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 2530 recipes in total:

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Sauce Feuilles de Manioc Camerounaise (Cameroonian Cassava Leaf Sauce)      Origin: Cameroon	Scottish Rabbit Curry      Origin: Scotland	Sicilian Fish Sauce      Origin: Italy
Sauce Gbanbouda (Tô with Okra Sauce and Peanuts)      Origin: Guinea	Sea Spaghetti alla Bolognese      Origin: Fusion	Sidvudvu (Pumpkin Porridge)      Origin: eSwatini
Sauce Gombo (Gombo Sauce)      Origin: Guinea	Seafood Amok      Origin: Cambodia	Sieden Hähnchen (Simmered Chicken)      Origin: Germany
Sauce Gombo      Origin: Niger	Seafood Chili      Origin: American	Sierra Leonean Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew      Origin: Sierra Leone
Sauce Gombo et Boeuf (Okra Sauce with Beef)      Origin: Burkina Faso	Seaweed Ribollita      Origin: Fusion	Sierra Leonean Style Couscous      Origin: Sierra Leone
Sauce Gombo Togolaise (Togolese Okra Sauce)      Origin: Togo	Seco de Chivo (Dry-fried Goat Meat)      Origin: Ecuador	Sierra Leonian Egusi Soup      Origin: Sierra Leone
Sauce Gombos Burkinabé (Burkinabe Okra Sauce)      Origin: Burkina Faso	Seengre ke Satha Tori Kari (Courgette Curry with Radish Pods)      Origin: India	Siga Wot (Ethiopian Beef Stew)      Origin: Ethiopia
Sauce Koumrangan (Hibiscus Leaf Sauce)      Origin: Chad	Sehriyeli Pilav (Pilaf with Orzo)      Origin: Turkey	Simboro (Meat with Taro Leaves and Coconut Milk)      Origin: Vanuatu
Sauce Légume      Origin: Benin	Seitan Nyembwe      Origin: African Fusion	Simple Mole Poblano      Origin: Mexico
Sauce Moundourou (Moundourou Leaf Sauce)      Origin: Chad	Semizotu Yemegi (Turkish Purslane Stew)      Origin: Turkey	Sindhi-style Pilau      Origin: Pakistan
Sauce Oseille (Sorrel Sauce)      Origin: Burkina Faso	Semolina Gnocchi      Origin: Italy	Sint Eustatian Goat Water      Origin: Sint Eustatius
Sauce sarzyne (Saracen Sauce)      Origin: England	Sepias Elixas a Balineo (Boiled Cuttlefish from the Tank)      Origin: Roman	Sint Eustatius Rice and Black Beans      Origin: Sint Eustatius
Sauerbraten      Origin: Germany	Serabe (Boiled Offal)      Origin: Botswana	Sint Maarten Lokri      Origin: Sint Maarten
Sauerbraten II (Soured Beef)      Origin: Germany	Serekunda Fish Benachin      Origin: Gambia	Sint Maarten Whelk Soup      Origin: Sint Maarten
Sausage Ragu      Origin: Britain	Seswaa (Pounded Meat)      Origin: Botswana	Skirlie      Origin: Scotland
Sauté de cerf a la calédonienne (New Caledonian-Style Venison Sauté)      Origin: New Caledonia	Setsamandi (Lamb, Rice and Herb Gruel)      Origin: Georgia	Skoudehkaris (Djibouti Rice)      Origin: Djibouti
Sautéed Collard Greens      Origin: American	Sewin yn y Badell (Pan-fried Sea Trout)      Origin: Welsh	Slow Cooker Mushy Peas      Origin: England
Savoury Chops      Origin: Australia	Seychelles Fish Curry II      Origin: Seychelles	Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken      Origin: America
Saws Rhython (Cockle Sauce)      Origin: Welsh	Shahi Chicken Korma      Origin: India	Slow Cooker Vegetable Curry      Origin: Britain
Scallops with Onion Cream Sauce      Origin: Scotland	Shalgham Korma (Turnip Curry)      Origin: India	Slow-cooked Ox Cheek Rendang      Origin: Singapore
Schwalbennester (Bavarian Veal)      Origin: Germany	Shattoo Water      Origin: Dominica	Slow-roasted Lamb Shanks with Tomatoes and Olives      Origin: Australia
Schweinefleisch mit Wurzelgemüse und Äpfeln (Pork with Root Vegetables and Apples)      Origin: Germany	Shellfish Seaweed Pudding      Origin: Ancient	Slow-simmered Beefsteak Fungus      Origin: Britain
Schweinshaxe (Pork Hocks)      Origin: Germany	Shemai (Sweet Vermicelli)      Origin: Bangladesh	Smoked Fish Light Soup      Origin: Ghana
Schyconys with the Bruesse (Stewed Chicken)      Origin: England	Shi Zi Tou (Lion’s Head Meatballs)      Origin: China	Smoked Fish Stew      Origin: Ancient
Scotch Broth      Origin: Scotland	Shishwala (Maize Porridge)      Origin: eSwatini	Smoked Sausage and Bean Casserole      Origin: Britain
Scotch Broth with Pepper Dulse      Origin: Scotland	Shito (Dark Chilli Sambal)      Origin: Ghana	Smoky Pumpkin Chili      Origin: American
Scotch Collops      Origin: Scotland	Shitor Din      Origin: Ghana	Smoored Fish with Tomatoes      Origin: South Africa
Scotch Hot Pot      Origin: Scotland	Shoko (Nigerian Beef and Spinach)      Origin: Nigeria	Snyboontjies Bredie (Green Bean Bredie)      Origin: South Africa
Scotch Kale      Origin: Scotland	Shorbet Ads (Sudanese Lentil Soup)      Origin: Sudan	Soganli Yahni (Mutton Stew with Onions)      Origin: Turkey
Scotch Stew      Origin: Scotland	Shtitha Batata (Potato Stew)      Origin: Algeria	Sokossoko de Rognon (Sokossoko with Kidneys)      Origin: Burkina Faso
Scots Kidney Collops      Origin: Scotland	Shukto      Origin: Bangladesh	Sokossoko de Viande (Sokossoko with Meat)      Origin: Burkina Faso
Scots Minced Collops      Origin: Scotland	Shurpa      Origin: Uzbekistan	Solachi Kadhi (Kokam Sauce)      Origin: India
Scottish Jugged Hare      Origin: Scotland	Shuwa II      Origin: Oman
Scottish Potted Rabbit      Origin: Scotland	Sibirskie Jeskimosy (Siberian Huskies)      Origin: Siberia

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