Stews have been around almost nearly as long as humans have been cooking. All you need is a vessel to hold your ingredients and water and a means of heating that vessel. It can be as simple as a leather bag with stones heated in a fire dropped into it. So stews were almost certainly prepared during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, if not earlier. Once you have clay or metal pots you can prepare stews next to or set directly over a fire. Stews are low-maintenance cookery, generally not requiring that the cooking pot be observed continuously. The slow cooking is also ideal for tenderizing tougher cuts of meat (neck, shin, tail etc). As these also tend to be the most flavoursome parts of animals, this also means that stews can be extremely flavourful. Stews also pair well with the local staple: potatoes, rice, bread, yams, cassava etc.

Even in hunter-gatherer societies stews are useful in that the slow cooking can make the most of tough meat and it can be combined with foraged grains, leafy greens, nuts and starchy tubers to yield a flavourful, low maintenance and nutritious meal. With the advent of agriculture almost all grains are amenable to stewing and combining grains and legumes in a stew provides a ready way to gain all the essential amino acids that humans (particularly children) require.

The boiling process of making stews also helps sterilize the ingredients, killing harmful bacteria and viruses. It can also help neutralize harmful chemicals, such as the cyanogenic compounds in bitter cassava and helps reduce bitterness in leafy greens, making the food both safer to eat and more palatable. The addition of flavouring ingredients (fruit, spices, herbs) during the cooking process can also alter the flavours of stews, making them more palatable and more appealing. This is particularly the case when adding components with high umami content (certain fish, seaweed, cruciferous vegetables, beans, soy sauce, mushrooms etc).

It is little wonder that, taken globally, the list of stews presented on this site is a long one.

Some stews border on soups and the definition of whether a dish is a soup or a stew. A good example of this is Welsh cawl which can be served with more liquid as a soup or can be thickened as a stew and served with bread and/or potatoes. Most curries, due to their long, slow cooking and blend of ingredients can also be considered a subtype of stew.

Pretty much every culture on earth has a classic stew that's a major part of its cultural culinary repertoire. I have viewed and collected recipes for many of these on my travels. These and other classic stews from around the world are collected and presented here.

The alphabetical list of all the stew recipes on this site follows, (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 1816 recipes in total:

