Hodge-Podge

     A stew or one pot meal can be considered the quintessential meal of America.  What better describes the "on the go" lifestyle of Americans, past and present, than our history from chuck wagons to crockpots? Stew is a very American dish, but is universal in that every culture has its own version of it.  In the 18th century it was the same way, every house had its own version of stew.  Each stew came from what was killed that day or what came out of the garden.  The rich, however, not dependent on the hunt or the weather did not eat stew, they ate Hodge-Podge.

     Hodge-Podge is what the name implies, a mix of meat, vegetable, and broth.  In the 18th century, the word stew was a verb, not a noun.  You ate stewed meat...you did not eat meat stew.  For instance, in the 1792 edition of "The Universal Cook and City and Country Housekeeper", its recipe for "To Stew a Hare" calls for only one vegetable to be added. Yet its recipe for "To Hodge-Podge a Hare" calls for lettuce, cucumbers, turnips, and celery to be used.  It seems Hodge-Podge is also a verb, but the method of Hodge-Podge is closer to the stew we think about.  The first reference to stew in the way we think of today is found in a book from 1814 by Lord Byron entitled "Devil's Drive".

Universal Cook and City and Country Housekeeper

1792

    Hodge Podge, the dish, gets its name from the Old English word "hotchpotch" dating from the late 14th century for a kind of stew.  The common hotchpotch was made with goose, herbs and wine.  Earlier still is the word "hochepot" from the Old French for a stew or soup.  The first known recipe for Hodge-Podge comes from one of the oldest known English cookbooks. "The Forme of Cury", or "Forms of Cooking", written in 1390 by the master chefs of Richard the II. It lists a recipe for "Gees in Hoggepot" or "Geese in Hodge-Podge".  The recipe calls for you to chop the goose and put it in a pot with onions, herbs, wine and water.  Then you cook and thicken with bread and blood.  Other medieval recipes use venison, beef, and veal; all following the method found in the "Forme of Cury".  The 18th century brings about a more standardized and modern stew like Hodge-Podge.

Top: Stewed Beef Brisket

(The House-keeper's Pocket-book, and Complete Family Cook)

1760

Bottom: Hodge-Podge of Beef with Savoys

(The Complete Housewife, Or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion)

1766



     The meat in all the Hodge-Podge recipes that I can find from the 18th century use beef, veal, mutton, and hare. The method for the Hodge-Podge tends to be stewing your meat,  then adding your vegetables and serving it in a tureen.  For the poor or lower classes, this along with bread, would be your entire meal everyday.  For the rich, you would probably have this with your first course.















Top: Stewed Beef Brisket

(The House-keeper's Pocket-book, and Complete Family Cook)

1760

Bottom: Hodge-Podge of Beef with Savoys

(The Complete Housewife, Or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion)

1766

     In the end, Hodge-Podge is a universal dish, but it is also a unifying dish.  Flavorful enough for the rich yet cheap enough for the poor.  What is a more American dish than a dish that can be enjoyed by all?