Mulligan stew: Difference between revisions
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'''Mulligan stew''', also known as ''' |
'''Mulligan stew''', also known as '''hobo stew''', is a type of [[stew]] said to have been prepared by American [[hobo]]s in camps in the early 1900s.<ref>"said to have originated among tramps." ''A Dictionary of Americanisms'', citing ''You Can't Win'' (1926): "He's crazy as a bed bug and the best 'mulligan' maker on the road."</ref> |
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[[File:Hotel de Gink - preparing Mulligan stew LCCN2014698227.jpg|thumb|Preparing Mulligan stew at the [[Hotel de Gink]]]] |
[[File:Hotel de Gink - preparing Mulligan stew LCCN2014698227.jpg|thumb|Preparing Mulligan stew at the [[Hotel de Gink]]]] |
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==In popular culture== |
==In popular culture== |
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{{excessive examples|date=May 2018}} |
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===Literature=== |
===Literature=== |
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*In [[Louis Sachar]]'s book ''[[Wayside School is Falling Down]]'', a hobo who lives on mulligan stew erroneously claims that the stew is named after a hobo named Mulligan who was eaten by cannibals.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sachar, Louis |title=Wayside School Is Falling Down |publisher=HarperTrophy |date=2004 |page=28}}</ref> |
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*In [[Shel Silverstein]]'s poem "[[Where the Sidewalk Ends (book)|Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too]]", the character Tickle "serve[s] coffee and mulligan stew".<ref>{{cite news|author=Silverstein, Shel |title=Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too|work=Where the Sidewalk Ends|publisher=Harper and Row|date= 1974}}</ref> |
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*In [[George R. R. Martin|George R.R. Martin's]] book series ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', the impoverished smallfolk of [[King's Landing (A Song of Ice and Fire)|King's Landing]] rely often on a communal stew called [http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Bowl_of_brown Bowl of Brown] for sustenance - Bowl of Brown is the fictional equivalent of Mulligan Stew |
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*[[John Varley (author)|John Varley]]'s ''[[The Golden Globe]]'' has an extended description of the mulligan as a [[perpetual stew]]. |
*[[John Varley (author)|John Varley]]'s ''[[The Golden Globe]]'' has an extended description of the mulligan as a [[perpetual stew]]. |
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*In [[James_Jones_(author)|James Jones]]'s novel ''[[From_Here_to_Eternity_(novel)|From Here to Eternity]]'' (1951) the main protagonist, Robert Prewitt, reminisces the times on the bum, "sitting around the small fire with a belly full of a good mulligan that you had been assigned the bumming of the carrots for, or maybe the onions, or the spuds". |
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*[[Amor Towles]]' novel ''[[Rules of Civility]]'' "The crowd was a mulligan stew of their friends and acquaintances." |
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===Movies=== |
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* At the beginning of the 1990 crime feature ''[[The Grifters (film)|The Grifters]]'', there is shown the verse to [[Rodgers and Hart]]'s showtune "[[The Lady Is a Tramp]]" (from 1937's ''Babes in Arms''), which says: "I've wined and dined on Mulligan Stew, and never wished for turkey. As I hitched and hiked and grifted too from Maine to Albuquerque."<ref>''[[The Grifters (film)|The Grifters]]'', written by [[Jim Thompson (writer)|Jim Thompson]] and [[Donald E. Westlake]], and directed by [[Stephen Frears]]. It was produced by [[Martin Scorsese]], [[Robert A. Harris]] and Jim Painten for [[Cineplex Odeon Films]], and distributed by [[Miramax Films]] in a limited manner first of all on December 5, 1990, then [[United States]] wide on January 4, 1991.</ref> |
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===Music=== |
===Music=== |
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*The verse to [[Rodgers and Hart]]'s showtune "[[The Lady Is a Tramp]]" (from the 1937 ''Babes in Arms'') begins: "I've wined and dined on Mulligan Stew, and never wished for turkey." |
*The verse to [[Rodgers and Hart]]'s showtune "[[The Lady Is a Tramp]]" (from the 1937 ''Babes in Arms'') begins: "I've wined and dined on Mulligan Stew, and never wished for turkey." |
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*A phrase in a line from [[Jefferson Airplane]]'s song "Rejoyce" (1967) is: "Mulligan stew for Bloom". |
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*The song "Old Pigweed" on [[Mark Knopfler]]'s album ''[[The Ragpicker's Dream]]'' describes a mulligan stew being prepared, but ruined, by addition of old [[pigweed]]. |
