1934 Hell Fire Stew Recipe - Old Cookbook Show 

Thanks for watching Everyone! I see that a lot of people are trying to equate this 'Hell Fire Stew' to a U.S. Civil war recipe called 'Hellfire Stew' - the only relation between them is that they use the same 12 letters in the same order... Nothing else is related.

Seems I remember old folks in the southern US used "hell fire" to indicate a situation appeared to be a "mess" or "thrown together." "What in hell fire is going on in there?" It had nothing to do with "heat," but more to do with a chaotic presentation.

Susan from Shelburne, ON here. I took some time to search out John Wagner, and, while not a certainty, I believe this was John Wagner of the John Wagner and Sons wine importers. They lived on School Lane in Philadelphia, and there is now a small museum featuring some memorabilia discovered in old wine barrels in the attic of their old warehouse. They sold wine, then imported cigars, and expanded to spices and herbs, honeys and fine teas. Their customers were wealthy bankers and politicians, including Ulysses S. Grant. I fell down the rabbit hole on this one! Interesting family - but didn't find a cook named Mrs. Hunt, I'm afraid!

The Rabbit is an incredibly exclusive private dining club. Still in existence, but moved from its original location. I'm certain Mrs Hunt was the cook.

Stews like this is what I grew up on. They'd be put in the pot early in the morning and set on the wood stove. Fresh bread or cornbread would be served with it.

Within a German "Eintopf" the beef isn´t browned either. Only the order would be different. Traditionally, the inferior meat (leg, tail, rib) is cooked in one piece with the skins and trimmings of the vegetables. After that, pass the broth through a sieve. The stew is then prepared in the broth and at the end the chopped meat is added again.

As a Philadelphia native, I had to look up the Four Counties Garden Club, and was delighted to find it's still around!

I’d like to see a head to head taste test of this same exact recipe but with it browned and sweated out and the fond and all that vs how this came out!

Quite interesting. My grandmother was of that era, and she put tons of pepper in her hamburger stew. That is when I found out how good black pepper could be in a dish!

This is how my mom and grandma made stew. They both thought I was nuts for browning my meat and onions but loved the taste.

I did find Mrs. Lewis Parsons in Philadelphia in the 1930 census - Anabel C, in Montgomery county, Lower Merion Township. In 1934, she was 49, her husband age 56 was a banker, and they had 6 servants. The house was worth $75000 - in today's money is about $1.3 million.

This recipe reminds me When I first started to cook. I never browned anything... Then I discovered browning onions!

I love this channel! It´s so wholesome, and always puts a smile on my face.

Mrs. Wagner's Pies... I bought one on my way home from school in the '50's, and Simon and Garfunkel sang about her pies while cruising down the N.J. Turnpike... lovely.

8:04 That look Glen gave us says volumes! :D

Having grown up and living in two of those counties, these counties are a majority of ‘The Main Line’. In 1934 there was some wealth even in the Depression. The Main Line consisted of the route of the Pennsylvania Railroad that went from Center City Philadelphia Pa through Paoli Pa. Watch Katherine Hepburn the Philadelphia Story to get a glimpse of what that was like.

Perhaps the hell fire part is when the peppercorns say goodbye the next day on the loo.

