This brings back memories of playing the game Kingdom Come Deliverance. Finding a stew inside a house was a chance to replenish energy and something about it delivered a homely and communal feel.

There were a few discussions about it on Reddit too

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/7z4n7j/til_a...

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/42hgbr/what_...

I prefer the blinding variety https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2747159-blinding-stew

I immediately thought of Strega Nona.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strega_Nona

The shocking thing to me about this is that the picture for the article was apparently taken a less than a block away from my apartment

"See also: Ship of Theseus"