Battle of Burgoo

Bully for Burgoo.  A dear friend captivated by my ancestral connection to West Virginia recently sent a care package of every imaginable collateral item from that state and among the many brochures, magazines, key chains, and a t-shirt was a brochure from Webster County on their International Burgoo Cookoff  held annually over Columbus Day weekend (this weekend).  I had never heard of burgoo so I posted an entry on my personal Facebook account and a hodge podge of individuals chimed in via comments expressing their love for burgoo...most especially Kentuckians. Thus, I was set in motion to search my cookbooks to see if any referenced what I now perceive as an infamous dish.  And behold, I indeed locate a recipe in my 1997 Jeff Maxwell The Secrets of the M*A*S*H Mess as a dinner entry called "Battle of Burgoo."  The recipe I link here matches the Maxwell version with the inclusion of peas and okra. Most every reference to burgoo online or in text includes a disclaimer that reads "no two cooks prepare it the same way and most keep their recipes a closely guarded secret." The beauty of individualism in people flows through to their recipes, each familiar yet very distinctly their own variety....right now I'm thinking Lowcountry Boil and Frogmore Stew are the coastal cousins to burgoo.