*The song "Old Pigweed" on [[Mark Knopfler]]'s album ''[[The Ragpicker's Dream]]'' describes a mulligan stew being prepared, but ruined, by addition of old [[pigweed]]. |
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* |
*The song "Jitterbug Boy" on the Tom Waits album ''Small Change'' includes the line, "Burned hundred dollar bills, I eaten Mulligan stew". |
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*Elvis Presley's version of "[[Old MacDonald Had a Farm]]" contained the ending line: "If those animals ever get out of line, we'll have a Mulligan stew!" |
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*A line in the song "Whistlin Past the Graveyard" on [[Tom Waits]]' album ''[[Blue Valentine (album)|Blue Valentine]]'' is: "Cooked up a mess o' mulligan and got into a fight". The opening verses of this song contain railroad/hobo-related imagery. |
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*Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock's song, "The Bum Song No. 2", includes the line: "Some folks like their high class stuff and lots of service too, but give me a shady jungle and a can of Mulligan Stew."{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} |
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===Television=== |
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(Alphabetical by series title) |
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In ''The Abbott and Costello Show'' episode, "Car Trouble", the pair encountered two hobos. Lou tried to ask for a cup of coffee but they insisted he had to put something in the mulligan. A third hobo then appeared with a prize hen stolen from a nearby farmer. |
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*In the ''[[Andy Griffith Show]]'' episode, "Opie and His Merry Men", the hobo Opie and his friends come across in the beginning tells them that he is having mulligan stew. |
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*In the ''[[Bonanza]]'' episode, "The Saga of Annie O'Toole", the title character, a recent Irish arrival to the frontier, offers mulligan stew in the ad hoc restaurant she opens to serve the silver miners in Nevada. |
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*In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode, "Earshot", Xander says, "I knew the lunch lady was going to do us all in with that mulligan stew. I mean, what the hell's a mulligan?", while talking about the school's cafeteria. |
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*In the ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' episode, "Catching Out", the homeless men invite Rossi and Morgan to a bowl of mulligan stew. |
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*In the [[Mad Men (season 6)|''Mad Men'' season six]] episode, "[[The Doorway#Part II|The Doorway, Part II]]" (airdate April 7, 2013), Betty Draper teaches [[hippie]] squatters on [[St. Mark's Place]], in [[Greenwich Village]], how to make [[goulash]] from their "mulligan stew" contributions of ingredients.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/05/08/betty_francis_on_mad_men_is_the_sixth_season_s_best_storyline_and_weiner.html| |
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title=Betty Francis on ''Mad Men'' is the Six Season's Best Storyline|date=May 8, 2013|work=The XX Factor Blog|publisher=Slate Blogs}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|work=Vulture|url=http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/mad-men-recipe-for-bettys-squatter-goulash.html|date=April 8, 2013|title=''Mad Men'': Clip and Save the Recipe for Betty's Squatter Goulash|authors=Woocher, Marisa & Weber, Lindsey }}</ref> |
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*In the ''[[Mr. Ed]]'' episode, "Be Kind to Humans", Wilbur and Ed get lost while out for a ride in the park. They happen across a few hobos and one complains, "mulligan stew, that's all we been eatin", then Ed invites them to have dinner and sleep over with the Posts while Carol's father is visiting. |
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*In ''[[The Rifleman]]'' episode, "The Sixteenth Cousin", when asked what she suggests, Ms. Mallory says: "The mulligan stew is very good tonight". However, Mulligan stew is believed to have been created early in the 1900s, and ''The Rifleman'' is set in the 1880s. |
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*In the ''[[Rawhide (TV series)|Rawhide]]'' episode "The Boss's Daughters" Wishbone serves Mulligan stew to Mr. Favor's daughters when they come out from Philadelphia to visit their father on the trail. They couldn't eat it.. Rawhide is set in the 1880s also. |
