Stews have been around almost nearly as long as humans have been cooking. All you need is a vessel to hold your ingredients and water and a means of heating that vessel. It can be as simple as a leather bag with stones heated in a fire dropped into it. So stews were almost certainly prepared during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, if not earlier. Once you have clay or metal pots you can prepare stews next to or set directly over a fire. Stews are low-maintenance cookery, generally not requiring that the cooking pot be observed continuously. The slow cooking is also ideal for tenderizing tougher cuts of meat (neck, shin, tail etc). As these also tend to be the most flavoursome parts of animals, this also means that stews can be extremely flavourful. Stews also pair well with the local staple: potatoes, rice, bread, yams, cassava etc.

Even in hunter-gatherer societies stews are useful in that the slow cooking can make the most of tough meat and it can be combined with foraged grains, leafy greens, nuts and starchy tubers to yield a flavourful, low maintenance and nutritious meal. With the advent of agriculture almost all grains are amenable to stewing and combining grains and legumes in a stew provides a ready way to gain all the essential amino acids that humans (particularly children) require.

The boiling process of making stews also helps sterilize the ingredients, killing harmful bacteria and viruses. It can also help neutralize harmful chemicals, such as the cyanogenic compounds in bitter cassava and helps reduce bitterness in leafy greens, making the food both safer to eat and more palatable. The addition of flavouring ingredients (fruit, spices, herbs) during the cooking process can also alter the flavours of stews, making them more palatable and more appealing. This is particularly the case when adding components with high umami content (certain fish, seaweed, cruciferous vegetables, beans, soy sauce, mushrooms etc).

It is little wonder that, taken globally, the list of stews presented on this site is a long one.

Some stews border on soups and the definition of whether a dish is a soup or a stew. A good example of this is Welsh cawl which can be served with more liquid as a soup or can be thickened as a stew and served with bread and/or potatoes. Most curries, due to their long, slow cooking and blend of ingredients can also be considered a subtype of stew.

Pretty much every culture on earth has a classic stew that's a major part of its cultural culinary repertoire. I have viewed and collected recipes for many of these on my travels. These and other classic stews from around the world are collected and presented here.

The alphabetical list of all the stew recipes on this site follows, (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 2485 recipes in total:

