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 2198 recipes in total:

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Smoked Fish Light Soup      Origin: Ghana	Spiced Lima Beans with Garlic and Coconut      Origin: Nepal	Stoved Howtowdie wi' Drappit Eggs      Origin: Scotland
Smoked Fish Stew      Origin: Ancient	Spicy Braised Cabbage      Origin: Tanzania	Stovies      Origin: Scotland
Smoked Sausage and Bean Casserole      Origin: British	Spicy Chicken Gizzards      Origin: South Africa	Studenetz (Jellied Ham Hocks)      Origin: Ukraine
Smoky Pumpkin Chili      Origin: American	Spicy Potatoes      Origin: Ireland	Stufato del Pescatore (Italian Fisherman's Stew)      Origin: Italy
Soganli Yahni (Mutton Stew with Onions)      Origin: Turkey	Spinach and Peanut Butter Stew      Origin: West Africa	Stuffat Tal-Fenek (Rabbit Stew)      Origin: Malta
Sokossoko de Rognon (Sokossoko with Kidneys)      Origin: Burkina Faso	Spinach and Simsim      Origin: Uganda	Stuffat Tal-Qarnit (Octopus Stew)      Origin: Malta
Solachi Kadhi (Kokam Sauce)      Origin: India	Springbok Potjekos      Origin: South Africa	Stuffed Pheasant Breasts with Prune Sauce      Origin: Scotland
Somlar Mochu Sachko (Sour Beef Stew)      Origin: Cambodia	Squash Stuffed with Freekah and Peppers      Origin: Lebanon	Suaasat      Origin: Greenland
Sopa di Bonchi Korá (Red Kidney Bean Soup)      Origin: Aruba	Sri Lankan Chicken Curry      Origin: Sri Lanka	Succotash      Origin: America
Sopa di Bonchi Korá (Red Kidney Bean Soup)      Origin: Bonaire	Sri Lankan Curried Okra      Origin: Sri Lanka	Sudanese Rice      Origin: Sudan
Sopa di Bonchi Korá (Red Kidney Bean Soup)      Origin: Curacao	Sri Lankan Fish Curry      Origin: Sri Lanka	Sugar Bean Curry      Origin: South Africa
Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Aruba	Srpska Corba ot Graha (Serbian Bean Stew)      Origin: Serbia	Sukuma Wiki      Origin: Kenya
Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Bonaire	St Columba's Broth      Origin: Ancient	Sukuma Wiki      Origin: South Sudan
Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Curacao	St Helena Curry and Rice      Origin: St Helena	Summer Lamb Casserole      Origin: Britain
Sorrel Sarma      Origin: North Macedonia	St Kitts Seasoned Breadfruit      Origin: Saint Kitts	Summer Vegetable Stew      Origin: Britain
Souko Dounguouri (Meat Stew with White Beans)      Origin: Niger	St Kitts Stewed Fish      Origin: Saint Kitts	Sunday Stew      Origin: Nigeria
Soupa Canja (Okra and Palm Oil Soup)      Origin: Gambia	St Lucian Pepper Pot      Origin: Saint Lucia	Superkanja      Origin: Gambia
Soupe aux Lentilles et Legumes (Lentil and Bean Soup)      Origin: Burundi	Steak Cooked in Milk      Origin: Malawi	Suqaar (Somali Beef Stew)      Origin: Somalia
Soupe aux pois et la viande (Pea Soup and Meat)      Origin: Guinea-Bissau	Steamed Crawfish      Origin: Liberia	Suriname Masala Chicken      Origin: Suriname
Soupe de mouton (Mutton soup)      Origin: Saint-Martin	Stew Peas      Origin: Jamaica	Şurpa (Shurpa)      Origin: Turkmenistan
Soupe de Porc Fume (Smoked Pork Soup)      Origin: Burkina Faso	Stewed Beef in Coconut Milk with Dumplings      Origin: Trinidad	Suss-Saures Rotkraut (Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage)      Origin: Germany
Soupe Kandja      Origin: Mali	Stewed Beeff (Stewed Beef)      Origin: England	Suya Beef Heart Curry with Beans and Wild Greens      Origin: Fusion
Soupou Gertö (Chicken with Tomato Sauce and Sweet Potatoes)      Origin: Guinea	Stewed Japanese Knotweed and Angelica      Origin: Britain	Svelkonik      Origin: Belarus
Soupou Konkoé (Smoked Fish Soup)      Origin: Guinea	Stewed Partridge      Origin: Britain	Svinsko S Bel Bob (Pork with Beans)      Origin: Bulgaria
Soupou Tehou (Beef Soup)      Origin: Guinea	Stewed Pork in Red Sauce      Origin: Sao Tome	Swahili Aubergine Curry      Origin: East Africa
Souse      Origin: Saint Lucia	Stewed Pork with Chickpeas      Origin: Fusion	Sweet Coconut Pumpkin with Pandan Leaves      Origin: Kiribati
Sousi Pa (Fish with Coconut Cream)      Origin: Laos	Stewed Rhubarb and Angelica      Origin: Britain	Sweet Potato Pottage      Origin: Nigeria
South African Cape Malay Curry      Origin: South Africa	Stewed Smoked, Sun-dried Fish      Origin: Montenegro	Sweet Potato Stew      Origin: African Fusion
South African Rhus Bukhari      Origin: South Africa	Stewed Taro Leaves      Origin: Palau	Szeged Gulyasz (Pork Goulash with Sauerkraut)      Origin: Czech
South African Vegetable Biryani      Origin: South Africa	Stiw Cig Oen Cymreig (Welsh Lamb Stew)      Origin: Welsh	Tô      Origin: Burkina Faso
Southern Style Pot of Greens      Origin: American	Stiw Eidion Cymreig (Welsh Beef Stew)      Origin: Welsh	T'fina Aricha (Beef and Wheat Stew)      Origin: Tunisia
Southern Succotash      Origin: America	Stiw Pysgotwr (Fisherman's Stew)      Origin: Welsh	Tabah Moostafah (Tagine of Marrakech Lamb)      Origin: Morocco
Sphondylos Elixatos (Boiled Parsnips)      Origin: Roman	Stockfish Stew      Origin: Nigeria
Spiced Guinea Fowl Peppersoup      Origin: Nigeria	Stoved Chicken      Origin: Scotland

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