Hogshead Brunswick Stew Transcript
- Georgia Agrirama's all about life in south Georgia in the late 1800s, early 1900s. We have livin' interpreters, costumed people on site.
- [Interviewer] You're helpin' me try to find somebody who actually cooks the stew in the old way.
- Yeah right.
- [Interviewer] And who is it?
- Lee Ferguson. Yeah he's from Omega, Georgia and he works for a turf farm, Pike Creek Turf Farm in Adel. And I'm tryin' to get in touch with him.
- He's really interested in the hogshead.
- [Interviewer] Yeah I am. Now tell me a little about the lady I'll be talkin' to.
- Miss Thompson. She has been at the Agrirama for a number of years. When you see Miss Thompson you will think you've stepped back into time.
- The first thing you do, you know you have to dress the hog. Well the next thing you do you've got to cut his head off. You got to get all them eyes out, got to cut his nose off. After they got him dressed like that, put 'em on the stove and cook 'em. And most people always put either chicken, I believe it was chicken or chicken in it to help you know, fill it up some way or another. And then when you got it done you would mix tomatoes and corn, peas, a little bit of hot pepper in it. And then you cook it all together and whenever you got it done then you would, they would dip it up and put it in jars or cans one, probably in jars.
- [Interviewer] So they wouldn't eat it right away. They'd put it up.
- Well they would eat some of it, but you know if they cooked a bunch of it they would have to put part of it where it would be taken care of.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- We work for wages, our daddy did, and we did too. And they had a certain time of year that they would dress these hogs, maybe four or five at the time and then they would you know, just cut 'em up and hang 'em in the smokehouse, but they'd still have to do somethin' with them heads and also the intestines. And women would have to wash them and they would eat them.
- [Interviewer] Were those chitterlings?
- Uh huh.
- [Interviewer] And then the head would be reserved for the stew.
- Right.
- [Interviewer] Well did you get everything worked out?
- Yeah, I got it worked out. And I talked to Suzanne. I told her you know, what we were doin'.
- [Interviewer] Suzanne is your sister.
- Yeah Suzanne's my sister. I told her we're meetin', meetin' this guy you know, so you could talk to him about Brunswick Stew. She said well, if he talks to anybody he needs to talk to Lee Ferguson because he makes the best Brunswick Stew in south Georgia. There he is. There is Mr. Ferguson. How in the world are you doin' this evenin'? Old house and like I don't know how if you know if you do yours on the fire, what size kettle and all that you use, you know. But if you use a kettle you know or ever how, just whatever we could make it as original as possible.
- The old timey way.
- Yeah the old timey way. That's what we tryin' to do.
- See well when you make it, if you were to make it old timey way, we're goin' old timey in a washpot.
- Yeah, the washpot.
- The washpot.
- See I'm thinkin' 'bout .
- You know, I always tell my son to stick around and watch what I'm doing and understand where he'll learn how to do it and keep it, you know, keep it going on that. At least he would understand it.
- [Interviewer] He's over here?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You're his son?
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] And do you pretty much follow him on his cookin'?
- Yes most of the time when I ain't playin' basketball or somethin'. It's a pretty small head you think?
- Yeah. I've never been the type of one to do it.
- [Interviewer] Could you cook one if you had to?
- Yes I believe I could.
- You could. Would it be pretty much like his?
- I ain't gonna say that now.
- I used to wouldn't eat it, 'cause the reason I didn't eat it 'cause he put the hogshead in it. But after I start tastin' it then I eat it now. But I used to wouldn't even eat it.
- [Interviewer] Is that right?
- Uh huh.
- [Interviewer] But the taste is pretty good with the hogshead.
- Oh yes, it's real good, yep.
- [Interviewer] How's the fire? When did you start cookin' for people?
- Ah started cookin' for peoples in '70, '71, I believe.
- [Interviewer] What made you start?
- Because my mother told me I need to start cookin' and I start out cookin', and that's what it end up to.
