A thick, slow-cooked stew of several meats and a garden of vegetables — corn, lima beans, potatoes, okra, tomatoes — simmered in a huge kettle for many hours. The South's grandest community-pot tradition.
Burgoo is a community-kettle tradition — cooked in vast quantities for church picnics, political rallies, barbecues, and fundraisers, and stirred by many hands. Black cooks and pitmasters have long been central to the burgoo-and-barbecue gatherings of Kentucky and the upper South, where the giant pot fed whole communities at once.
Burgoo's defining trait is its enormous vegetable load — corn, lima beans, okra, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes — cooked down for hours, which delivers a broad spectrum of fiber, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and potassium in one bowl. The lima beans add plant protein and folate; the long-simmered meats and bones contribute collagen and heme iron, and pairing that iron with the tomato's vitamin C aids absorption. Because vegetables dominate the kettle, burgoo is nutrient-dense relative to its calories when the meat is kept as accent rather than centerpiece.
Traditionally simmered for the better part of a day in a large kettle: several meats (historically game, mutton, chicken, beef) cooked until falling apart, then a long list of vegetables and beans added and cooked down until the stew is thick enough to stand a spoon in. Tomatoes, corn, lima beans, okra, potatoes, and cabbage are standard. Seasoned simply with pepper, vinegar, and Worcestershire; stirred often to prevent scorching.
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