Brunswick stew takes its name from a place, and that may be all its fans agree on. A Virginia county and a Georgia city both answer to Brunswick, and both want credit for the hearty, corn-flecked stew. Settling it would mean digging through nearly two centuries of barbecues and hunting-camp lore.
Both Brunswicks still throw festivals in the stew’s name. Most versions build on meat and corn in a tomato base, and potatoes often go in the pot, too. In Georgia, cooks commonly serve it next to barbecue, and stew masters oversee the biggest batches. Roy Blount Jr., a Georgia humorist, once said Brunswick stew is “what happens when small mammals carrying ears of corn fall into barbeque pits.”
An old Southern stew fits a new food trend
A national grocery chain’s 2027 trend forecast, released Oct. 14, singles out two ideas that already describe Brunswick stew. The forecast names 2027 the year of terroir, which it describes as shoppers seeking a “taste of place” and paying attention to where food comes from. The dish wears a place in its name, so the forecast’s idea of terroir fits it from the first word.
The same forecast gives beans and legumes a trend of their own and names heirloom bean stews among the dishes that are moving beans to the center of the plate. Legumes “are increasingly appearing in chef-driven dishes that treat beans less like pantry staples and more like premium ingredients,” the forecast said. Lima beans commonly go into Brunswick stew, which ties a plain Southern standby to that trend.
2 birthplaces and 1 name
Brunswick County’s claim goes back to a hunting camp in 1828. Local tradition says Jimmy Matthews, an African American camp cook, made a squirrel stew that year for his enslaver, Creed Haskins, and the dish gave the county its name. A 1988 proclamation from Virginia’s General Assembly backs that tradition.
Brunswick, Georgia, points instead to a 25-gallon iron pot that sits outside town. A plaque on the pot says cooks first made the stew in it in 1898. The region’s tourism site still describes the city as “widely recognized as the birthplace of Brunswick stew.”
The written record works against Georgia’s date. John A. Burrison of Georgia State University, who wrote a history of the dish, noted that Georgia took up the stew relatively late. He cited J.L. Herring, who described a Fourth of July barbecue from around 1880 and wrote, “There was no Brunswick stew in those days.” His history credits Brunswick County, Virginia, with the name. The same history notes that good-natured “stew wars” between the two states continue.
From squirrel to chicken and pork
Stews that mix meat and grain likely began with ancient farmers in both the Old and New Worlds, according to Burrison. He cited anthropologist Charles Hudson, who reported that Southeastern Indians made stews of hominy with groundhog or squirrel. Burrison called Kentucky burgoo the dish’s likely closest relative.
The recipe varies as widely as the claims about it. Cooks often swap chicken or pork for the old squirrel or rabbit, Burrison wrote, and some add beef or mix several meats in one pot. A recipe from Toccoa, Georgia, gets a sweet-sour flavor from cooked-down maraschino cherries and lemons.
Beef climbs while pork and poultry hold
Pork and poultry, two meats that often replace game in the pot, have risen far less in price than beef over the past year. In September, federal price data showed poultry prices 1.1% higher than a year earlier, while pork prices were down 0.7%. Beef and veal prices rose 3.5% over the same stretch.
Federal forecasters expect beef and veal prices to climb 8.7% for all of 2026. They also expect beef production to stay below year-ago levels through year-end. Their forecasts for pork and poultry call for increases of only 1% and 1.2%.
From a queen’s table to a state law
Long before either state made its claim official, author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote in her 1942 book “Cross Creek Cookery” that Queen Victoria favored the stew and that it may have reached Buckingham Palace from Braunschweig, the German city also known as Brunswick. Thirty years later, James Beard included the dish in his classic “American Cookery.” His recipe built the stew on two or three squirrels and veal stock, then added corn, lima beans, tomatoes and okra along with half a cup of Madeira.
Royal and cookbook fame never settled the matter at home, and in 2025 Georgia lawmakers wrote their state’s claim into law, naming Brunswick stew the official state stew in a measure that took effect July 1. The measure states, “Contrary to claims by other states, Georgia, and specifically Brunswick, Georgia, is the birthplace of Brunswick stew.”
Virginia keeps its side of the argument going with a pot, and the tradition plays out each January on the Capitol grounds in Richmond, where Brunswick County stew masters cook for Brunswick Stew Day on the fourth Wednesday of the month and serve the stew to lawmakers and the public. The next one falls on Jan. 27, 2027. In 2026, a snowstorm pushed the cook into February, and that year’s pot held about 85 gallons.
The argument can stay open
Whichever Brunswick deserves the credit, cooks have never agreed on a single recipe, and over the years they have filled the pot with squirrel, chicken, pork and even maraschino cherries. Browse a few recipes and cook it the way your family likes it, then let anyone with a birthplace opinion bring a second pot.
Jennifer Allen is a retired professional chef and long-time writer. Her work appears in dozens of publications, including MSN, Yahoo, The Washington Post and The Seattle Times. These days, she’s busy in the kitchen developing recipes and traveling the world, and you can find all her best creations at Cook What You Love.