How the Medieval 100-year-old Stew Method can Make your Modern Life SO much more Delicious

In the middle ages, there were inns that had a big pot of stew on the fire 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over time, they added whatever they had to this stew: vegetables, meat, herbs, seasonings. Many inns gained a reputation for the excellence of their perpetual stews. You see, they never stopped adding to the pot. Yes, they took servings out of the pot, but some of the stew ALWAYS remained, the flavor deepened, and some of those stews really did stay cooking for 100 years or more.

My son loves history. And science and math. But it’s his interest in history that spurred this post. One day he mentioned to me the concept of 100-year-old stew and told me this story.

Image from How To Cook Medieval

I heard that story and I was sad. I wanted to TASTE and recreate a 100-year-old stew! In modern times, there’s no way we could replicate this. How could we possibly keep the same pot of stew going for 100 years or more? I thought about this and let it go. But something kept brewing in the back of my mind until I realized: there’s still something we can learn from this and adopt to our cooking in our modern era.

So what does this stew mean in our lives today?

I began to adopt that principal whenever I made beans. No, I didn’t keep the same pot of beans cooking and add to it over time. But I saved the juices from one batch of beans and froze it. And then the next time I made beans, the juices from the previous pot of beans became the base for this new pot. And oh my gosh, you guys. There were soooo many more FLAVORS in my beans! Each time I make them, it gets better and better. I still use my Instant Pot Beans recipe, but part of the liquid for each new batch comes from the previous batch.

I vowed I will continue this practice until I die … and then perhaps someone will take my frozen bean juice from the last pot I made in my life to make a new pot. And keep it going until maybe, just maybe, we (together) can actually replicate a 100-year-old pot of beans. Maybe that will happen, maybe it won’t, but in the meantime, we’ll be enjoying some dang good food!

It Doesn’t Stop with Beans

I told my son what I’d started doing with the beans and he said we should do the same with our chicken! We make salsa chicken a LOT at my house. And recently (since I was on an egg roll kick), we started doing a more generic flavored chopped/shredded chicken for egg rolls and other things. He suggested I adopt the same 100-year-old-stew principal to our chicken.

Now, my kids eat a LOT of chicken. So I started with this idea by simply putting the juices of one batch in a jar in the fridge (or freezer) and using it as the liquid for cooking the next batch. And now our CHICKEN is developing that same magical depth of flavor as the beans. How cool is that?

And of course there’s stew! You could definitely do this with stew. We don’t (yet), at my house. Because my kids aren’t into stew as much as I am.

But I just want to toss this idea out there and see what YOU do with it.

So what does your “100-year-old stew” recipe look like?

This idea seems to me like a stream of love and sharing from one to another, a continuing stream of shared ideas, crops, gardens, love. Harvesting and creating. Enduring. Sharing. I’m still wondering how else I can apply this in my life.

How would you apply the 100-year-old stew idea to your cooking? Would it be stew or something else? Get it started today, save some of the broth/ingredients, and then use it again for the base for your next batch. The beauty of this idea is it evolves over time. Whatever you have on hand can become part of it. And transform it forever. As long as you keep it going.

I think this is super interesting. What happens when you share your “stew” with someone else and they add something new and interesting and then share with others? This could become a whole new “tree of life”, branching into each family’s own version. It could be huge. And it could bring us back together!

After COVID and this crazy war in Ukraine and all the divisive politics we’ve been struggling with lately, we could use something to bring us back together.

Because at the core of it, we are all human. We should feed and love each other.

Namaste, my foodie friends.

Did this Post Make you Want Stew?

I couldn’t end this post without including some great stew recipes!

• Mahogany Beef Stew
• Gypsy Ham & Lentil Stew
• Drunken Irish Stew
• Moroccan Lamb & Chickpea Stew
• Pepper Shrimp & Zucchini Stew
• NM Green Chile Stew
• West African Peanut Stew
• Barley Lentil Harissa Veggie Stew
• Brazilian Thai Fusion Fish Stew

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