Instructions: Using a large skillet, cook the beef and pork very slowly and stir often. Do not overcook. Skim off excess grease.

Remove skin and excess fat from chicken. Place in a pan, cover chicken with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until chicken falls off the bones, 20 to 30 minutes. Reserve broth for another use, if desired. Remove bones and tear meat into tiny pieces with fingers.

Add chicken to beef-pork mixture in skillet. Mix well. Start cooking very slowly over medium-low heat and stir often with a wooden spoon until meats are thoroughly blended.

Place mixture in crock pot. Add the tomatoes, corn, ketchup, butter, vinegar, salt, peppers, sugar and water. Mix well. Cook at 300 to 325 degrees for 5 to 6 hours. Set aside.

This recipe yields about 8 servings.

Comments: The origins of Brunswick stew, initially based on squirrel meat, then on chicken or rabbit or all three, are shrouded in mystery, Joseph E. Dabney writes in "Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, and Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking" (Cumberland House, $27.95). He quotes a comment from "none other than the dean of Southern food critics and food arbiter supreme, Nashvilles John Egerton." According to Egerton, "It seems safe to say that Indians were making stews with wild game long before any Europeans arrived, and in that sense there was Brunswick stew before there was a Brunswick." Dabney says this modern-day "kitchen-friendly" Brunswick stew recipe comes from Atlantas Charles Auchmutey, a native of Bartow County, Ga.

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