One of America's Favorites - Stew

A beef stew

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables (such as carrots, potatoes, beans, peppers and tomatoes, etc.), meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef. Poultry, sausages, and seafood are also used. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, wine, stock, and beer are also common. Seasoning and flavorings may also be added. Stews are typically cooked at a relatively low temperature (simmered, not boiled), allowing flavors to mingle.
Stewing is suitable for the least tender cuts of meat that become tender and juicy with the slow moist heat method. This makes it popular in low-cost cooking. Cuts having a certain amount of marbling and gelatinous connective tissue give moist, juicy stews, while lean meat may easily become dry.
Stews may be thickened by reduction or with flour, either by coating pieces of meat with flour before searing, or by using a roux or beurre manié, a dough consisting of equal parts of butter and flour. Thickeners like cornstarch or arrowroot may also be used.
Stews are similar to soups, and in some cases there may not be a clear distinction between the two. Generally, stews have less liquid than soups, are much thicker and require longer cooking over low heat. While soups are almost always served in a bowl, stews may be thick enough to be served on a plate with the gravy as a sauce over the solid ingredients.

Lamb and Lentil Stew

Stews have been made since ancient times. Herodotus says that the Scythians (8th to 4th centuries BC) "put the flesh into an animal's paunch, mix water with it, and boil it like that over the bone fire. The bones burn very well, and the paunch easily contains all the meat once it has been stripped off. In this way an ox, or any other sacrificial beast, is ingeniously made to boil itself."
Amazonian tribes used the shells of turtles as vessels, boiling the entrails of the turtle and various other ingredients in them. Other cultures used the shells of large mollusks (clams etc.) to boil foods in.[citation needed] There is archaeological evidence of these practices going back 8,000 years or more.
There are recipes for lamb stews and fish stews in the Roman cookery book Apicius, believed to date from the 4th century AD. Le Viandier, one of the oldest cookbooks in French, written by the French chef known as Taillevent, has ragouts or stews of various types in it.
Hungarian Goulash dates back to the 9th century Magyar shepherds of the area, before the existence of Hungary. Paprika was added in the 18th century.
The first written reference to 'Irish stew' is in Byron's "The Devil's Drive" (1814): "The Devil ... dined on ... a rebel or so in an Irish stew.

In meat-based stews, white stews, also known as blanquettes or fricassées, are made with lamb or veal that is blanched, or lightly seared without browning, and cooked in stock. Brown stews are made with pieces of red meat that are first seared or browned, before a browned mirepoix, sometimes browned flour, stock and wine are added. These choices of stew are all unique to the individuals' personal stew preference.

Goulash in a traditional "bogrács"

Examples of Stews:

*Baeckeoffe, a potato stew from Alsace;
*Barbacoa, a meat stew from Mexico;
*Beef Stroganoff, a stew with beef from Russia
*Bigos, a traditional stew in Polish cuisine;
*Birria, a goat stew from Mexico;
*Chicken stew, whole chicken and seasonings;
*Chicken paprikash, chicken stew with paprika;
*Chili con carne, Mexican meat and bean stew;
*Chili sin carne, a meatless American adaptation of the Mexican dish;
*Chilorio, a pork stew from Sinaloa, Mexico;
*Goulash, a Hungarian meat stew with paprika;
*Gumbo, a Louisiana creole dish;
*Hachee, a Dutch type of stew with wine or vinegar.
*Haleem, a Pakistani lentil and beef stew;
*Hasenpfeffer, a sour, marinated rabbit stew from Germany;
*Hayashi rice, a Japanese dish of beef, onions and mushrooms in red wine and demi-glace sauce, served with rice;
*Irish stew, made with lamb or mutton, potato, onion and parsley
*Pichelsteiner a traditional German stew
*Pörkölt, a Hungarian meat stew resembling goulash, flavored with paprika;
*Potjiekos, a South African stew;
*Pot au feu, a simple French stew;