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*In the Hallmark Channel movie [https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/crown-for-christmas ''Crown for Christmas''], a scene centers on the appreciation of, and reminiscing about, Mulligan Stew (described as “everything in the cupboard… plus peas.”) |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Latest revision as of 07:21, 7 January 2025
| Type | Stew |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Main ingredients |
Mulligan stew, also known as hobo stew, is a type of stew said to have been prepared by American hobos in camps in the early 1900s.[1]
Another variation of mulligan stew is "community stew", a stew put together by several homeless people by combining whatever food they have or can collect. Community stews are often made at "hobo jungles", or at events designed to help homeless people.[citation needed]
Description
[edit]Mulligan stew is broadly defined as a stew made of odds and ends or any available ingredients.[2][3] A description of mulligan stew appeared in a 1900 newspaper:
Another traveler present described the operation of making a "mulligan." Five or six hobos join in this. One builds a fire and rustles a can. Another has to procure meat; another potatoes; one fellow pledges himself to obtain bread, and still another has to furnish onions, salt and pepper. If a chicken can be stolen, so much the better. The whole outfit is placed in the can and boiled until it is done. If one of the men is successful in procuring "Java," an oyster can is used for a coffee tank, and this is also put on the fire to boil. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that California hobos always put a "snipe" in their coffee, to give it that delicate amber color and to add to the aroma. "Snipe" is hobo for the butt end of a cigar that smokers throw down in the streets. All hobos have large quantities of snipes in their pockets, for both chewing and smoking purposes. A "beggar stew" is a "mulligan," without any meat.[4]
Ingredients
[edit]"Mulligan" is a stand-in term for any Irishman, and Mulligan stew is simply an Irish stew that includes meat, potatoes, vegetables, and whatever else can be begged, scavenged, found or stolen.[5] A local Appalachian variant is a burgoo, which may comprise such available ingredients as possum or squirrel. Only a pot and a fire are required. The hobo who put it together was known as the "mulligan mixer."
During the Great Depression, homeless men (hobos) would sleep in a "hobo jungle" (a campsite used by the homeless near a railway). Traditionally, the jungle would have a large campfire and a pot into which each person would put in a portion of their food, to create a shared dish that was, hopefully, more tasteful and varied than his original portion. Usually, they would afterward enjoy themselves with story-telling and, sometimes, the drinking of alcohol.[citation needed]
In popular culture
[edit]Literature
[edit]- John Varley's The Golden Globe has an extended description of the mulligan as a perpetual stew.
- In James Jones's novel From Here to Eternity (1951) the main protagonist, Robert Prewitt, reminisces the times on the bum, "sitting around the small fire with a belly full of a good mulligan that you had been assigned the bumming of the carrots for, or maybe the onions, or the spuds".
- Amor Towles' novel Rules of Civility "The crowd was a mulligan stew of their friends and acquaintances."
Music
[edit]- The verse to Rodgers and Hart's showtune "The Lady Is a Tramp" (from the 1937 Babes in Arms) begins: "I've wined and dined on Mulligan Stew, and never wished for turkey."
- The song "Old Pigweed" on Mark Knopfler's album The Ragpicker's Dream describes a mulligan stew being prepared, but ruined, by addition of old pigweed.
- The song "Jitterbug Boy" on the Tom Waits album Small Change includes the line, "Burned hundred dollar bills, I eaten Mulligan stew".
See also
[edit]
- Booyah (stew), a social stew popular in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin
- Brunswick stew
- Burgoo, often prepared communally
- List of stews
- Mulligatawny soup
- Stone soup, also known as button soup, wood soup, nail soup, and axe soup, often prepared communally
References
[edit]- ^ "said to have originated among tramps." A Dictionary of Americanisms, citing You Can't Win (1926): "He's crazy as a bed bug and the best 'mulligan' maker on the road."
- ^ "Mulligan". Oxford English Dictionary (Third ed.). March 2003.
- ^ "Mulligan". Atlantic Monthly. November 1899. p. 673.
- ^ "Weary Willie on His Travels". The Sunday Oregonian. Vol. 19, no. 3. Portland, Oregon. January 21, 1900.
- ^ Hendrickson, Robert. "Mulligan Stew". Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins.
...made of meat and vegetables —whatever is available or can be begged or stolen. It is an American term, honoring an Irishman whose first name has been lost but who may have made a tasty Irish stew.
Further reading
[edit]- Herbst, Sharon Tyler, ed. (1995). The New Food Lover's Companion (2nd ed.). Barron's Educational Series. ISBN 9780812015201.