Perpetual stews are speculated to have been common in
medieval cuisine, often as
pottage or
pot-au-feu: A batch of pot-au-feu was claimed by one writer to be maintained as a perpetual stew in
Perpignan from the 15th century until
World War II, when it ran out of ingredients to keep the stew going due to the
German occupation. Some medieval historians have, however, cast doubt on the historicity of the idea. Historian Jenni Lares from the
University of Tampere notes that no medieval sources support its existence and argues that it was not a particularly probable dish. Although leftovers were used, surplus food was likely prepared regularly only during festive seasons. For the stew to remain edible, the pot would have had to be boiled constantly, which was not feasible in the Middle Ages. Fires in residential buildings were typically lit only during the day, and they were banned at night in cities due to the risk of fire spreading. Collecting
firewood was also time- and labor-intensive, making it unlikely that so much would have been used on a single stew. Furthermore,
Catholic doctrine forbade the eating of meat on one or more days weekly, as well as during
Lent. On
Good Friday, cooking or even lighting a fire was forbidden. ==Modern examples==