Baby stew! It’s an old family recipe and no, it’s not made up of chopped up babies! Baby refers to the size of the chopped up beef/potatos, suitable for babies to eat.
This recipe came from my Mom’s family as they crossed the plains in a wagon train to settle in California.
2 onions
8 potatos
1 cube of butter
round steak (originally it called for buffalo meat)
garlic salt, plain salt, cayenne and pepper
2 cubes beef boullion
1 tblspn. worscestershire sauce
flour
water
oil
Dice onions and cut round steak(or buffalo, if you have one handy) and potatoes into the the size of sugar cubes. Put potatoes in bowl of salted water and set aside.In a large pot brown cubed round steak and onions. Add worcestershire sauce, cube of butter,lots of salt, pepper,cayenne pepper and if you wish a bit of marjoram. In jar w/tight lid, shake up 1/4C flour w/2 & 1/2 cups water-shake until not lumpy & add to mixture. Fill pot w/more water, and 2 cubes beef boullion. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce to simmer. Dice up potatoes, then return to bowl of salted water. You can speed up cooking time by nuke-ing cubed spuds for 15min. Then add to pot,w/more flour/water mixture-1/4 C flour to 1 C water shaken up. Bring to boil again, then reduce to simmer for a couple hours, stirring OFTEN!! Use own judgement of how much more water to add-this usually takes a looong time to make-basicly it is a gravy/soup w/beef,spuds, onions..ingredients that were most often available in the pioneer days…
I know this a long recipe and comment on cold weather comfort food but I swear if you try this you’ll love it!
Take turns shoveling snow and stirring the pot of baby stew. When the day is done and the driveway is clear you’ll have a great meal that will warm you up as you sit by the woodstove.
Eat well my friends, Old long Skiis