It’s more the kitchen appliances that I use aren’t the ones people bought as gifts… seriously that combined air fryer/pressure cooker/five-other-cooker-things is… annoying.
(I just have an instapot+slow cooker, immersion blender+blender+food processor that I have to hide from certain family, the absence of the “all in ones” would start a fight.)
Though I personally- and without any real authority- divide the line based on how it behaves on a plate (well, hypothetically,)- if the stock/broth would stay clinging on the topping/filling/whateveritscalled rather than just spilling out and making a hypothetical mess…. It’s a stew
For some inexplicable reason, all my soups turn into stews. It’s a mystery, really.
In any case I’ve been experimenting with chili- cooking off andouille sausage for its fond, starting with a sofrito sort of thing using fine chopped onion and celery, garlic towards the end, ginger. deglaze with booze- I’ve been settling to burbon, but white wine was fairly neutral. Enough water for the sofrito to cook down into almost nothingness, followed by the pepper purée.
That’s been a mix of sweet peppers, serano and smoked red chili’s that I’ve grown fresh, mostly aiming for a more mild heat.
Once that’s hot and simmering and cohesive, it’s the beef, I use rump cut into smallish pieces, that I first marinate with fish sauce and some extra booze. (Don’t worry the fish sauce only smells awful until you cook it.) some lime and orange zest, and lime juice. simmer until heavenly.
Other stews are chicken stew (lemon and white wine stock cooks down wonderfully. Add what ever vegetables you’d like- carrots, celery, onion, maybe green beans.). This finds its way into pot pie as often as not;
the GF’s go to is mushrooms soup. I’ll also go to town with a creamy pea soup if I can get my hands on a ham hock.
So somebody went and looked at its genetic structure, and compared its structure as it developed from larva and found that each of the limbs (if I understand it correctly) are all head (or heads,) and the tail disappears.