18 hours ago
What is 'perpetual stew' and is it safe to eat?
Would you eat a stew that has been cooking for days, weeks or even months?
"Perpetual stew", also referred to as "forever soup" and "hunter's pot" online, cooks continuously for extended periods while being topped up with new ingredients.
The dish has been popping up on social media, which may have you wondering where it came from and whether it is safe to eat.
Annie Rauwerda, a New York-based social media creator, started cooking a perpetual stew in June 2023 and kept it going for two months.
She documented the process on TikTok and hosted "stew parties" in a neighbourhood park, inviting strangers to bring an ingredient to add to the crockpot in exchange for a bowl of soup.
Years on, the dish is still popular on the platform, with over 1.8 million searches for "perpetual soup" on TikTok in recent weeks.
Dr Garritt Van Dyk, a food historian at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, understands its appeal.
"It's not just about perpetual soup, it's about community," he says.
"During a time when society is increasingly atomised … [when] people are all about rugged individualism and competing and getting ahead, and instead someone's just saying, 'hey, let's have some stew.'"
On TikTok, you'll find enthusiasts sharing the process of building a perpetual stew, posting regular updates and asking viewers what ingredients to add next.
Often scraps that may have otherwise been thrown away are added to the dish.
"For anyone who's going through tough times and looking to economise … the thrift of it is you're not throwing anything away," Dr Van Dyk says.
Perpetual stew is thought have been around since medieval times.
Dr Van Dyk describes it as a humble peasant dish that would provide sustenance in the leaner times.
"It's not the kind of thing that will show up in a royal cookbook," he says.
He points to other cultures that have their own version of a continuously cooking or evolving dish.
For example, Mexican mole is a cooked sauce made of dried chillies, spices, and chocolate. It can be cooked continuously for extended periods with new ingredients being added, and the "old" mole can be used as a base to make 'new' mole.
The idea of a stew that cooks for weeks on end may have you wondering about food poisoning.
Professor Julian Cox, a food microbiologist at the University of NSW in Sydney, says the dish can be safe if prepared correctly.
Cooking a perpetual stew — or other food — until it's steaming hot and above 75 degrees Celsius is recommended for food safety.
When it comes to storing food, the "danger zone" is between 5-60C. At these temperatures, bacteria that can cause food poisoning can grow to unsafe levels.
"Above 60C … any microorganisms that might be present we're actually killing off, typically," Professor Cox says.
