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‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

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Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#51

Post by zarzavat »

TuringNYC wrote: post #20
Waterluvian wrote: post #5

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

Perhaps i'm geeking this out too much, but I guess it depends on ingress-vs-egress and drawdown....but...doesn't including nearly spoiling food risk the whole stew going bad in a few days? Or do the constant simmer prevent that?

Food goes bad when either there are microbes growing in it (you get sick from infection), or there have been microbes growing and those microbes have left behind toxins (you get poisoned).

Nothing can remain alive in a boiling pot of stew, the few things that can survive have very specialized habitats. So the only things you have to worry about are non-living poisons: toxins and prions. Since these by definition cannot reproduce, it’s only a problem if the food was spoiled before it went in the stew.

The chance of encountering a toxin goes to 100% as more and more food is added, but it will be dilute, no different to consuming food just before it goes bad.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#52

Post by yourapostasy »

inetknght wrote: post #23
Waterluvian wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. I'm not sure the historians fully know. This concept might even be apocryphal to an extent. What I have learned is that the concept evolved (like so much cooking does) from what I described into a "it's actually now a recipe that people prepare once." Something else I learned is that back in the day, people had different expectations for food quality. We would regularly eat rancid meat (many BBQ sauces…

> well... actually we purge it once a week otherwise it goes completely bad I know that when I cook stews I often end up with a lot of food bits stuck and eventually burned at the bottom and sides of the pot. I can imagine keeping it going by pouring the stew contents to another pot so that I could clean the first pot though. Without doing that... those stuck & burned bits will certainly add "flavor" to the stew.

> ...those stuck & burned bits will certainly add "flavor" to the stew.

Cooking fuel from wood was expensive to procure, so if I were making such a stew I'd cook it low and slow to conserve precious wood, so maybe they "cooked" over coals back then.

If I were to do this today, I'd top off with lots of water before bedtime so there won't be burnt bits in the morning. Maybe try to seal the lid edge with dough that can be used as bread in the morning to sop up the stew (might need to do 2-3 batches of such bread to make the supply of it last through the day).

I'd also likely use a rocket stove, a pot heat exchanger [1], and hot water pipes on the inside and outside of the rocket stove exhaust port to extract out as much working heat as possible.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1j1RI3D7Zk

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#54

Post by jedberg »

My wife is Cantonese and while we don't have any family heirloom broths, there are definitely weeks, especially in winter, where we just have a constant broth going for a couple of weeks. All the leftover veggie bits and bones and such get thrown in there as we go. The flavor is always different, usually good, sometimes a little odd, but then we just purposely put new food in to balance it out (an apple for some sweetness for example).

I gotta say it's nice to always have a pot of soup ready to go when it's cold.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#55

Post by sasattack »

Waterluvian wrote: post #5

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

[flagged]

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#56

Post by Cpoll »

nerdponx wrote: post #18
jollyllama wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangentially related would be Navy coffee, which sailors say is made in pots that are never cleaned and develop a "varnish" of sorts.

People say the same about Bialetti-style "moka pot" coffee makers. The reality is that any "varnish" is just old rancid coffee oil.

I agree. People: clean your moka pots! If you believe the patina improves your coffee, test your theory: Brew a batch with just water, and give it a taste.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#57

Post by gumby »

My father grew up (1930s and 40s) with a batch of soup always on the back of the stove. He moved away to university and then married my mum, a physician, who found the idea of that horrifyingly unhygienic.

He told me about this at some point when I was a kid, and observed that he was basically never sick after he grew up and moved out.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#58

Post by malfist »

SatvikBeri wrote: post #48
TuringNYC wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps i'm geeking this out too much, but I guess it depends on ingress-vs-egress and drawdown....but...doesn't including nearly spoiling food risk the whole stew going bad in a few days? Or do the constant simmer prevent that?

Almost all dangerous bacteria develops in temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees, so as long as you keep the stew hot enough it's likely to be fine: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and...

To add to this, the ones that survive outside that range are typically anaerobic and can't survive being exposed to air, so that makes it even less likely to be a vector for food poisoning

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#59

Post by hosh »

In the recent weeks, monads finally clicked for me, and I was introduced to Christopher Alexander’s ideas on “unfolding” (and thus, generative patterns). (https://www.livingneighborhoods.org/ht-0/whatisanunfolding.h...)

It tickles me to see this in food. The article talks about how those flavor profiles change over time.

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