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Burgoo

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Burgoo is a term used for many types of stew or porridge made from a mixture of ingredients.

North American Usage

Currently, burgoo serves mainly as a tool for social gathering among Kentuckians and their friends. (See the external links below) Typicall, each person brings one or more ingredients and all the ingredients will be cooked in a big pot. Locally in Kentucky (Niagara Elementary School PTA Fall Burgoo Fundraiser) and surrounding areas such Indiana (Marrs Elementary School Burgoo fund-raising event), burgoo is often used as a drawing ticket during fund-raisers at schools with no stigma.

During the economic depression, burgoo served as a means of survival of a community beyond just Kentuckian cuisine. Individuals would bring any ingredients they could afford. All the ingredients were boiled in a huge pot. Due to its large size, it was stirred with readily available 2-by-4 studs. This tradition continues to this day; food-grade 2-by-4s are used as the de facto standard spatula for stirring Bergoo. For that reasons, some refer to it as the "2-by-4 Soup."

No standardized recipe exists, but it is a combination of at least three things. The meat is usually mutton, but could have been any game animal during the Civil War. For example, the Hilltop Inn of Evansville, Indiana (as featured on Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt television special)[1] serves a variety made with squirrel meat. Vegetables such as lima beans, corn, okra and potatoes have always been popular. A thickening agent of cornmeal, ground beans or whole wheat is all that most cookbook recipes use today, but it is traditional to add soup bones for taste and thickening.

The ingredients are combined together in order of time needed to cook to the same doneness, with meat usually going in first and thickening agents last. A good burgoo is said to be able to have a spoon stand up in it. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and other savory spices dominate much like in Cincinnati chili; however, nowadays it is typical to have a vinegar hot sauce or dry chili powder available for people to spice up their own bowl.

Increasingly, a combination of beef, pork and chicken is used as a substitute for lamb.

Burgoo is a spicy stew that has its roots in the Irish or mulligan stew. Traditionally, the idea was to make a stew using whatever meats and vegetables were available and in good supply. That meant game meats, deer, but also squirrel, possum, meat from game birds or whatever the hunt brought back. The local Kentucky barbecue restaurants use meats left over from their barbecuing — typically, pork, beef or lamb — as the basis for burgoos that change depending on what meats happen to be left over. There are many jokes in Kentucky about collecting "road kill" as meat for making burgoo.

Kentucky burgoo recipes are somewhat like chili recipes, in that there are many different recipes each calling for different set of ingredients.

Cornbread or corn muffins are served on the side.

Royal Navy Usage

In the British Royal Navy, Burgoo refers to a thick oatmeal gruel or porridge. According to one source, this was a mixture of oatmeal and molasses eaten for breakfast. Being cheap and easy to provision, it was said to be served excessively on some ships and was reputed to be unloved by seamen.

Burgoo is often mentioned as a simple meal served with coffee in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin historical novels.

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