Early versions used small game such as squirrel, rabbit or opossum. Chicken is most common now, with pork often added in Georgia. Lima beans, corn, tomatoes and sometimes okra fill out the pot. Virginians tend to make it thicker and with chicken; Georgians often make it spicier, with pulled pork.
Brunswick County, Virginia, dates the stew to 1828. In the local telling, Jimmy Matthews, an enslaved hunting-camp cook, made a squirrel stew for Dr. Creed Haskins, whose name also appears as Hoskins. The Virginia General Assembly backed the county's claim in 1988. Historian John Burrison wrote up the tradition for the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Brunswick, Georgia, answers with an iron pot. A plaque on it says the first Brunswick stew was cooked in it on July 2, 1898, on nearby St. Simons Island. Some writers suggest the name may even point back to Braunschweig, Germany.