Brunswick stew has fueled a 200-year rivalry between Georgia and Virginia. Here’s the real history, the stew wars, and where to taste it this fall.
Two towns share a name, a stew, and two centuries of grudge, and neither one is backing down. Drive into Brunswick County, Virginia on a cold October Saturday and you’ll find grown adults in matching team shirts stirring iron kettles the size of bathtubs like the fate of the republic hangs on the outcome. Because as far as they’re concerned, it does. Seven hours south, in Brunswick, Georgia, a different set of stew-masters will tell you the exact same thing, with a completely different origin story and a perfectly straight face.
The Story Begins Here
Two Towns, One Name, One Very Old Argument
Brunswick County, Virginia and the coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia have spent close to a century arguing over who invented Brunswick stew, a thick, tomato-based dish of slow-simmered meat, corn, and beans that shows up at fall gatherings across the South. Virginia’s claim traces to 1828, when a hunting-camp cook is said to have thrown squirrel, onions, and stale bread into a pot along the Nottoway River. Georgia’s claim points to a specific date, July 2, 1898, commemorated with a twenty-five-gallon iron pot on permanent display in a waterfront park. Both towns have built festivals, monuments, and no small amount of civic pride on being right.
What’s Actually in the Pot
Strip away the feud and the dish itself is simple, honest cooking. A proper Brunswick stew starts with meat (originally squirrel, rabbit, or opossum, now almost always chicken, pork, or a blend), corn, tomatoes, and butter beans, simmered for hours until an oar could theoretically stand upright in it. Georgia versions tend to run hotter and smokier, often built on barbecue drippings. Virginia versions lean lighter, with chicken and butter beans doing more of the talking. Every cook insists their grandmother’s recipe is the only correct one, which is, frankly, the most American detail in the entire story.
Why This Is More American Than You Think
The Argument Is the Point
Here’s the thing nobody in either town will say out loud: the fight has outlasted almost every fact anyone could use to settle it. Two small towns, neither one large enough to show up on most road maps, have kept a 200-year argument alive not because the historical record is unclear, but because the argument itself became worth more than the answer. That’s not pettiness. That’s two communities deciding a shared pot of stew is worth defending like a birthright, long after the practical stakes disappeared. In practice, that’s what regional pride in America usually looks like: not a plaque, but a grudge nobody’s willing to let go of.
An Autumn Rivalry Right on Schedule
As the weather turns and festival season rolls back around, the rivalry heats up on cue. Virginia’s stewmasters spend late summer prepping for the Taste of Brunswick Festival each October in Lawrenceville, where dozens of teams compete for the title of Stewmaster in front of judges scoring on color, density, and taste. Georgia answers with its own cook-off, the Brunswick Rockin’ Stewbilee, held in Mary Ross Park with live music and a stew competition of its own. Neither side has ever conceded so much as an inch.
🗳️ Quick Poll: If you had to pick a side in the Brunswick stew wars, whose corner would you be in? A) Georgia — 1898 and proud of it B) Virginia — 1828, we had it first C) Kentucky’s burgoo, actually, and I’ll die on this hill D) I just want to eat the stew, leave me out of it. Share your answer in the comments!
The Details That Make It Real
The Virginia Case
Virginia’s version of events centers on a Virginia House of Delegates member named Creed Haskins, who reportedly organized a hunting trip along the Nottoway River in 1828. His camp cook, a Black man named Jimmy Matthews, is credited by Georgia State University folklorist John Burrison and other food historians with combining squirrel, onions, butter, and stale bread into the first documented version of the dish. Recipes for the stew turn up in an 1879 Virginia cookbook, decades before Georgia’s claimed date, which is the strongest single piece of evidence in Virginia’s favor. The Virginia General Assembly made it official in 1988, declaring Brunswick County the dish’s original home.
The Georgia Case
Georgia’s version is shorter on paperwork and longer on ceremony. The town’s claim rests on a specific afternoon, July 2, 1898, when a stew was reportedly cooked on St. Simons Island in a twenty-five-gallon iron pot that now sits on a stone pedestal in downtown Brunswick with the date engraved into the base. It’s a confident, photogenic claim. It’s also, by most food historians’ accounting, about seventy years younger than Virginia’s.
📌 Fast Fact: In 1987, both towns began leaning into the rivalry on purpose, turning “stew wars” and dueling cook-offs into an annual tourism draw for two small towns that otherwise rarely make the national news.
One Dish, Four Ways to Meet It
| Region | Signature Style | Defining Ingredient | Where to Try It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brunswick, Georgia | Smoky, tomato-forward, often pork-and-beef, spicier finish | Barbecue drippings | Gary Lee’s Market, Brunswick, GA |
| Brunswick County, Virginia | Lighter body, chicken-forward, butter beans front and center | Butter beans | Stops along the county’s Brunswick Stew Tour |
| Metro Atlanta (modern take) | Bacon-and-butter richness, barbecue-sauce finish | Sweet onion + barbecue sauce | Buttermilk Kitchen, Atlanta, GA |
| Kentucky (cousin dish) | Burgoo — beef added, root vegetables, heartier body | Multiple meats and root veg | Regional burgoo cook-offs across Kentucky |
Table: How Brunswick stew (and its closest cousin) changes as you cross state lines.
