The concept of perpetual stew is medieval-- literally.
What it boils down to (pun fully intended) is keeping a pot of soup or stew cooking perpetually while adding to it at a relatively constant rate. Its a good place to toss your odds and ends. That said, in the modern era, we have a better knowledge of food safety laws and concepts-- making this ‘scary soup’ less scary.
This is my first ever attempt at perpetual stew. I have outlined my first set of ingredients below.
I don’t really have a goal for this experiment, aside from seeing just how long I can safely make this happen. Just because we have all the conveniences of the modern world doesn’t mean we shouldn’t know how to do things ‘The Old Way.’
I liken it to when a math teacher would say, “Yes, there’s an easier way… and I’ll teach you-- but you still need to know how to do it this way.”
If you guys choose to hang around and watch my stew progress-- Cool! Thanks! Maybe you’ll even be inspired to try it out yourself.
If not, that’s fine too. I just want a place to keep all of this together.
Ingredients
- 8 c. Water
- Kosher Salt
- Minced Garlic
- Red Cap Adobo
- Fresh Cracked Four Peppercorn Blend
- Mushrooms
- Jalapenos
- Green Pepper
- Red Pepper
- Yellow Pepper
- 1 Red Onion
- 2 Yellow Onion
- 3 Carrots
So, in a hypothetical future where this stew is decades old and the most delicious thing on Earth, if I started walking up to it with an armload of durian and stinky tofu, would you tackle me?
Very cool. I recall reading about a perpetual stew being mentioned in the emberverse series as a means to surviving the collapse of civilisation post “the change.” Always made me wonder how they maintain a temperature consistent enough to cook the freshest ingredients and not burn the oldest.
Have you thought about tracking the energy usage? I’m interested to know if aiming for a consistent temperature (assuming that’s how it’s done) i.e., simmering would use less energy than having to heat from a room temperature up to boiling or pan hot each time.
Yes you want to keep it at a constant simmer between 180F and 200F. I’m hanging out around 190F right now.
It has been a LONG time since I’ve done much with science-- I could attempt to try and keep track of energy consumption, but I can’t say my data would be accurate.
I’d be curious if a scientifically-inclined person would be willing to do this and do some energy math. It would absolutely be interesting to see how it played out, over the long term.
Edit to Add: And on this day, we find out why knowing the Scientific Method and doing the Science fair is important.