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Curried Sosaties      Origin: South Africa	Dhal      Origin: India	Dry Rice      Origin: Liberia
Curried Spinach with peanut butter      Origin: Burundi	Dhan Saag Dhal      Origin: India	Dublin Coddle      Origin: Ireland
Curried Vegetables      Origin: East Africa	Diced Beef Chili Con Carne      Origin: American	Dublin Coddle      Origin: Ireland
Curried Wild Mustard Greens with Beans      Origin: Fusion	Dippy      Origin: England	Dublin Lawyer      Origin: Scotland
Curry comorien (Comoros Curry)      Origin: Comoros	Diri Ak Pwa (Haitian Rice and Beans)      Origin: Haiti	Duck and Green Pea Curry      Origin: India
Curry de Boeuf (Beef Curry)      Origin: Mauritius	Djibouti Lentils      Origin: Djibouti	Duck with Plums and Burdock      Origin: Fusion
Curry de Boeuf au Yaourt (Beef Curry with Yoghurt)      Origin: Mauritius	Djouka Fonio      Origin: Mali	Duckling Dar es Salaam      Origin: Tanzania
Curry de Lotte au Citron Vert (Monkfish Curry with Lime)      Origin: Senegal	Dobrada      Origin: Portugal	Dulcia Domestica (Home-made dessert)      Origin: Roman
Curry de Pintade à la Noix de Coco (Guinea Fowl and Coconut Curry)      Origin: Madagascar	Dombrés de Morue Salé (Salt Cod Dombres)      Origin: Martinique	Dulse and Beans      Origin: Britain
Curry de Poulet aux Bananes Plantain (Chicken and Plantain Curry)      Origin: Cote dIvoire	Dombrés haricots rouges (Red Bean Dombrés)      Origin: Guadeloupe	Durban Bunny Chow      Origin: South Africa
Curry Trey Ruah (Curried Snapper)      Origin: Cambodia	Dominica Calypso Chicken      Origin: Dominica	East African Prawn Curry      Origin: East Africa
Cwnhingen â Chorbys (Rabbit with Lentils)      Origin: Welsh	Dominica Crab Callaloo      Origin: Dominica	East African Shrimp Curry      Origin: East Africa
Cyri Cig Oen a Chennin (Welsh Lamb and Leek curry)      Origin: Welsh	Dominica Curried Goat      Origin: Dominica	East African Vegetable Soup      Origin: East Africa
Cyw Iâr Bricyll (Welsh Apricot Chicken)      Origin: Welsh (Patagonia)	Dominica Curry Prawns      Origin: Dominica	Eba      Origin: Nigeria
Cyw Iâr Buarth (Farmyard Chicken)      Origin: Welsh	Dominica Red Beans Soup      Origin: Dominica	Eba Piron Rouge (Beef and Red Gari)      Origin: Cameroon
Cyw Iâr Glan Teifi (Teifiside Chicken)      Origin: Welsh	Dominica Sancocho      Origin: Dominica	Ecrevisses au Curry (Crayfish Curry)      Origin: Cote dIvoire
Cyw Iâr Mewn Dull Cymreig (Welsh-style Chicken)      Origin: Welsh	Dominican Codfish Sancoche      Origin: Dominica	Edikang Ikong Soup      Origin: Nigeria
Dékoudéssi aux Boeuf (Palm Nut Soup with Beef)      Origin: Togo	Dominican Souse      Origin: Dominica	Efo Riro      Origin: Nigeria
Dagaa (Dried Fish with Tomatoes)      Origin: Tanzania	Domoda      Origin: Gambia	Egg Curry      Origin: Anglo-Indian
Daging Bumbu Bali      Origin: Indonesia	Domoda II      Origin: Gambia	Egg Pilau      Origin: India
Dakhine      Origin: Senegal	Domoda III      Origin: Gambia	Egredouce (Meat in Sweet and Sour Sauce)      Origin: England
Dal Makani (Black Dal Curry)      Origin: India	Dongo (Fish with Cassava Leaves)      Origin: Congo	Egredouce of fysche (Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce)      Origin: England
Dal Makhani      Origin: Pakistan	Dongo-Dongo Gabonnaise      Origin: Gabon	Egusi with Efo      Origin: Nigeria
Dama be Potaatas (Beef and Potato Stew)      Origin: Sudan	Dongouésde bananes plantain à la morue et lait de coco (Plantain Dongoués with Salt Cod and Coconut Milk)      Origin: Martinique	Eirin Mair Hufennog Gwent (Gwent Gooseberries and Cream)      Origin: Welsh
Dambou (Rice Couscous with Moringa)      Origin: Niger	Dopiazeh      Origin: Iran	Ekpang Nkukwo (Cocoyam Pottage)      Origin: Nigeria
Dandelion and Orange Curry      Origin: Britain	Doro Alicha      Origin: Ethiopia	El Cocido      Origin: Spain
Daqoos (Tomato, garlic and coriander sauce)      Origin: UAE	Doro Zigni (Zesty Chicken Stew)      Origin: Eritrea	El Indio Viejo      Origin: Nicaragua
Daraba      Origin: Chad	Double Bean and Roasted Pepper Chili      Origin: Britain	Elaichi Gosht (Lamb With Cardamom)      Origin: India
Date Sauce      Origin: Niger	Dounguouri Soko (Meat Stew with White Beans)      Origin: Niger	Elumas Curry (Mutton Curry)      Origin: Sri Lanka
Daube de Banane Plantains (Daube de Banane)      Origin: Seychelles	Dovi (Peanut Butter Stew)      Origin: Zimbabwe	Ema Datshi (Chillies with Cheese)      Origin: Bhutan
Dawadawa Jollof Rice with Guinea Fowl      Origin: Ghana	Drepee (Small Birds in Almond Milk)      Origin: England	Embractum Baianum (Baian Stew)      Origin: Roman
Deccan Chicken Curry      Origin: Sri Lanka	Driblws (Turkey Giblets, Chinese Style)      Origin: Welsh	Embractum Baianum (Baian Stew)      Origin: Roman
Dengu (Green Lentil Stew)      Origin: Kenya	Dromedary Tibs      Origin: Djibouti
Desayuno Charquicán (Charquicán Breakfast)      Origin: Chile	Drunken Chili      Origin: American

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