Perpetual stew

A perpetual stew, also known as forever soup, hunter's pot[1][2] or hunter's stew, is a pot into which whatever foodstuffs one can find is placed and cooked. The pot is never or rarely emptied all the way, and ingredients and liquid are replenished as necessary.[1][3] Such foods can continue cooking for decades or longer, if properly maintained. The concept is often a common element in descriptions of medieval inns. Foods prepared in a perpetual stew have been described as being flavorful due to the manner in which the ingredients blend together.[4]

Perpetual stew
Cocido montañés, a Cantabrian version of perpetual stew
Alternative namesHunter's pot, hunter's stew
TypeStew

Examples

Perpetual stews are speculated to have been common in medieval cuisine, often as pottage or pot-au-feu:

Bread, water or ale, and a companaticum ('that which goes with the bread') from the cauldron, the original stockpot or pot-au-feu that provided an ever-changing broth enriched daily with whatever was available. The cauldron was rarely emptied out except in preparation for the meatless weeks of Lent, so that while a hare, hen or pigeon would give it a fine, meaty flavour, the taste of salted pork or cabbage would linger for days, even weeks.

— Reay Tannahill[4]

Between August 2014 and April 2015, a New York restaurant served broth from the same perpetual stew (a master stock) for over eight months.[5][6]

A batch of pot-au-feu was claimed by one writer to be maintained as a perpetual stew in Perpignan from the 15th century until World War II, when it ran out of ingredients to keep the stew going due to the German occupation.[7][8]

The tradition of perpetual stew is also kept alive in some Southern and Eastern Asian countries:

Wattana Panich restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, has continued to maintain the broth from the same perpetual stew for over 48 years (as of 2023).[9]

The food industry in Japan still maintains perpetual stews in certain traditional dishes, for instance in ramen and oden:

Otafuku, one of the oldest oden restaurants in Japan, has been heating up the same batch of broth every day since 1945.[10][8]

Ingredients

Various ingredients can be used in a perpetual stew, such as root vegetables and tubers (onion, carrot, garlic, parsnip, turnip, etc.) and various meats.[3]

William Gibson references a perpetual stew served on the Bridge in his novel Idoru.[11]

In A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, Arya eats from a perpetual stew, into which she contributes a pigeon, while in the slums of Kings Landing.

In Kingdom Come: Deliverance the perpetual stew is a free food source that the player can use. They can be found all over the gameworld.

See also

References
  1. Slabbert, Joan (2005). Bwana Kakuli. Trafford Publishing. pp. 76–77. ISBN 1412061563.
  2. Fitzpatrick, Sir Percy (1907). Jock of the Bushveld. Longmans, Green and Company. pp. 79–80.
  3. "Perpetual stew". Florence, Alabama: Times Daily. Associated Press. May 3, 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  4. Food in History, by Reay Tannahill. New York: Crown Publishers, 1989. ISBN 0-517-57186-2.
  5. Kravitz, Melissa (26 January 2015). "It's alive! Chef David Santos' stew never stops evolving at Luoro". AM New York. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  6. Sterling, Justine (28 January 2015). "Why You Shouldn't Be Terrified of This Never-Ending Stew". Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  7. Prager, Arthur (1981). "From, A Pot-Au-Feu, Many Happy Returns". New York Times.
  8. Mastbaum, Blair (2022-12-15). "The 'Perpetual Broths' That Simmer For Decades". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  9. GreatBigStory (19 July 2019). "This Soup Has Been Simmering for 45 Years". YouTube. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  10. Mishan, Ligaya (October 20, 2017). "The Novel Taste of Old Food". New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
  11. "50-year old pot of soup in Hong Kong? - Restaurants - China". 5 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2019-04-24.
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