Hell Fire Stew - now that's some great Depression Era Cooking. One of my best recipes was handed down by my grandfather from Ohio who was part of a traveling band of clowns which toured the country in the 1930s and 40s. Not only did he fully participate as a performer (juggling and spraying seltzer mostly) but he was also in charge of the Clown Chuckwagon, and over the years, came up with a nice selection of mostly campfire stews (or "or stewge" as Gramps used to call them),, soups and casseroles. One of my favorites, casseroles, which I still prepare frequently, consists of baked beans and wieners (for the KETO portion of the meal), macaroni and cheese. and a couple handfuls of those big orange circus peanuts - a sweet yet savory bake-up that's a hit with everyone who tries it. Gramps had one clown name for performing with his fellow troupers at carnivals, civic events, etc., throughout the central Midwest ""Antsy Pants" - but around the campfire at breakfast or suppertime, when most of these talented vagabond buffoons had removed their make-up and hung their giant shoes in their campers, (but oddly enough not all of them) Gramps was affectionately known among the boys as "Yummo." He told me how it wasn't unusual for farmers to donate a hen or two and maybe a couple of dozen eggs, in return for a brief barnyard slapstick performance by a couple of the boys for the farmer, his family and his hired hands.. He also told me as soon as he got back to camp with the chickens, the alcoholic Geek who traveled with them would inevitably beg permission to bite the heads of the pullets when Gramps was ready to get those birds cooking. Seemed that this particular Geek actually not only savored the taste of the live chickens he was required to eat (which were usually provided by the promoter of the event at which the troupe was performing) - but craved more when "off=the-clock" Talk about a Carnivore diet!! Wow!!! Reportedly, he was known to comment that "live chicken pairs well with a pint of Carstairs White Seal Blended." By the way, Grandma also traveled with Gramps. She was the seamstress - making a good number of the clown suits from her own design and repairing all them when required. So of course Gram and Gran rolled along from town- to -town with a big foot pump operated sewing machine in their trailer, - in addition to all the pots, pants, cutlery, stirrers, etc. My Dad was born in a campground in Posey County, Indiana, delivered by a local midwife and plopped into a casserole baking dish as soon as Gramps cut the umbilical cord with his second best onion chopping knife. As for me, I married young and did well for myself in doing so. My wife is the daughter of an outdoor parking lot magnate in a major city in Ohio. I was dowried with three downtown lots. I've had a comfortable life pretty much doing whatever I want all day while other people collect money on my behalf while sitting down in booths, watching TV, reading (or even snoozing between customers arriving and honking the horns to wake 'em up). Consequently, for awhile, I was able to open a couple of storefront business which specialized in selling "clown suits for the whole family," including custom made if somebody wanted them - and even clown suits for the family pets. The seamstresses I hired used Gram's patterns, of course. . The stores were called "Hem and Ha!" - and with every sale, I usually threw in a copy of one of Gramps' recipes for a clown casseroles, "silly stew," "buffoon bread, "Punchinello Porridge,," or what have you. Of course, they all pair well with seltzer water

Love your show....especially how you clean out every ingredient bowl. Very little food waste, thumbs up

My grandmother didn't brown the meat for her soup either. That was (and still is) my favorite meal. I will admit to being a bit confused when I took a cooking class in college and they wanted us to brown the meat for the soup lab. I would skip the whole peppercorns and just use a normal amount of ground pepper and some salt and a few more herbs. I wonder of the "hellfire" part might be in reference to this being a military recipe, which were often given less than complementary names due to the questionable quality of both the available ingredients and the cook.

Love This Channel! Thank You!

a little history on hell fire stew. Back during the civil war the rations weren't really certain but the one thing you got was hard tack. people would get together and pool their rations and make it with the hard tack to extend it and make it edible. This is probably a version of that. From what I hear civil war hell fire stew was really good.

Glen I love this channel, please keep it going bud

This seems to be a perfect dish for cooking beginners. Just throw everything in and the result won't be horrible. It builds their confidence in the kitchen.

Thank You! Stew always sounds good to me!

I’d brown the beef, the onions & any other aromatics, I’d even maybe toast the peppercorns a bit. Add some niblet corn, a rib or two of chopped celery, and a pan of cornbread.

Thanks Glen! And Jules!

That looks delicious and seems (or feels) like it is from the 30's in that there is little seasoning in the dish. Throw it in a pot and cook it all together sound like the thing to do. Thanks glen.

I really enjoy watching your videos, only found you recently and have lots to catch up on. My parents were married in 1934 and both were good cooks. Meat was always browned, veggies weren't. I learned very early as a teen making stuffing to saute the veggies and deglaze pans. We didn't use much pepper because dad did not like heat. As I grew up and added more ethnic foods we widened our use of herbs and spices. I still can only do a little above mild for heat, but garlic is heavily used along with red pepper flakes, smoked paprika and others.

I am truly enjoying your channel. I have learned a great deal from you. I want to try the no churn ice cream. Rum and Raisin. Yummy.

