June DeMott's Brown October Stew

A cousin asked if I had a cookie recipe of her grandmother, my Aunt Betty. I didn’t, but did look through my mother-in-law’s Betty Crocker's picture cook book, c1950, and found her hand written recipe for

Brown October Stew

• 3 lb. beef chunks
• 3 TBS flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 14 tsp. ground ginger
• 3 TBS salad oil
• 1 large onion, chopped, 1 cup
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups mixed vegetable juice
• 1 one-inch stick cinnamon
• 1 medium eggplant cut in large cubes
• 4 medium carrots scraped and quartered
• 4 stalks of celery, cut in 3 in. sticks
• 8 large prunes
• 8 large apricots
• Shake beef cubes in mixture of flour, salt, pepper and ginger in paper bag. Brown quickly in the oil. Stir in onion, garlic, mixed vegetable juice and stick of cinnamon. Arrange eggplant, carrots, celery around the meat. Cover and simmer for one hour. Split and pit the prunes, stuff each with apricot halves, lay on top of the stew; cover and simmer, one hour longer or until the meat is tender.

1968 at our home on Abington Road