Hidden Layers: What Most People Miss
The Twist Neither Town Likes to Advertise
Most retellings of this rivalry stop at “Georgia versus Virginia,” as if the dish sprang fully formed from one of two specific kitchens. It didn’t. Long before either town existed on a map, Southeastern Native American communities were already making communal stews of small game, corn, and beans in a shared pot, feeding hunters and travelers as they passed through. That cooking tradition was later carried forward by enslaved and free Black cooks across the region, Jimmy Matthews almost certainly among them, who adapted it into the dish both towns now claim credit for writing down first. So the real argument isn’t who invented Brunswick stew. It’s who managed to get their name on it.
Why That Actually Matters
That distinction changes the story from a cute small-town squabble into something with real weight. The technique is older and more widely shared than either monument admits, and the people who most directly shaped it left behind fewer plaques, not less influence. AmeriCurious would rather hand you that fuller picture than let two iron pots have the last word.
🧠 Quiz — Test Your Stew Knowledge
- What was the original protein in most Brunswick stew recipes? A) Chicken B) Squirrel C) Beef D) Turkey
- What year does Virginia’s claim date to? A) 1898 B) 1776 C) 1828 D) 1902
- What is the Kentucky cousin of Brunswick stew called? A) Gumbo B) Burgoo C) Etouffee D) Chowder
- Which vegetable is considered essential to most Brunswick stew recipes? A) Okra B) Butter beans (lima beans) C) Carrots D) Peas
Answers: 1) B — Squirrel. 2) C — 1828. 3) B — Burgoo. 4) B — Butter beans, alongside corn and tomatoes.
The Human Story
What a Stranger’s Bowl of Stew Taught Me About Belonging
[I once stood in a church fellowship-hall parking lot somewhere in the rural South holding a paper bowl of stew a total stranger had pressed into my hands before I’d even finished introducing myself.] I hadn’t asked for a history lesson. I got one anyway, delivered between bites, about whose family recipe was superior and why, complete with hand gestures. [What struck me wasn’t the squirrel-versus-chicken debate, it was how much civic pride was riding on a pot of stew nobody was getting rich off of.] Is there anything more American than defending a recipe like it’s a hill worth dying on? [That parking lot conversation is the reason I can’t drive past a “Brunswick Stew Today” sign without pulling over, and I’ve never once regretted it.] Every region has a version of that parking lot. This one just happens to come with two hundred years of documentation.
“Some arguments outlive the facts that started them, and that’s not a flaw. That’s how a small town decides what it’s proud of.” — AmeriCurious
Your Move, America: Try This This Week
Make It, Order It, or Go Find It
You don’t need a hunting trip or a family feud to get in on this one. Cooler weather is exactly when a pot of Brunswick stew earns its keep, and there are three honest ways in:
- 🍲 Cook it: Build a pot with chicken, corn, lima beans, tomatoes, and a splash of barbecue sauce; let it simmer low for at least two hours.
- 🥣 Order it: Look for it on menus at Southern barbecue joints this time of year, especially anywhere within driving distance of Georgia or Virginia.
- 🚗 Go find it: If your fall road-trip plans already include the South, route a stop through Brunswick County or coastal Georgia during festival season and taste both sides of the argument yourself.
- 🗳️ Pick a side, gently: Try both regional styles before you decide who “really” invented it. Most stew-masters will forgive you for staying neutral. Most.
And if stew season has you eyeing other fall drives worth the detour, a scenic byway lined in autumn color pairs surprisingly well with a cooler full of leftovers.
FAQ: Brunswick Stew, Answered
Is Brunswick stew from Georgia or Virginia?
Both towns claim it, but Virginia has the stronger paper trail. Cookbook recipes date to 1879 in Virginia, decades before Georgia’s commemorated 1898 date, though Georgia’s claim remains a point of fierce local pride.
What’s traditionally in Brunswick stew?
A tomato-based stew of meat (originally squirrel or rabbit, now usually chicken or pork), corn, butter beans, and slow simmering until the mixture turns thick and stew-like rather than soupy.
What’s the difference between Brunswick stew and Kentucky burgoo?
Burgoo typically adds beef and a wider mix of root vegetables, giving it a heartier, thicker profile, while Brunswick stew stays closer to its corn-tomato-butter bean base.
Should Brunswick stew be thick or soupy?
Thick. Southern cooks generally agree a proper batch should be dense enough to hold its shape on a spoon, not a thin broth.
Where can I try real Brunswick stew?
Barbecue restaurants across Georgia and Virginia serve it seasonally, and both states host dedicated festivals each year, Georgia’s Rockin’ Stewbilee and Virginia’s Taste of Brunswick Festival, built entirely around the dish.
Whichever side of the pot you land on, that’s the real gift of a dish like this: it hands you a reason to stop, ask a stranger about their grandmother’s recipe, and actually listen to the answer. So tell me, which state’s stew are you rooting for, and has anyone ever changed your mind mid-bowl? Drop your answer in the comments, share this with the one friend who’ll argue about it for twenty minutes, and if stories like this one are your kind of road trip, stick around. There’s always more of this country left to taste.
— AmeriCurious americurious.com Stay Curious | Stay American 🇺🇸
📚 Sources & Further Reading
- New Georgia Encyclopedia, “Brunswick Stew,” Georgia Humanities.
- The Local Palate, “Eatymology: Brunswick Stew,” 2026.
- Southern Living, “The History of Camp Stew,” Robert F. Moss, 2023.
- James Beard Foundation, “Brunswick Stew” recipe archive.
- WTVR CBS6 Richmond, “Virginia celebrates Brunswick Stew Day at state capitol,” 2026.
- Golden Isles Tourism, “Brunswick Rockin’ Stewbilee” official festival page.