Ingredients
Meat
- 1.5 kgsalt beef, soaked overnight
Pease pudding
- 500 gsplit yellow peas
- 1pudding bag or muslin cloth
- butter
- black pepper
Vegetables
- 1small cabbage, quartered
- 6potatoes
- 4carrots
- 1swede, in chunks
- 6parsnips
To serve
- gravy
- pickled beets
- mustard pickles
Directions
- Soak the salt beef overnight in cold water, changing the water twice.
- Do not skip or shorten the soak. Salt beef is cured hard, and an unsoaked joint makes the whole pot, vegetables and all, too salty to eat.
- Put the split peas into a pudding bag, tied with room to swell, and drop it into the pot with the beef.
- Leave real slack in the bag. The peas roughly double and a tightly tied bag bursts and clouds the entire pot.
- Cover with fresh cold water, bring to a boil, and skim off the scum.
- Simmer for about 2 hours, until the beef is tender.
- Everything cooks in the one pot, in the salt beef water. That is the whole point of the dinner and it is where the flavour comes from.
- Add the swede and carrots for the last 45 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and parsnips for the last 30 minutes.
- Add the cabbage for the last 15 minutes only.
- Stagger the vegetables by how long they take. Put in together they either turn to mush or come out raw, and cabbage in particular is finished in a quarter of an hour.
- Lift the pudding bag out, untie it, and mash the peas with butter and plenty of black pepper.
- Carve the beef, drain the vegetables, and serve everything on one plate with the pease pudding.
- Make the gravy from the cooking liquid, thinned and thickened to taste, and taste it before adding any salt at all.
- It is Sunday dinner in Newfoundland, named after the comic strip character Jiggs, who was forever after his corned beef and cabbage.
Technique
- Salt beef here is the Newfoundland cured brisket sold in buckets of brine, not fresh brisket.
- Leftovers are chopped and fried the next day as hash, which is arguably the better meal.
- Figgy duff, a boiled raisin pudding, is often cooked in the same pot in its own bag.
Substitutions
- Corned beef or a bacon joint in place of salt beef.
- A pudding basin with a cloth cover if you have no pudding bag.
Variations
- With figgy duff boiled alongside.
- With salt riblets instead of a whole joint.
- Made with salt pork, which is the older version.
History
A boiled dinner combining salt beef with cabbage, potato, turnip and carrot, all cooked together in one pot, developed in Newfoundland, with salt beef reflecting the province’s historic reliance on salted and preserved meats given its geographic isolation and the practical necessity of preserving food before refrigeration and reliable year-round transportation existed. Its name is popularly traced to a British comic strip character named Jiggs, known for enjoying corned beef and cabbage, though the exact connection between the Newfoundland dish and that specific character is not fully documented beyond that generally accepted naming explanation. Jiggs dinner remains especially closely associated with Sunday family meals across Newfoundland specifically, considered one of the province’s most essential traditional dishes.
Frequently asked questions
What is Jiggs dinner?
Jiggs dinner is a main from Canada: boiled salt beef with cabbage, root vegetables and a cloth-boiled pease pudding. A boiled dinner combining salt beef with cabbage, potato, turnip and carrot, all cooked together in one pot, developed in Newfoundland, with salt beef reflecting the province’s historic reliance on salted and preserved meats given its geographic isolation and the practical necessity of preserving food before refrigeration and reliable year-round transportation existed. Its name is popularly traced to a British comic strip character named Jiggs, known for enjoying corned beef and cabbage, though the exact connection between the Newfoundland dish and that specific character is not fully documented beyond that generally accepted naming explanation. Jiggs dinner remains especially closely associated with Sunday family meals across Newfoundland specifically, considered one of the province’s most essential traditional dishes.
How long does Jiggs dinner take to make?
Jiggs dinner takes 30 min plus overnight soaking of preparation and 3 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 8 servings. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Jiggs dinner?
Yes, within limits. Corned beef or a bacon joint in place of salt beef. A pudding basin with a cloth cover if you have no pudding bag.
What is the most important thing to get right in Jiggs dinner?
Do not skip or shorten the soak. Salt beef is cured hard, and an unsoaked joint makes the whole pot, vegetables and all, too salty to eat.
