It’s Stew York City, Baby!

July 18, 2023 7:43 AM

It's been in the Washington Post, the New York Post, and Eater NY. It's the Perpetual Stew Club, a gathering in Brooklyn featuring a stew that has been cooking for five weeks and counting. Want to get in on it? Just bring an ingredient (keep it vegan, please), and let them know ahead of time if your name is Stu (or Sue).

Title comes from Anne Kadet's Substack column on the PSC (archive.today link; other articles above have a.t links in their latter halves).

posted by Etrigan (28 comments total)

Isn't this what goes down in France in une marmite? I believe the eponymous dark paste which Brits spread on toast is vegan. As an evolutionary biologist, I love the idea that the contents of this Brooklyn pot is a ship of theseus (without the barnacles): every day different, every day mmmm so good.
posted by BobTheScientist at 7:53 AM on July 18, 2023

Shouldn't this have been posted to the green instead as a "Can I eat it?" Mods?
posted by kensington314 at 7:54 AM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

From the FAQ section of the Perpetual Stew Club link:

Is the stew actually good? completely depends on the day

I appreciate the honesty, but no thanks.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:06 AM on July 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

Why is a thing that’s been happening for a little over a month newsworthy?
posted by Captaintripps at 8:24 AM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

I appreciate that they're doing this, but let me know when the Biennial Bone Broth is ready.
Or, as those in the know call it, "Slow Skeleton Soup"
posted by phooky at 8:28 AM on July 18, 2023 [6 favorites]

Oh Anne Kadet who finds Jordan Peterson just so...interesting? I had to unsubscribe at that point.
posted by stevil at 8:38 AM on July 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Why is a thing that’s been happening for a little over a month newsworthy?

It takes awhile for a nice stew to really develop its full flavors.
posted by chavenet at 8:44 AM on July 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

Japan laughs.
posted by praemunire at 8:56 AM on July 18, 2023 [6 favorites]

In 6th grade we went on a campout and everyone was encouraged to bring a single can of soup, which we combined to make "hobo stew" or something like that. It was not good.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:03 AM on July 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

I've seen veggie/vegan stews that people have kept going for months just because they're hippies like that and they really liked stew/soup.

They were usually pretty damn good.

This probably works best if you also know a bunch of hippies that like stew and soup so it keeps getting eaten and cycled on a daily basis and you can work with a very large pot of it. This isn't something that works well in a little 1-2 quart sauce pan, you want a really big kettle or pot so it has plenty of room.

I never got sick from any of these perpetual stews even though they'd often go through cooling periods where they just turn off the heat for a few hours, and it probably helps that the stews were either vegan or vegetarian instead of having any meat in them.

This includes instances of stews/soups that used a lot of dumpster dived produce and were cooked in a live-aboard bus or other mobile living arrangement where they'd frequently have to take it off the heat while they moved to a new location.
posted by loquacious at 9:09 AM on July 18, 2023

I would try the heck out of it. Bet it would go great with the unintentional perpetual coffee mug I tend to develop for myself so as to avoid wasting leftover coffee from day to day (though to be fair I do make a point of dumping it out once a week ... Health!)
posted by DingoMutt at 9:10 AM on July 18, 2023 [8 favorites]

For stuff like this I usually put in a gold quality cauliflower that I've saved from the spring. Mayor Lewis and the governor are always really impressed.
posted by charismatic megafauna at 9:20 AM on July 18, 2023 [19 favorites]

To invert the concept, I once went to an experimental theater performance, where, admission was a few bucks plus some vegetables. While the performance went on, they made soup, and after the audience and actors sat around, ate it (with some donated bread), and talked about the show. It was kind of fun to see how sharing soup made the audience a community for a moment.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:28 AM on July 18, 2023 [14 favorites]

A related post from last year.
posted by misteraitch at 9:37 AM on July 18, 2023

Reading the thread title I thought this post was going to be about NYC weather, which I would describe as "soupy" at 80% humidity and 85 degrees.
posted by joeyjoejoejr at 9:43 AM on July 18, 2023 [12 favorites]

Some might know the stew-steward better as the Depths of Wikipedia curator, Annie Rauwerda.
posted by knile at 9:49 AM on July 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

I recall a passage in Wolf Hall where a cook is put to death after several guests were sickened by the soup, even though some thought that the problem was that it was left unattended just long enough to go off boil.
posted by gwint at 10:01 AM on July 18, 2023

Reading the thread title I thought this post was going to be about NYC weather, which I would describe as "soupy" at 80% humidity and 85 degrees.

Given the current heat, the notion of indulging in a hot bowl of anything doesn't sound appealing, but my seasonal equivalent of this is an eternal bottle of cold brew iced tea that I just keep refilling with other tea leaves and water when it just gets down to 1/3 or 1/4 fall. I've been alternating with a black tea blend and some peppermint but have been contemplating adding some fruit teas to the chemistry experiment.
posted by bl1nk at 10:24 AM on July 18, 2023

joeyjoejoejr: “NYC weather, which I would describe as "soupy" at 80% humidity and 85 degrees.”

That shoots right past dank and into the oppressive range.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:48 AM on July 18, 2023

What vegetable (or meat, for that matter) can tolerate stewing for "five weeks and counting?".
posted by tommasz at 11:03 AM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've heard of a traditional "hunter's stew" where the latest daily game is added to the perpetual stew, but every 5 years or so you have to remove the few inches of lead shot that accumulates at the bottom.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:34 AM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Bet it would go great with the unintentional perpetual coffee mug I tend to develop for myself so as to avoid wasting leftover coffee from day to day

Let me tell you about the French press I make once or twice a week. (Coffee purists would be horrified but as I live alone, work from home, and only drink about half a mug a day, it's my best option!)
posted by lunasol at 1:39 PM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

how fresh is that coffee?
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:33 PM on July 18, 2023

There are some sourdough starters that are over 100 years old.
posted by mike3k at 6:42 PM on July 18, 2023

every 5 years or so you have to remove the few inches of lead shot that accumulates at the bottom.

Mmmmm lead stew
posted by each day we work at 11:51 PM on July 18, 2023

Nooooo, the depths of wikipedia person is into Jordan Peterson?? Why is the world so cruel.
posted by kaelynski at 12:27 AM on July 19, 2023

Nooooo, the depths of wikipedia person is into Jordan Peterson?? Why is the world so cruel.

Thankfully, no, if I'm reading things correctly. Anne Kadet wrote the substack linked to in the FPP. Annie Rauwerda is mentioned in the substack as a stew shepherd.
posted by mollweide at 6:36 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

> There are some sourdough starters that are over 100 years old.

There's some in my freezer that, according to family legend, is from the 19th century.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:26 AM on July 22, 2023