How to Make Burgoo
You could serve mint juleps and Derby pie on Derby day, or you could make up a big pot of classic Kentucky burgoo:
The more kinds of meat the better. Minimally, a good burgoo contains some lamb for authenticity (sheep being an important industry in Kentucky), but many recipes also include beef, pork, veal and chicken. Including local game would put your burgoo in the winner’s circle. Horsemeat, however, would be considered tacky, especially on Derby day.
Vegetables include at least potatoes, cabbage, onions, corn and tomatoes, although many recipes add okra, beans, peppers and carrots.
If this all begins to sound more or less like a vegetable meat soup/stew, it is, with some hot peppers and Worcestershire sauce for kick. What seems to be critical is that you cook the hell out of everything. Many recipes say cook as long as possible, sometimes up to 12 hours for it to be authentic burgoo. This requires either a two- or three-day period of extended cooking sprints, or a burgoo marathon from morning until evening. Besides the initial cooking and separating of the meats, you don’t have to do a lot but keep it simmering.
Too much work? Order burgoo by the gallon online.
