Would you eat a stew that’s been cooking for 39 days and counting? New York-based content creator, Annie Rauwerda, is going viral on social media platforms like TikTok for cooking a perpetual stew, a dish made by constantly simmering and adding various ingredients to it. As per the official website (perpetualstew.club), Rauwerda started cooking the stew with leeks, celery, potato, and a bouillon cube on June 9 and has been cooking ever since.
Rauwerda has also invited other people to join her in a nearby park, Fermi Playground, with a request to bring ingredients to add to the soup. As of July 5, the vegan stew had kidney beans, olives, sweet potatoes, rice, avocado, and lettuce. The next gathering will be on Tuesday. Free tastings are also given to people who contribute to the soup, but most of it is eaten by Rauwerda throughout the week.
An article published by the food magazine Delish, titled"Perpetual Stew" Is The Anti-Aesthetic Summer Trend We Can Get Behind on 10 July, talks about how the perpetual stew originated. The first recorded occurrence of the soup is in 14th century Poland and is also known as forever stew because of the new ingredients that are added to it, like leftovers and kitchen scraps, which replenish the stock. The stew can be skimmed regularly to leave behind a rich broth that can serve as an accompaniment to noodles or rice.
For example, in Thailand, a restaurant named Wattana Panich has been simmering its beef and goat noodle soup for more than 45 years, reported a story by the news publication Insider in August. Nattapong Kaweenuntawong, the owner of the eatery, told Insider, “We never make it new, instead, we store it every night and we add new ingredients and water to it everyday.”
