Mulligan stew is a type of stew said to have been prepared by American hobos in camps in the early 1900s. 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.
Description
Mulligan stew is broadly defined as a stew made of odds and ends or any available ingredients. 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.
Ingredients
"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. A local Appalachian variant is a burgoo, which may comprise such available ingredients as opossum 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 would sleep in a "hobo jungle". 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.
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.
In Shel Silverstein's poem "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too", the character Tickle "serve coffee and mulligan stew".
In L.P. Wallinger's book The Mystery of the Jaguar's Eye, the king of the hobos uses drugged mulligan stew to brainwash the protagonist.
Music
The verse to Rodgers and Hart's showtune The Lady Is a Tramp" begins: "I've wined and dined on Mulligan Stew, and never wished for turkey."
A phrase in a line from Jefferson Airplane's song "Rejoyce" is: "Mulligan stew for Bloom".
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.
A line in the song "Jitterbug Boy" on Tom Waits' album Small Change is written as: "I've burned hundred dollar bills, I've eaten mulligan stew" in reference to the wildly varied and most likely fabricated experiences of the narrator.
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!"
A line in the song "Whistlin Past the Graveyard" on Tom Waits' 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.
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."
Television
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.
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.
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 food in the school's cafeteria.
In the Criminal Minds episode, "Catching Out", the homeless men invite Rossi and Morgan to a bowl of mulligan stew.
In the Mad Men season 6 episode, "The Doorway, Part II", Betty Draper teaches hippie squatters on St. Mark's Place, in Greenwich Village, how to make goulash from their "mulligan stew" contributions of ingredients.
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.
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.
In the ‘’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.
In the Hallmark Channel movie "", a scene centers on the appreciation of, and reminiscing about, Mulligan Stew.
