Mulligan Stew

"This stew is a popular ‘community stew’ where each member of the community contributes part of the recipe. Someone builds a fire for cooking. Someone else finds the meat. Another person rustles up whatever veggies they can find. The finished stew is essentially a catch-all recipe using whatever ingredients are available. A Mulligan Stew is also called a ‘hobo stew’ as it was a popular meal in hobo camps in the early 1900’s. The stew was often cooked in a large can over an open fire. Other regional variations of the Mulligan Stew are quite popular, too. In Kentucky, the term ‘burgoo’ refers to a communal stew, although burgoo is often spicier than Mulligan Stew. In fact, a study by the Works Progress Administration noted that the concept of burgoo began when a Confederate army cook put “potatoes, tomatoes, onions, some cabbage, twenty-nine blackbirds, three crows, a goose, several hens, and a young pig” in a powder kettle and let the whole thing simmer. Talk about a stew made from whatever you could find!"