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Old Hickory House Brunswick Stew

 
Subject: Atlanta Georgia Old Hickory House Brunswick Stew Recipe
From: Brad
Date: 10/30/2019, 8:15 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 

On 10/30/2019 1:48 PM, Brad wrote:

Uncle,

This is my first time writing to you,  I am 48 years old now living in Texas, I grew up in 
the metro Atlanta, GA area enjoying eating at The Old Hickory House, they had multiple 
locations around Atlanta, and now, here in 2019 they only have one location left in 
Tucker, GA.
Over the years I have scoured the internet looking for their Brunswick Stew Recipe and 
I can't find theirs.  I can find hundreds of other Brunswick stew recipes, but all the ones 
claiming to be from Old Hickory House of Atlanta Georgia all invariably include okra, 
lima beans, potatoes or a combination or a single of those 3 ingredients. I mean there 
are recipes listed "this is the real old hickory house recipe",  but it isn't the real recipe. 
It's like fake news recipes or something. 
I was visiting my mother recently who still lives in Atlanta and we ate at the Tucker 
location and there are none of those 3 ingredients in the actual Old HIckory House 
Brunswick Stew. There is also a lot of local drama in Georgia as to what authentic 
Brunswick stew is, and personally I do not care if Old Hickory House Brunswick stew 
is authentic or not. I just love it from Old Hickory House. Now to add a wrinkle to this is 
there was a restaurant in northeast Atlanta in the Marietta area called "Oga's" and they 
had somehow obtained the recipe for Old Hickory House Brunswick stew and it was a 
dead on match, but they have since now closed taking that recipe to the grave.  Next up 
is a place called JR's Log House in Norcross, GA, they are still in business and their 
Brunswick stew also tastes exactly like Old Hickory House, its alleged a family member 
of that restaurant got the recipe from a fellow family member at Old Hickory House.
I will tell you this Uncle, the web is a maze of alleged old hickory house Brunswick stew 
recipes and they all have some addition of those 3 ingredients which are not in the actual 
stew. That said it would seem you could just pick any listed Brunswick stew recipe and 
omit those 3 ingredients and you would net old hickory house Brunswick stew, but you 
as a recipe sleuth know its not as easy as that. 
Personally as a patron of Old Hickory House since 1972 I find it offensive they would 
guard this recipe so closely, and not at least offer a spice package for sale so those living 
abroad could replicate the stew.  I say this because they are now only down to one location, 
their business is not growing, they have chosen the easy way out time and time again by 
selling their real estate for giant commercial developments, well good for them, but not 
good for their patrons. They refuse to release the recipe.  Any help on this would be 
appreciated.  Old Hickory House is so niche I actually believe people would continue to 
eat there if the recipe was well known because I speculate its easier to just buy it from them 
than it is to make it at home, but those of us who live 1,000 miles away are not so fortunate.
Someone somewhere has to have this recipe, I don't understand why they just don't list it.
very truly yours,
Brad 

Hello Brad,

There is an excellent article about Old Hickory House here:  A Look Back at Old Hickory House

I searched for this recipe  a few years ago, in 2014. See:  12-05-2014

I wasn't able to find an authentic recipe then, and I'm afraid that I can't add anything new today. There are a few recipes on the web that use the name "Old Hickory House" in describing their Brunswick stew recipes, but when you read the details, they have actually nothing more than claims that they "taste like" the Old Hickory House stew. None of them can actually be traced back to "Old Hickory House," and as you say, those recipes include okra or potatoes or Lima beans or a combination of those, which Old Hickory House's stew does not. I also searched for a Brunswick stew recipe from JR's Log House or Oga's, similarly with no success. Note, however, that JR's Log House's menu says that their stew contains potatoes, so it is not the same, anyhow. From their menu at:  12-05-2014

A recipe from J.R.’s grandfather’s kitchen: corn, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and barbecue pork, beef and chicken.

There are Brunswick stew recipes on the web that contain corn and tomatoes and no okra or potatoes or Lima beans (one example below),  but do they taste like Old Hickory House stew? Who can say? Not me, for sure.  Someone who has eaten Old Hickory House Brunswick Stew would have to make the recipe  to compare the taste.

Making a copycat for it is difficult because we don't have a list of the ingredients that Old Hickory House uses. It's almost certain that Old Hickory House uses their own barbecue sauce and/or their own barbecued pork and beef.  Do we have access to those?  Can we make a copycat without them?

The recipe below  may be a starting point, but I have no idea how to modify it to taste like Old Hickory House Brunswick stew. Maybe you can experiment with it.

Currently open restaurants' unique dishes are what gives their customers a reason to keep going back, so they are reluctant to give out their recipes, particularly the ones for their most popular dishes. I sympathize, but the ones that really puzzle me are the ones whose restaurants have been closed for years and who have no plans to open a new restaurant, but who will let their famous dishes vanish into the past rather than reveal their recipes.

Phaed

Brunswick Stew

1 lb. (precooked) BBQ pork
1 lb. (precooked) BBQ beef
1 lb. boneless chicken
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
2 tbsp. fresh basil, minced
1 (16 oz.) can tomatoes
1 can cream style corn
1 can whole kernel corn
1 large onion, grated

Pulverize tomatoes. cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Break up beef.

Mix all ingredients together and cook in Crockpot on low setting for 3-5 hours or 
until chicken is tender.