I was pleased to discover that when I did not brown meat or veg in a stew like this, I got the old familiar flavor of canned soup that is a good memory of mine. It only seems to occur when everything is dumped together and simmered. For me, it's a rich flavor that I crave from time to time.

In case anyone is curious: The four counties are Bucks,Montgomery, Philadelphia, and Chester.

Can't believe you could eat that with all of that whole black pepper 🔥 🔥

Hellfire maybe a reference to an English gentleman s club. Might have been a local hunting or golf club.

You could also start it off in a crockpot and finish it on the stove to thicken it.

I can imagine at times things were not browned and just dumped into a pot for a good reason and that is maybe it's warm, filling and something that can be put on and low maintenance while you are finishing up tasks around.

Hellfire Club was a name for several exclusive clubs for high-society rakes established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. The name most commonly refers to Francis Dashwood's Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe. Such clubs, rumour had it, served as the meeting places of "persons of quality" who wished to take part in what were socially perceived as immoral acts, and the members were often involved in politics. Neither the activities nor membership of the clubs are easy to ascertain. The clubs allegedly had distant ties to an elite society known only as "The Order of the Second Circle".

Whole blackpepper corns are nice in a stew. Little surprise explosions of heat

I wonder if "The Rabbit" refers to the Rabbit Club. There was a "Rabbit Club" in Philadelphia in the 1930s. I'm not sure if it has any connection to the modern club by that name.

Looks great. Thanks.

Awesomeness

Good show as always

I recall a Bugs Bunny cartoon (pretty sure, might have been another Warner Brothers) in which Elmer Fudd puts one drop of Tabasco sauce on I think a steak and Bugs or whoever finds it painfully spicy. One drop of Tabasco. Maybe our standards have changed?

I love how you start your videos, lol. Like, "Oh, didn't see you there. Alright, let's get into it..."

my grandmother and great grandmother used to make this, although it was a cut down version. peas, mushrooms, ground or minced beef, and gravy. sometimes with potatoes and onions, mostly just with macaroni. and lots and lots of black pepper.

Looks like a decent stew, I agree with the browning the beef, or perhaps a dash of Tony Chachere's in the bowl to taste. I wonder if Mrs. Hunt, the Rabbit is referring to her place of employment? An inn or something like that might have the name The Rabbit, similar to "The Fox and Hounds" in the UK.

Max from Tasting History did a civil war era hellfire stew that used hardtack - there might be a connection?

Damn I love you two!

My friend in China used to call this Refrigerator Soup, because he said it looks like I just put things in my fridge into the soup, so I could use them before they went bad... and I said, "That's what I did..." LOL!

First/second... It sounds so good. I would as garlic to it to round out out, but anyway... Thank you so much for the video. As always awesome to watch.

Thank you

Was it just me or did they spell receipts instead of recipes? I did notice Glen pronounced it as receipts when discussing the back section….Probably a petty point. I find many of these old cookbook recipes to be delicious. Made your date cake yesterday and we all loved. Marjorie

It looks just like my “Gone All Day Stew” I used to make when I had my kids at home. Throw it all in the pot and put it in a low oven and let it cook for 6-8 hours. I put mushrooms in mine just cuz I love them

Same here, with "hellfire" in the name, I thought it'd be some kind of super spicy chili-stew.

Tastes change over time. I imagine the enjoyment of spicy foods has changed over time as well.

I doubt you’ll see this but, have you thought to put the old cool books on a website. To create somewhat of a digital library of all these old recipes?

Add another layer of flavor and a piece of cornbread, I'd be good to go ;)

I liked the video 13 Trillion billion million times

My mother never browned the meat when she made stews and they were always delicious

Being from Philadelphia, I have a theory as to why this is called Hell Fire Stew. Because of the huge Italian population in the city, to mimic how houses were made in Italy, the houses had 2 kitchens. The summer kitchen (usually in the basement) was primarily used in the hotter weather to keep the house cool. So Hell Fire Stew could be named after the fact that making the stew helped keep the house HOT in the fall/winter months. I'll do some research and see if my initial reaction to the name is accurate. Thanks to you and your wife bringing this series to us. It remains a constant source of enjoyment to me ! Peace !!

