JAMIE ROBERTS (Nashville, Tennessee) was born in Montevallo, Alabama. She shares that her paternal grandmother, BERTIE MAE WILLIAMS ROBERTS, was born in the small Georgia town of Millen in 1914. The grandchildren affectionately called her Nannaner. One of her specialties was Brunswick stew, a classic Georgian recipe perfectly scaled for large crowds hungry for a hearty blend of chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and onions. The dish dictates a long, slow process, so cooking it became the central event of many Roberts family social gatherings. “The family would sit around the fire, laughing at old jokes and swapping stories as the concoction thickened. We could hardly wait to ladle the piping hot stew over rice, and nobody missed a chance to use a couple of slices of barbecue bread to sop up the juice. While I’ve never had the patience to try making the stew myself, I’ll gladly travel hundreds of miles whenever I hear my daddy has a pot simmering,” Jamie says.
2 medium hens
1 pound calf liver
6 large onions, diced
2 ½ pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
1 gallon canned tomatoes
1 gallon canned whole corn
½ gallon chicken broth
1 quart whole milk
1 pound butter
1 (12 ounce) bottle chili sauce
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce to taste
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 Boil the hens for several hours.
2 In a separate pot, presoak the liver for 20 to 30 minutes, rinse, and then boil for 40 minutes. When done, drain and grind the liver into a large pot.
3 When the hens are done, remove from the boiling water, pull the meat from the bones, and shred into small pieces (as for hash). Place in the pot with the ground liver.
4 Strain the hen broth and add to the large pot with the liver and hen meat. Add the onions, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, chicken broth, milk, and butter. Cook slowly over an open flame or gas.
5 Once the stew begins to simmer, cook for 6 hours or until well thickened, stirring consistently. Add the chili and Worcestershire sauces and mix well. When ready to eat, season to your liking with hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Serve hot.
MAKES 12 TO 15 SERVINGS.