Perpetual stew facts for kids
Cocido montañés, a Cantabrian version of perpetual stew
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| Alternative names | Hunter's pot, hunter's stew |
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| Type | Stew |
A perpetual stew is a special kind of stew that is always cooking. People call it a forever soup, hunter's pot, or hunter's stew. It's a pot where new ingredients and liquid are added over time. The pot is rarely emptied completely.
This idea was common in medieval inns, like old hotels or restaurants. People said that foods cooked in a perpetual stew tasted amazing. This is because all the different ingredients blend their flavors together over a long time.
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A Never-Ending Meal: How It Works
People believe that perpetual stews were very common in medieval cuisine. They were often called pottage or pot-au-feu. Imagine a big cooking pot that was almost never empty!
Historians say that people would add bread, water, or ale to the pot. They also added "companaticum," which means "that which goes with the bread." This could be anything available. The pot was only fully emptied for special times, like the meatless weeks of Lent.
This meant that if someone added a hare, a hen, or a pigeon, the stew would get a meaty flavor. But even days or weeks later, you might still taste salted pork or cabbage that was added earlier!
Where Can You Find Perpetual Stews?
Even today, the idea of a perpetual stew lives on!
Modern Examples of Perpetual Stews
- A restaurant in New York served broth from the same perpetual stew for over eight months. This happened between August 2014 and April 2015.
- One story tells of a pot-au-feu in Perpignan, France. It was supposedly kept cooking from the 1400s until World War II. It only stopped because of the German occupation, when there were no more ingredients.
- In Bangkok, Thailand, a restaurant called Wattana Panich has kept the broth for their perpetual stew going for over 50 years!
- In Japan, some restaurants still use perpetual stews. This is common for dishes like ramen (a noodle soup) and oden (a traditional one-pot dish). Otafuku, an old oden restaurant, has been heating the same broth every day since 1945.
- From 2009 to 2010, a perpetual stew was kept going in a crock pot at Dayton House in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
What Goes Into a Perpetual Stew?
You can use many different things in a perpetual stew. Common ingredients include root vegetables and tubers. These are vegetables that grow underground, like onions, carrots, garlic, parsnips, and turnips.
Various kinds of meats and game meats can also be added. The idea is to use whatever food you have available!
Perpetual Stew in Stories and Games
Perpetual stews are so interesting that they appear in popular culture!
- In the novel Idoru by William Gibson, a perpetual stew is mentioned. It's served on a place called the Bridge.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, a character named Arya Stark eats from a perpetual stew. She even adds a pigeon to it while in the slums of Kings Landing.
- In the video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance, players can find pots of perpetual stew all around the game map.