When I was growing up Mom used to make stew using the cheapest cuts of round steak as we didn’t have much money. That was way before slow cookers and since they both worked all day she couldn’t leave it in the oven to slow cook. As a result the meat was chewy and rubbery. It always came with big doughy dumplings that only had flavour if you drowned them in gravy and ketchup which once you picked out the carrots and turnip was about all left to eat. To this day when I hear stew I still have a negative reaction even though I have made some pretty good ones myself using much better cuts of meat and fresh garden vegetables.

As someone who cooks almost everything with a scotch bonnet, let me tell you. Black pepper in the airfryer is really spicy. So I can have some intense heat, but I don’t think cooking it in liquid will give you the intense heat we’re all expecting when hearing the name.

Remember what Captain America said when asked how he’s finding our time. Food’s a lot better now. We used to boil everything. :)

Yummy.

Given the lack of heat in the stew and the socioeconomic standing of the authors, I wonder if the name is a reference to the infamous Hellfire Clubs of earlier times.......

The Rabbit, which follows Mrs. Hunt's name in the recipe, was a junior cooking club in Philadelphia, less exclusive and formal than other similar clubs at the time.

I'm betting that for folks of a certain demographic in pre-WWII America, a teaspoon of peppercorns was probably CRAZY amounts of spice.

So true, I recall my mom always made stew this way, no browning or sautéing, just bung everything in and simmer for 2-3 hours, it always tasted delicious to us, perhaps we over think cooking these days!

Thanks!

I read somewhere that food in the 1930s was bland not only because spices were often scarce or expensive but also because it discouraged overeating when food was scarce. I am not sure how much weight that theory has but it is an interesting idea.

Reminds me of Pennsylvania Pepper Pot stew. Minus the Dumpling

Wow i didnt know about the order of ingredients tying into the method. Thats actually really useful, i'll be looking at recipe books a bit differently now. You learn new stuff everyday.

In a church cookbook that I have it has a beef stew recipe that is called no peek stew and you throw every thing together cook in the oven at 250 for 4 hours

I collect old recipe booklets and I've noticed that mainstream American cuisine from before the 1960s was very heat-averse. I have a chili recipe in one of my booklets that calls for all of 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder!

Definitely brown the meat and saute the onions and peppers. That caramelization is a must! And since I'm from S Carolina, I'd say a dash or 2 of Carolina Reaper pepper sauce would certainly give the name Hellfire Stew more credence! 😄

Ah, _estofada del diablo._ * nods * I approve.

For an authentic, spicy Philadelphia experience, ( which goes back to the Colonial days), try Pepper Pot soup.

I would expect the green peas to cook to mush in two hours. What condition were they actually in when you finished cooking? If I made this I'd be tempted to put the peas in just before or even just after the flour-water slurry.

For me, biting into a whole peppercorn would be like hell fire, as Julie illustrated so well.

It's a good stew, without spending time prepping ingredients, when the kids need tending and the laundry needs finishing, you are preparing dinner.

Use can of Rotel and a can of El Pato for the tomato products and it will be spicy!

Something of note in regards to whole black pepper in a stew or sauce. Yes, as seen, occasionally a peppercorn is bitten into and, yes, it's certainly peppery. A bit of a surprise. If left and eaten over a few days, the heat will transfer from the peppercorns and the meal will grow in relative heat. I, when allowed (ha ha), love to throw a few peppercorns into stews and sauces, pot roasts of any kind. By the time the last bowl is eaten, a few of the peppercorns are left make for a nice hot dish.

nice one

I was thinking add some Guinness (for a more Irish flavor profile) or a good red wine (for a slightly more Mediterranean) or a brewer’s yeast for that depth of flavor. Vegamite isn’t available in my area but it sounds lovely. My mother tends to call this type of stew a “kitchen sink” stew. As in put everything but the kitchen sink in.

I wonder if it derives from a recipe cooked in a Dutch oven in a fireplace. I think sometimes that taking the time to brown stuff for a stew might be related to being able to stand comfortably while you make several approaches to the pot.

Glen, an idea for OCS. How about - at least for bigger stews and dishes, such as this one - you do the original recipe amounts, but use only half of the ingredients with the original method/instructions, and the other half with your own method/modernized instructions?

