Burgoo Harvest Soup Recipe

During the harvest season in southern Indiana, soup pots brim with the last vegetables from the kitchen garden. We don't need an expert to tell us that soup in the fall is the perfect evening dinner, but it's also a culinary tradition that varies from one region of our country to another. Some of these classic soups cross state lines and have become national treasures, but some recipes remain regional. In southern Indiana a traditional regional soup recipe is the local burgoo stew made in many small towns and hamlets.Burgoo has its culinary roots in the hills of Appalachia and was originally made by mountain families from rabbits, squirrels and venison. Like most historical recipes it has morphed through the years into what is known as Kentucky Burgoo.

As a child growing up in southern Indiana, the annual fall burgoo was an event that was looked forward to every year. Farmers hauled bushel baskets brimming with the last of the tomatoes, corn, green beans, golden yellow onion globes, and fresh dug potatoes to a local church kitchen or community building. There farm wives cut, peeled and and prepared the vegetables for the all day long cooking that usually began around 8 in the morning.

Large copper or iron kettles were placed over open fires and boat sized wooden paddles were brought out for the stirring that would begin as soon as the vegetables were placed in the pots. These pots were generally used for outdoor homemade apple butter cooking and at the burgoo party, there were be five or six of the big pots being stirred over their own fires.

While the women chopped and chatted, the men built and maintained the fires and "paddled the pots". In addition to the mix of farm vegetables, beef, pork and chickens were cut up, deboned, and added to the soup pots. Depending upon your recipe, some of the meats might have been smoked the day before and the burgoo would take on a smokey flavor from the meats. If not, the slow cooking would slowly shred the meat into a thick vegetable stew base. Seasonings were added by the cupful to get the right mix.

These men and women had been cooking burgoo for years. Around 4 in the afternoon the burgoo would be declared ready for consumption and the serving began. Burgoo was always served with homemade breads and fresh baked pies. Often the pie baking and bread making had been going on indoors while the burgoo was cooking.

Wooden tables were piled high with bread, relishes, pickles, apple butter and pies of every variety. As the burgoo was ladled up into large serving containers and carried into the serving rooms, the community would gather to share in a harvest fall feast. For a dollar you could eat burgoo, bread and a drink. Another fifty cents for each piece of pie and a feast was had by all!

As an young adult who had left the region, I searched in vain for burgoo fall festivals in my new home only to be dissapointed. No burgoo to be found.

When our children were in the teens, we decided to recreate the burgoo festivals of our childhood and gathering friends and family, we began to do burgoo at our house in late September or October. Each guest brought meat, vegetables and a pie. My husband would smoke chicken and pork to be added to the burgoo on burgoo making day.

We purchased a large cooking pot just for burgoo day that would make gallons of burgoo! As the guests arrived they chopped and prepared their meat and vegetables to be added to the stew. While the stew was being stirred and cooked on the open fire, the children played outdoor games and the women did what women have done for generations. We gathered, sat, laughed, talked, fixed side dishes and prepared for our own community feast.

The recipe I created for burgoo is not a secret but I have discovered that everyone's burgoo tastes different depending upon how you cook it. Here is the recipe for a medium size pot of burgoo that would serve about 25 people. We generally cook enough burgoo for about 100 people and guests.

Burgoo Soup Recipe

2 whole chickens, smoked or grilled and deboned

1 5 lb pork roast, smoked or grilled

1 5 lb beef chuck roast, chopped in chunks

4 quarts of tomato juice

2 quarts of chicken broth, 2 quarts of beef broth

1 entire celery stalk chopped

5-6 large yellow onions, chopped fine

Assorted vegetables to taste. We like lima beans, corn, green beans, potatoes and some cabbage. All vegetables are peeled and chopped in medium dice.

Combine all the above in large soup pot and begin cooking slowly over low fire, stirring frequently. As it begins to thicken, you will need to almost be stirring constantly, so the stirrers take turns.

Seasoning: Burgoo is all about the seasonings. I use the following and just keep adding to taste as the soup cooks. Worchestershire sauce, liquid smoke, salt, pepper, basil, rosemary, thyme, pepper, red pepper flakes. I wait and add the liquid smoke about one hour before soup is declared done. You just have to practice.

The soup will take on a lovely reddish brown color with a thick smokey flavor that is unique. We know when the soup is done by the taste and the taster always yells, It's burgoo time!

You can downsize the recipe for a smaller crowd but somehow it's just not as much fun!