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 2305 recipes in total:

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Cunillo (Rabbit in Tomato Sauce)      Origin: Andorra	Cyri Cig Oen a Chennin (Welsh Lamb and Leek curry)      Origin: Welsh	Djibouti Lentils      Origin: Djibouti
Curried Beef      Origin: Britain	Cyw Iâr Bricyll (Welsh Apricot Chicken)      Origin: Welsh (Patagonia)	Djouka Fonio      Origin: Mali
Curried Beef and Squash      Origin: Tanzania	Cyw Iâr Buarth (Farmyard Chicken)      Origin: Welsh	Dobrada      Origin: Portugal
Curried Beef Gratin      Origin: African Fusion	Cyw Iâr Glan Teifi (Teifiside Chicken)      Origin: Welsh	Dograma (Meat and Pasta Dish)      Origin: Turkmenistan
Curried Beef in Red Wine      Origin: Britain	Cyw Iâr Mewn Dull Cymreig (Welsh-style Chicken)      Origin: Welsh	Domatesli Pilav (Pilaf with Tomato)      Origin: Turkey
Curried Beef Stew      Origin: South Africa	Dékoudéssi aux Boeuf (Palm Nut Soup with Beef)      Origin: Togo	Dombrés de Morue Salé (Salt Cod Dombres)      Origin: Martinique
Curried Cabbage      Origin: West Africa	Dagaa (Dried Fish with Tomatoes)      Origin: Tanzania	Dombrés haricots rouges (Red Bean Dombrés)      Origin: Guadeloupe
Curried Chestnut Soup      Origin: Britain	Daging Bumbu Bali      Origin: Indonesia	Dominica Calypso Chicken      Origin: Dominica
Curried Chicken      Origin: Saint Kitts	Dahinou Saloum      Origin: Senegal	Dominica Crab Callaloo      Origin: Dominica
Curried Cod      Origin: Britain	Dajaj bil Hamod (Lemon Chicken)      Origin: Saudi Arabia	Dominica Curried Goat      Origin: Dominica
Curried Corn      Origin: Somalia	Dakhine      Origin: Senegal	Dominica Curry Prawns      Origin: Dominica
Curried Fruit Bake      Origin: American	Dal Makani (Black Dal Curry)      Origin: India	Dominica Red Beans Soup      Origin: Dominica
Curried Gazelle      Origin: Zambia	Dal Makhani      Origin: Pakistan	Dominica Sancocho      Origin: Dominica
Curried Goat      Origin: Jamaica	Dama be Potaatas (Beef and Potato Stew)      Origin: Sudan	Dominican Codfish Sancoche      Origin: Dominica
Curried Mushrooms and Rice      Origin: Fusion	Damaa      Origin: Sudan	Dominican Souse      Origin: Dominica
Curried Mutton      Origin: Britain	Dambou (Rice Couscous with Moringa)      Origin: Niger	Domoda      Origin: Gambia
Curried Mutton Stew      Origin: South Africa	Dandelion and Orange Curry      Origin: Britain	Domoda Dieune (Domoda with Fish)      Origin: Senegal
Curried Neck of Mutton Potjie      Origin: Namibia	Daqoos (Tomato, garlic and coriander sauce)      Origin: UAE	Domoda II      Origin: Gambia
Curried Rice with Beef      Origin: Ghana	Daraba      Origin: Chad	Domoda III      Origin: Gambia
Curried Salmon      Origin: Britain	Date Sauce      Origin: Niger	Dongo (Fish with Cassava Leaves)      Origin: Congo
Curried Scallops in Coconut Milk with Stevia      Origin: American	Daube de Banane Plantains (Daube de Banane)      Origin: Seychelles	Dongo-Dongo Gabonnaise      Origin: Gabon
Curried Sosaties      Origin: South Africa	Daube de chevreuil (Venison Daube)      Origin: France	Dongouésde bananes plantain à la morue et lait de coco (Plantain Dongoués with Salt Cod and Coconut Milk)      Origin: Martinique
Curried Spinach with peanut butter      Origin: Burundi	Daube de Provençale (Provençal Daube)      Origin: France	Dopiazeh      Origin: Iran
Curried Vegetables      Origin: East Africa	Daube de Thon (Tuna Daube)      Origin: Mauritius	Doro Alicha      Origin: Ethiopia
Curried Wild Mustard Greens with Beans      Origin: Fusion	Dawadawa Jollof Rice with Guinea Fowl      Origin: Ghana	Doro Wot (Red Chicken Stew)      Origin: Ethiopia
Curry comorien (Comoros Curry)      Origin: Comoros	Deccan Chicken Curry      Origin: Sri Lanka	Doro Zigini (Zesty Chicken Stew)      Origin: Eritrea
Curry de Boeuf (Beef Curry)      Origin: Mauritius	Demok (Taro Leaves in Coconut Milk)      Origin: Palau	Dou-louf en Daube (Cow's Feet Stew)      Origin: Chad
Curry de Boeuf au Yaourt (Beef Curry with Yoghurt)      Origin: Mauritius	Dengu (Green Lentil Stew)      Origin: Kenya	Double Bean and Roasted Pepper Chili      Origin: Britain
Curry de Lotte au Citron Vert (Monkfish Curry with Lime)      Origin: Senegal	Desayuno Charquicán (Charquicán Breakfast)      Origin: Chile	Dounguouri Soko (Meat Stew with White Beans)      Origin: Niger
Curry de Pintade à la Noix de Coco (Guinea Fowl and Coconut Curry)      Origin: Madagascar	Dhal      Origin: India	Dovi (Peanut Butter Stew)      Origin: Zimbabwe
Curry de porc au taro tahitien (Tahitian Pork Curry with Taro)      Origin: Tahiti	Dhan Saag Dhal      Origin: India	Drepee (Small Birds in Almond Milk)      Origin: England
Curry de Poulet aux Bananes Plantain (Chicken and Plantain Curry)      Origin: Cote dIvoire	Diced Beef Chili Con Carne      Origin: American	Driblws (Turkey Giblets, Chinese Style)      Origin: Welsh
Curry Trey Ruah (Curried Snapper)      Origin: Cambodia	Dippy      Origin: England
Cwnhingen â Chorbys (Rabbit with Lentils)      Origin: Welsh	Diri Ak Pwa (Haitian Rice and Beans)      Origin: Haiti

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