Hiya Glen, I sent you a recipe book about 12 months ago, its called Recipes from the lake District (traditional Country Fayre) its something like that, could you please do a recipe from that book, even if its only one, that would be nice, by the way keep up the good content, I look forward to your (and Julies) cooking vlogs, this is Choppy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England

My favorite cookbooks are the ones by George Herter, who ran a sporting goods empire and self published cookbooks he sold through his mail order catalog. They are filled with lots of rambling BS, like listening to an eccentric uncle who’s knowledge mostly came from chatting with bartenders. But the recipes are usually quite good. They are a lot of fun.

Growing up, my dad in southern Indiana had severe reflux problems that were exacerbated by anything spicy. When I left home to work in central California, I discovered that my own reflux problems were actually cleared up by capsaicin. Once I'd been there a while, I started making my own chili recipe only loosely based on his. I swapped out most of the canned tomatoes for pace hot picante sauce. Basically, after I'd been there a couple of years, when I'd call home and happen to mention I was making chili, it would give him heartburn. Bariatric surgery served to only increase my tolerance for capsaicin to the point where I now toss in some diced habenero in addition to the hot picante sauce, but a full pot now lasts me a couple of weeks instead of four or five meals ;)

The only thing I could think of is that with green pepper they ment chilli pepper, the "sweet" variety is pretty new I think mid of the 19th century or so (at least as far as I know).... so a hot variety could be ment instead of the normal sweet one.

If you have the 1963 book ‘Indonesian Cookery’ by Lie Sek Hiang, I’d LOVE to see you play with one of the recipes!

Watching this makes me realize how English is hamstrung a little by only having one word for hot. In Spanish you can say caliente or picoso to distinguish something that is oven hot vs something with lots of chile in it.

I have a great cookbook from Northern Canada from the 30s. There are recipes like this- For 30 pies. Clean your fruit. Pick up the cards from the table and kick the men out. Roll pastry. Fill with fruit. Bake. Or this- How to Cook an Owl. Clean the owl. Singe the feathers. Put in pot with an onion and 3 cloves and a carrot. . Add water to cover. Boil. 😂

I'd love to see you redo this and brown the beef and saute the onions first, maybe add some more seasonings (red pepper flakes?)

I live in Northwest Pennsylvania and grew up with my grandmother who lived back then. This is how she cooked. We never browned meat unless it was burger, and as for spices, we never used any. I couldn't stand anything with pepper in it because it was too hot when I got older and started experimenting with food. I guess our food was bland to most folk nowadays. I don't even remember bell peppers in her arsenal. The heat spices were on the other side of the United States from Mexico, I think. Oh, also, she was raised dirt poor, so didn't have the luxuries of spice.

Ben Franklin, strongly associated with Philadelphia, was a member of the Hellfire Club in Britain. Perhaps that is the connection to the name of the recipe? Or maybe the origin of the recipe's name relates to the prominent Wharton family of Philadelphia, direct descendants of Lord Wharton, the founder of the Hellfire Club in Britain.

Hey Glenn, Cincinnati chili is a good example of a throw the spices, ground meat, tomato paste & water all in a pot & boil then simmer for a long time. As a Cincy guy living in Alaska, it always makes me cringe when I put the ground beef in the pot, but It always tastes exactly as I remember.

Just a thought, way back when these books were written were they cooked on wood or coal stoves? Stewing was easier that building the fire up hot to braise the meat, the stove was warm all day anyway a it was also a heat source for the kitchen and some of the rest of the house, so it was more convenient to just put it to the back and let it cook than building up a hot fire for a skillet.

G'day Glen. Thank you for another great video. I always love watching your content. So for this particular video, I would love to see, and ask if you would consider doing a comparison, between the original receipt (is that how it's spelled?) and how you would do it today, sauteing the onion, browning the meat, developing layers of flavour as we do today. I think that would be a very interesting comparison. Are you in? Best wishes to you both.

when julie found the peppercorn...handled that in her usual casually dignified fashion. :) looks like pretty basic good ol' comfort food stew.