Chicken Muddle

When we were in Lithuania, I read a post on FB about the upcoming sale of chicken muddle that took me back. When I was growing up in Greensville County, it seemed that every organization sold muddle to raise money for this or that. Girl Scout Troup 23 sold enough muddle, Claxton fruit cakes and GS cookies to be able to ride the train to Savanah, Ga. to visit Juliette Gordon Low's birthplace. I never cared much for fruit cake, but I still love muddle.

When I was growing up, every community had a couple of men who made muddle for groups to sell, and there was some disagreement as to who made the very best. Others just made muddle for friends and family. Our family made muddle every year in a big black iron pot. The women cooked the hens, took the meat off the bones and got the vegetables together, and the men minded the fire and stirred the pot constantly for hours until it was done. Daddy had whittled out a stirring paddle that looked very much like a boat paddle. Keeping the fire hot enough to cook, but not too hot and stirring the muddle from the bottom of the pot so that it would not scorch
was a big responsibility. Scorched muddle could ruin your reputation as a muddle maker. It was also hot work, so in Southern Baptist families, the iced tea flowed. At our house you had to sweeten the tea yourself if you wanted it sweetened, because we were not of the sweet tea persuasion.

If you are not familiar with muddle, it is basically a thick stew made with chicken, side meat or bacon, potatoes, onions, butter beans (baby limas), corn, tomatoes and LOTS of red and black pepper, cooked so long that the individual ingredients virtually disappear. Various muddle makers might have slight variations - some add sugar or cracker meal for thickening at the end, but we didn't.

Other counties have a somewhat similar dish called Brunswick stew, and there is a good bit of arguing back and forth about which Brunswick County is the county of origin. Brunswick stew looks like a thick soup with individual ingredients in it and must be eaten with a spoon. Chicken muddle is so thick you can eat it with a fork and is a far superior dish. Just ask any Greensville Countian.

Daddy hunted, so we made squirrel muddle sometimes. I don't recall that it tasted any different, but I did hate it when a piece of shot was missed when cleaning the squirrel and I bit down on it. Squirrel was for home use only, of course.

The last muddle Daddy made was just before Del went to Vietnam. There was a big crowd, including Del's family, out in the front yard, and people were always in the kitchen getting the rest of the dinner together and passing through to the bathroom or to get more tea, etc. At one point, I put David, who was several months old down for a nap on a pallet (quilt or blanket)on the floor in my old bedroom. It opened into the kitchen, so there was always someone to check on him. My brother stuck his head in and didn't see David, so he asked the ladies in the kitchen about him. They said they hadn't seen anyone take him, but Bubba went out to see if someone had taken him out to the yard. No one had him or had seen him, so we ran into the house to look again. When I got to the room, I heard little noises coming from under the bed. David had squnched himself under the bed and was still fast asleep, hidden by the dust ruffle/bed skirt. Not the last time that child scared a year off my life, I'm here to tell you.

I have Woodrow Pollard's muddle recipe, given to me by his wife Daisy. I had to cut it down considerably, but make a pretty good muddle inside, on the stove. As soon as we begin to feel fall in the air, Del begins to ask when I am going to make muddle. It freezes well, so I put it up in quarts for later use.

Recipe

Woodrow's Proportions

3 hens
5 lbs. potatoes
3 lb. onions
3 qt. butter beans
3 quarts corn
2 lb. bacon
4qt.tomatoes

My Adjusted Proportions

1 hen
1 2/3 lb. potatoes, chopped
1 lb. onions, chopped
1 qt. butter beans (baby limas)
1 qt. corn
1/2 lb. bacon, chopped (I use less)
1 1/3 quarts canned tomatoes, chopped
water/canned chicken broth to cover chicken
salt
red pepper
black pepper

Woodrow's original recipe, as given to me, only listed the ingredients. My guess is that he assumed that anyone who asked for the recipe wouldn't need directions. Anyhow, here's what I do.

Get out your largest soup pot.

Put chopped bacon into pot and fry until crisp. Add hen, cover with water, broth or a combination of both. Put top on pot and stew until chicken is done. Remove chicken from pot and let cool a few minutes until safe to remove skin and pick meat from bones. Put shredded chicken meat back into the pot and add onions, potatoes, frozen butterbeans and salt and peppers. You are making a big pot of stew, so I would start with a T salt and 1/2 T of combined peppers. You may decide to add more when the muddle is finished.

Simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are done. Use potato masher to mash some of the potatoes, leaving some still in chunks.

Add tomatoes with juice and continue to cook on low until muddle is thick and takes on the traditional orangish red muddle color. If the muddle continues to seem pale, add additional tomatoes.

When the muddle is quite thick, add corn and continue to cook until the spoon will stand up in the pot. Taste for salt and pepper.

This is really good with cornbread or tortilla chips if you get in a pinch for time.

NOte 1: I usually cook the chicken the day before and refrigerate. This gives me the chance to remove the congealed fat.

Note 2: My biggest pot is usually not big enough, so when it starts to get full, I pull out my next largest pot, divide the stew between them and add half of the remaining ingredients to each pot. If there still isn't enough room, I pull out my third largest pot and put equal amounts of stew from the first two pots into it. I keep tasting and combining until all the pots taste the same.

Note 3: This is pretty much an all day, okay, half day, process, and you need to stay near the stove to stir the stew frequently. Be sure to stir from the very bottom and sides of the pot so it will not scorch. I usually plan to clean out the refrigerator and the kitchen cupboards on muddle day so I will be in the kitchen.

Note 3: When the muddle is done, place pots into sinks and surround with ice. Stir stew frequently and add ice as needed. When the muddle is cool enough to handle safely, put into containers and return to ice bath. When sufficiently cool, place in refrigerator overnight and then freeze.

This may sound a lot like work, but it is worth it. There is a lot of trial and error in the seasoning, just be sure to add small amounts of salt and peppers at a time. As all our mothers said, "You can put it in, but you can't take it out."