I tried this recently, but a few days after putting in ground beef, the stew turned rancid. So I thought maybe meat was off limits--but the wiki article talks about a 50-year beef stew. So clearly I just don't have the touch.
If anyone has ever done this at home, I want to know what ingredients you used!
What leanness of ground beef? 70/30 or 80/20? Likely too much fat.
You'd want to keep the meat as lean as possible for longevity purposes.
Alternately, when you cook it, you can either skim the liquid fat off the top (use a large spoon) or absorb it with slices of bread (drag it across the surface and they'll soak up the fat).
Does it still go rancid if it’s kept at boiling temperatures? I’m guessing that if it’s too hot for microbes, then you only have to deal with oxidation at the surface, which can maybe be fixed with periodic skimming. Maybe?
iirc I kept it hot (scalding) but not boiling. I was worried it would boil dry overnight and burn/ruin the pot, but maybe I just need to keep the liquid topped up enough so that doesn't happen. I'll try this next time, thanks!
You don't have to keep the soup perpetually simmering in modern times. You let the pot cool to room temp after eating, then throw in the fridge. Next day, bring to boil before dinner with enough time for the new ingredients to cook. This also makes sense for a home setup, unlike a restaurant where the replacement dynamics are very different.
Assuming you are only doing this for one meal a day, and not eating it for all your meals.
salt? some people don't use salt in their cooking and that quickly speeds up bad things.
Long time ago working student summer construction jobs in Siberia we had "perpetual tea" going for several months - several electric tea kettles were always on at close to boiling, and we were putting into them, without any selection, whatever green stuff was growing higher than 2 inches - ie. above the moss - in the pine forest around. And I don't remember pulling old stuff ever out, only adding new one into the kettles.
I grew up with a semi-perpetual stew (the stove was turned off at night) called pepperpot. I don't remember a recipe, but I remember beef, bones, chili peppers and an extract from cassava root (cassareep) that is a natural preservative.
Haven't had it in decades, but ISTR that it was mostly done at Christmas time and usually was cooked for about two weeks.
If anyone has ever done this at home, I want to know what ingredients you used!