When I make this stew, an extremely old-fashioned and indigenous example of the “poor people” food that the South was built on, I feel like I’m cooking a piece of my own history. The origins of this piquant, thin stew, which is loaded with meat and vegetables, are hotly disputed between Brunswick, Georgia, and Brunswick County, Virginia (I’m a Georgia product myself, so you know which side I’m on). I always make this for a crowd. A big crowd. Like those at my cooking school, which typically draws more than fifty students. I have my own professional-size meat grinder, and what I often do is grind the onions and potatoes together with the pork and brisket. You don’t need to do that at home; you can just mix them together. And feel free to cut this recipe in half (or quarters, whatever you need), but I suggest you make it for your next snow day, and bake up some cornbread to go with it—feed the whole block and you’ll have friends for life, trust me.

　　

Ingredients

serves 50

　　7 pounds potatoes, peeled and quartered or coarsely chopped

　　3 pounds yellow onions, quartered

　　3 pounds Pork Shoulder (page 57), finely shredded

　　3 pounds Brisket (page 90), finely shredded

　　1 cup sugar

　　7 pounds canned crushed tomatoes

　　7 pounds canned creamed corn

　　7 pounds canned tomato sauce

　　2 cups Jack’s Old South Vinegar Sauce, or 1 recipe Basic Vinegar Sauce (page 22)

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 300˚F.

　　

Step 2

Combine the potatoes, onions, meats, sugar, canned vegetables, tomato sauce, and vinegar sauce in a very large roasting pan or two medium roasting pans. Cover the pan(s) with aluminum foil, place in the oven, and cook, stirring frequently and making sure no meat sticks to the bottom of the pan, for 4 hours or until the onions are thoroughly cooked. Serve warm, in bowls.

　　Reprinted with permission from Smokin' with Myron Mixon by Myron Dixon with Kelly Alexander, © 2011 Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.