[3] Perpetual stews are speculated to have been common in medieval cuisine, often as pottage or pot-au-feu: Bread, water or ale, and a companaticum ('that which goes with the bread') from the cauldron, the original stockpot or pot-au-feu that provided an ever-changing broth enriched daily with whatever was available.

The cauldron was rarely emptied out except in preparation for the meatless weeks of Lent, so that while a hare, hen or pigeon would give it a fine, meaty flavour, the taste of salted pork or cabbage would linger for days, even weeks.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.

[5] The tradition of perpetual stew remains prevalent in South and East Asian countries.

Notable examples include beef and goat noodle soup served by Wattana Panich in Bangkok, Thailand, which has been cooking for over 50 years as of 2025[update],[6][7] and oden broth from Otafuku in Asakusa, Japan, which has served the same broth daily since 1945.

[8] Between August 2014 and April 2015, a New York restaurant served a master stock in the style of a perpetual stew for over eight months.