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Brunswick stew

Brunswick stew

1 6.1
A spicy Southern stew made with chicken, corn, tomatoes, beans, okra, onions, and potatoes
  • noun
  • /ˈbrʌnzwɪk stu/
  • US
translation icon : estofado Brunswick
  • Locally, people often associate annual Brunswick stew dinners with the Andrew Jackson Lodge.
  • barbecue and Brunswick stew
  • homemade Brunswick stew
  • Brunswick stew and sandwiches

We think that the meat in the Smithfield's Brunswick Stew is chicken, not pork.

Examples

  • Ruth, Mary, and Penny ordered barbecue sandwiches and Brunswick stew, and kept their sunglasses on, as if afraid to be recognized.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • We think that the meat in the Smithfield's Brunswick Stew is chicken, not pork.

  • Neither Mama nor Sister Ruth budged an inch when I told them who was out on the back porch, but after a struggle with herself, Ma finally said, "You can give Short Papa this plate of hot Brunswick stew, and let him get his strength back from wherever he has been this time."

    Fiction book (1992)
  • They had met a couple of weeks after Noah bought the house, when Gus had shown up with some homemade liquor and Brunswick stew, and the two had spent their first evening together getting drunk and telling stories.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • Short Papa sat, hands folded, on a little green wicker upright chair before the round green wicker table as I brought him his hot plate of Brunswick stew to the back porch.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The Salisbury Masons also cooked their Brunswick stew on the site of the children's home in Oxford this year, with Preslar as one of the more ardent cooks.

    Blog text (6)
  • At the festival, everyone enjoyed a warm bowl of Brunswick stew made with chicken and vegetables.

  • My aunt always makes her famous Brunswick stew with fresh corn and tomatoes for family gatherings.

  • During chilly evenings, I love to cozy up with a hearty serving of Brunswick stew beside the fire.

Synonyms

stew
vsBrunswick stew
110 1.0

A dish of meat or fish and vegetables cooked slowly in liquid

is a specific Southern spicy version listing particular ingredients like corn and okra

Surface Forms

Morphology

Brunswick + stew

The word 'stew' makes it clear to a B1 learner that the phrase refers to a type of stew, but 'Brunswick' is a toponym/proper name that does not itself convey the specific ingredients, spiciness, or Southern-American cultural meaning. Because the construction is a place-name + dish (a cross-linguistically common pattern) learners can infer it's a stew associated with Brunswick but cannot derive the full, culture-specific sense without prior exposure.

Etymology

Brunswick stew may come from a place called Brunswick where hunters would cook meat and vegetables together in a big stew after a hunt. One popular story says that cooking everything in one pot made a thick, spicy dish, so today Brunswick stew means 'a thick, spicy Southern stew'.