988 Virginia General Assembly
proclamation, Jimmy Matthews, an African American hunting-camp cook, concocted a squirrel stew for his
master, Creed Haskins, in 1828, the stew being named for its home county.

As Georgia humorist Roy Blount Jr. quipped, 'Brunswick stew is what  happens when small mammals carrying ears of corn  fall into barbeque pits.'" The recipe I chose to use for my stew is Spanky's Seafod Grill and Bar's  World Famous Brunswick Stew, a recipe with several steps... I started with the sauce In a 2 quart sauce pan, over low heat, melt ¼ cup of butter then add: 1¾ cups Catsup ¼ cup Yellow Mustard ¼ cup white vinegar Blend until smooth, then add: ½ tablespoon chopped garlic 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper ½ oz. Liquid Smoke 1 oz. Worcestershire Sauce 1 oz. Crystal Hot Sauce or ½ oz. Tabasco (I used Crystal Hot Sauce, very tasty!) ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice Blend until smooth, then add: ¼ cup dark brown sugar Stir constantly, increase heat to simmer (DO NOT BOIL) for approx.  10 minutes. Makes approx. 3½ cups of sauce (set aside - to be added later). DH decided the sauce would make a great BBQ sauce... might mix some up later and can it by itself for basting chicken on the grill and such. Now for the stew part of this yummy concoction... In a 2 gallon pot, over low heat melt ¼ lb of butter then add: 3 cups small diced potatoes 1 cup small diced onion 2  14½ oz. cans of chicken broth 1 lb baked chicken (white and dark) 8-10 oz. smoked pork Bring to a rolling boil, stirring until potatoes are near done, then add: 1 8½ oz. can early peas 2   14½ oz. cans stewed tomatoes - (chop tomatoes, add liquid to the stew pot) The prepared sauce 1 16 oz. can of baby lima beans ¼ cup Liquid Smoke 1  14½ oz. can creamed corn Slow simmer for 2 hours Here's where I strayed from the recipe a little since I planned on canning  this Brunswick Stew... I added the onions, broth, chicken and smoked pork, stewed tomatoes,  prepared sauce, liquid smoke, and creamed corn, but waited to  add the potatoes, peas, and lima beans until just before filling my  canning jars... didn't want my veggies to cook all to mush since  they would be pressure canned for 90 minutes... I added them last, just heating them through before filling my jars.  And since the recipe I was using claimed to make one gallon of stew,  I decided to double the recipe so I would have a full run of seven  quart jars of stew and some left over to eat for supper. Some of the ingredients for Brunswick Stew Roasted chicken ready for shredding and adding to the stew pot Adding ingredients to the stew pot Chopping roasted chicken Potatoes diced and ready to add to the stew pot I added the potatoes to the stew last so they wouldn't turn to mush during the 90 minute canning process, just letting them heat up without cooking through. I sterilized my quart canning jars and simmered my lids and rings for  10-15 minutes and kept them  hot till they were ready to use. I filled the jars leaving an inch of headspace, then wiped the jar rims with a  damp cloth to remove any dripped juice that might keep the lids from sealing.  I removed the lids from the simmering water with a magnetic wand (a handy gadget to have!) and tightened them onto the jars. Using my jar lifter (because those jars are HOT!) I loaded them into the pressure canner for  processing. Following my canner's instruction book for the ingredient in the stew that  takes the most time, I pressure canned the stew at 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes. After allowing the pressure in the canner to drop to ZERO, I removed  the canner lid and, once again using my handy dandy jar lifter, I removed the jars from the canner and placed them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool. The PING! sound of a successfully sealed jar is a  beautiful sound indeed! Check out this YouTube video DH and I made showing some of the  steps to canning this delicious Brunswick Stew http://youtu.be/bXqSBROJBew Canning Granny©2011 All Rights Reserved