Mulligan Stew (Photos)

In January of 1961 I joined BSA Troop 12 in my hometown. As a young Tenderfoot Scout I was excited to learn that a week after my joining we were going on a campout on the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge, just east of Rolling Fork, MS. When we got there, we discovered it had snowed the night before our arrival and there was over 5 inches of snow on the ground.

The campout was chilly and as a new scout I was pretty much unprepared for the cold conditions. However, one good thing did happen. Asst. Scoutmaster Mr. Taylor made a big pot of Mulligan Stew for all of us the first night we were there. It is 56 years later but I still remember how good Mr. Taylor's stew tasted. This is my version of that tomato rich beef stew, complete with a serious mistake and my resolution of the error I made.

For three or four servings you'll need:

Maybe a pound of beef stew meat - I used a two pound eye of round roast and cut a pound of 1 inch pieces from the roast.
2 Red potatoes (2 cups)
1 Onion
1 stalk celery
About 2 cups of carrots
a beef bullion cube
3 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup of bacon
Salt, Black pepper, sugar, garlic flakes, flour
a splash of white wine.



First I cut a pound of beef into 1 inch pieces and seasoned it with garlic flakes and black pepper.



Then dredged the beef in flour



Then I prepped my ingredients.



And rendered the oil from my bacon in my stew pot



When the bacon was brown and crisp, it pulled it and set it aside.

Then I browned the beef in the bacon fat.



At this point I made a mistake. Knowing that the beef was tough, I should have braised it for an hour or two before adding my vegetables, but I didn't do that. Instead, I added them to the pot and deglazed with my wine.



Then added my tomato sauce and paste, a teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon of Oregano and a teaspoon of Thyme, my beef bullion cube and a cup of water.



I returned the bacon and cooked this for maybe ten minutes with a lid before I realized my mistake.



All was not lost though. I used a slotted spoon to fish out the vegetables and returned the meat to the pot, added a shot of Worcestershire sauce then cooked it for an hour and a half, until the meat was tender.



Then I returned the vegetables to the pot and cooked them 20 minutes until they were tender.



The finished stew



Good over a campfire and not bad in the kitchen.

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