Page 18 of 25

Peanut Soup      Origin: West Africa	Phool gobhi Achari      Origin: India	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Papua
Pears with Cinnamon and Wine      Origin: Roman	Picadillo      Origin: Cuba	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Samoa
Peas and Rice      Origin: Turks Caicos	Picadillo de Vainicas (Green Bean Picadillo)      Origin: Costa Rica	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Tonga
Pease Pottage      Origin: Britain	Picado à Madeirense (Beef Tips, Madeiran Style)      Origin: Portugal	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Vanuatu
Peeres in Confyt (Pears in Confit)      Origin: England	Pick a Pepper Soup      Origin: Equatorial Guinea	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Kiribati
Peiouns y Stewed (Stewed Pigeons)      Origin: England	Pied de Veau aux Pois Chiches (Calf's Feet with Chickpeas)      Origin: Burkina Faso	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Federated States Micronesia
Pelau      Origin: Saint Kitts	Piezly Mukhat (Chickpea and Onion Stew)      Origin: Tajikistan	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Cook Islands
Pelēkie Zirņi ar Speķi (Grey Peas with Bacon)      Origin: Israel	Pig Tail Bouillon with Dumplings      Origin: Saint Lucia	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: New Caledonia
Pemahun      Origin: Sierra Leone	Pigeon Breasts      Origin: Scotland	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Wallis Futuna
Penang Prawn Curry      Origin: Thailand	Pigeon Peas and Rice      Origin: Anguilla	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Society Islands
Penfras Cymraeg Wedi Pobi (Welsh Cod Bake)      Origin: Welsh	Pilaf Rizi (Rice Pilaf)      Origin: Cyprus	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Marshall Islands
Penne with Fresh Pumpkin Sauce      Origin: American	Pilafi Pourgouri (Crushed Wheat Pilaf)      Origin: Cyprus	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Marquesas Islands
Penne with Mushroom Cream Sauce      Origin: Italy	Pilao (Comorian Pilau)      Origin: Comoros	Pizza Rustica (Italian Easter Ham Pie)      Origin: Ghana
Pèpè Soupe (Ivorian Pepper Soup)      Origin: Cote dIvoire	Pilao ou Riz au Poulet (Mahoran Chicken Pilau)      Origin: Mayotte	Plantain Pilé à la Sauce d'Arachide (Crushed Plantains with Peanut Sauce)      Origin: Cameroon
Peperonata      Origin: Italy	Pilao ou Riz au Poulet (Comorian Chicken Pilau)      Origin: Comoros	Plasas (Sierra Leonean Chicken Peanut Stew)      Origin: Sierra Leone
Pépésup (Pepper Soup)      Origin: Equatorial Guinea	Pilau Mouton de Comores (Comorian Mutton Pilau)      Origin: Comoros	Plat Songhay (Songhay Dish)      Origin: Mali
Pepián      Origin: Guatemala	Pilav Limon (Lemon Pasta Pilaf)      Origin: Georgia	Plat Tradicional Fula (Traditional Fulani Dish)      Origin: Guinea-Bissau
Pepones et Melones (Water and Honey Melons)      Origin: Roman	Pink Leg of Lamb      Origin: Turkey	Plays in Cynee (Plaice in Spiced Bread Sauce)      Origin: England
Pepper Soup      Origin: Liberia	Pinon au Dindon (Pinon with Turkey)      Origin: Togo	Plokkfiskur (Icelandic fish stew)      Origin: Iceland
Pepper Soupe de Poisson (Fish Pepper Soup)      Origin: Cameroon	Pintade à l'Afrique (African Guinea Fowl)      Origin: Guinea	Plov S Mindalyom, Izyumom I Apelsinovoy Tsedroy (Fruit Pilaf)      Origin: Georgia
Pepperpot      Origin: Antigua	Pintade de Guinée (Guinean Guineafowl)      Origin: Guinea	Point-and-kill      Origin: Nigeria
Perch Benachin      Origin: Gambia	Pipián (Chicken in Peanut Sauce)      Origin: Philippines	Pois d'Angole (Pigeon Peas)      Origin: Guadeloupe
Perdicem cum pluma (Sauce for Wood Pigeon or Partridge)      Origin: Roman	Pisam Adulteram Versatilem (Peas Turnover)      Origin: Roman	Poisson au Fúmbwa (Fish with Fumbwa)      Origin: Central African Republic
Peri Peri Kari Camarão (Fiery Prawn Curry)      Origin: Mozambique	Pisam coques (Peas in Herb Sauce)      Origin: Roman	Poisson au Lait de Coco (Fish in Coconut Milk)      Origin: Cote dIvoire
Peri-Peri Chicken with Peri-Peri Rice      Origin: Mozambique	Pisam Farsilem (Pressed Peas)      Origin: Roman	Poisson Yassa Mauritanienne (Mauritanian Fish Yassa)      Origin: Mauritania
Persian Lentils with Orange Juice and Angelica      Origin: Iran	Pisam Vitellianam sive fabam (Peas or Broad Beans Beans in a Herb Sauce)      Origin: Roman	Poissons en sauce aux arachides (Fish in Groundnut Sauce)      Origin: Gabon
Peruvian Goat Stew      Origin: Peru	Pisca Hasa (Fried Fish)      Origin: Aruba	Pollo Alla Cacciatora (Sammarinese Chicken Cacciatore)      Origin: San Marino
Perys en Composte (Pears in Compote)      Origin: England	Pisca Stoba (Fish Stew)      Origin: Puerto Rico	Pollo Borracho Chileano (Chilean Drunken Chicken)      Origin: Chile
Peson of Almayne (German Peas)      Origin: England	Pisces Zomoteganon II (Fish Stewed in its Own Juice)      Origin: Roman	Pollo con Salsa de Cacahuetes (Chicken with Peanut Sauce)      Origin: Equatorial Guinea
Petit Salé with Winter Root Vegetables and Ceps      Origin: Britain	Pisken Balyk (Boiled Fish)      Origin: Kazakhstan	Pollo de Chocolate (Chocolate Chicken)      Origin: Mexico
Phaksha Pa      Origin: Bhutan	Pisupo      Origin: Samoa	Pollo en Salsa      Origin: Costa Rica
Phaksha Paa (Bhutanese Pork with Chillies)      Origin: Bhutan	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Papua New Guinea	Pollo Guisado (Dominican Stewed Chicken)      Origin: Dominican Republic
Phane Stew      Origin: Botswana	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Fiji
Pheasant Stew with Whisky      Origin: Scotland	Pit Pit in Coconut Cream      Origin: Niue

Page 18 of 25