Euharlee Crock Pot Brunswick Stew

Directions

1. Using a large skillet, cook the beef and pork very slowly and stir often. Don't overcook. Skim off excess grease.
2. Remove skin and excess fat from chicken. Place in a pan, cover chicken with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer till chicken falls off the bones, 20 to 30 min. Reserve broth for another use, if you like. Remove bones and tear meat into tiny pcs with fingers.
3. Add in chicken to beef-pork mix in skillet. Mix well. Start cooking very slowly over medium-low heat and stir often with a wooden spoon till meats are thoroughly blended.
4. Place mix in crock pot. Add in the tomatoes, corn, ketchup, butter, vinegar, salt, peppers, sugar and water. Mix well. Cook at 300 to 325 degrees for 5 to 6 hrs. Set aside.
5. This recipe yields about 8 servings.
6. Comments: The origins of Brunswick stew, initially based on squirrel meat, then on chicken or possibly rabbit or possibly all three, are shrouded in mystery, Joseph E. Dabney writes in "Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, and Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking" (Cumberland House, $27.95). He quotes a comment from "none other than the dean of Southern food critics and food arbiter supreme, Nashville's John Egerton." According to Egerton, "It seems safe to say which Indians were making stews with wild game long before any Europeans arrived, and in which sense there was Brunswick stew before there was a Brunswick." Dabney says this modern-day "kitchen-friendly" Brunswick stew recipe comes from Atlanta's Charles Auchmutey, a native of Bartow County, Ga.