- [Interviewer] Is that right?
- Right. She said good as you can cook Brunswick Stew and barbecue, you need to start cookin'.
- Oh she was a good cook. She would invite us Christmas dinner, Thanksgivin' dinner and she cook all kinda cakes, all kinda pies. She really was a good cook. I miss her so bad. She was a good lady. Christian hearted lady. Yeah she learned him he could cook. He can wash. He can iron. He can do a little bit of all of it.
- [Interviewer] He seems to like to cook a little bit more than that other stuff though.
- Yeah, yeah, sho do.
- [Interviewer] Once this hogshead is done what do you do with it?
- You let it cool off, then where you can take your knife and chip it up real good, mash it up real good. And then get all the bones out it. And then be waitin' on your chicken to get done and then you go for hit too. Then when your chicken get done you let it cool off and then you chip everything up, they you start mixin' your ingredient right there. Start mixin' what you got to go in it. Then you let it cook 'bout 35, 40 minutes on the stove and then you're outta here.
- [Interviewer] Is the Brunswick that we'll eat today and that you're cookin', how close is that to your mama's Brunswick Stew? How close is it?
- Ah it's I don't know, just ain't no different in it.
- [Interviewer] Really?
- Yeah, ain' no different in it.
- [Interviewer] So she really passed that recipe on to you.
- Right. She sho did. And she got it from her mother, if you wanna know the truth.
- [Interviewer] Is that right?
- Yeah 'cause I knew I go to my grandmother's house when she was stayin' in Ocilla, Georgia back in the country, and she, my grandmother used to be makin' Brunswick Stew. Man she could make it, too. And my mother and we was kids back in them day and my mother say that's all she'd talk about how her mother could make Brunswick Stew and how she could do it. And I told her, I'm gonna do it just like you. So that's what I did, kept it up. They gonna give me somethin' to take it up in directly.
- They almost got the room cleaned up for us.
- All right we gonna run in here and get this meat up here and put it in here if it don't tear too bad. Looka there. Just looka there. Looka there. Boy ain't that lovely? That's lovely. Boy that's done. You hear me? This is done. Ain't one done it's two done.
- Y'all wanna make a mad dash?
- This old timey stove. Come right on in here and watch this old timey stove.
- [Interviewer] Now how many chickens you got in there?
- I just only got one.
- [Interviewer] One good hen?
- One good hen. How 'bout that?
- All right looks pretty good.
- First thing I'm gonna open a can of tomatoes. Okay. Keepin' up with me, Stan?
- [Interviewer] Uh huh.
- All right stay with me.
- That the hen, it's ready, it's tearin' up.
- I got everything workin' nice just fine. Gettin' it right, gettin' it right. This is tomato ketchup. It's to make the stew come right. You have to use this to blend it in. You can even smell it, smell like Brunswick Stew. This the most important thing right here, this chicken. Yeah. The chicken broth, that be the, that's the broth, the fat off a chicken. It's good to put in rice and cook your rice and make your chicken dressin'.
- My mom used to have one of these stoves. She'd keep her hot water in these things.
- That color is there. Look at that color. Feel. Do that look like Brunswick Stew to y'all?
- Good.
- It is delicious.
- This is the only thing I've ever known Brunswick Stew to be in south Georgia, exactly what we're eating.
- My grandma, she used to make Brunswick Stew just like this with the hogshead in there and I mean, I've never known anything like it. I've tasted it with the other stuff in there and without the hogshead and it just, it ain't the same. This is it.
- 'Preciate that. 'Preciate that. That's good goin'.
- It sho is.
- Whatever it is, the hogshead just got a flavor to it, you can't bypass it.
- You can't.
- Stan, we done went down to the bean.
- [Interviewer] I think so.
- Then all the way out from the mornin' til now. We done gained a lot. Gained two pound. No I hope we ain't gained that much, but I hope everybody enjoyed it though. Brunswick Stew go a long ways back.
