Jiggs Dinner

One of my favorite things about Newfoundland is a Jiggs Dinner and Lori's mom cooks better it than anyone. For someone who's not from here and has never had one before, it may seem a little strange at first but once you've had it, you'll fall in love with it too.

The history of a Jiggs dinner goes back to the days when Newfoundland was just an outport and it was difficult to get fresh meat and vegetables. While the ingredients vary from region to region (and even within families) the basic version consists of salt beef, potatoes, turnip, carrots and cabbage. The closest thing I can think of would be corned beef and cabbage.

Salt beef is chunks of beef preserved in a brine and in order to make it edible, the beef has to be boiled to remove the brine and soften the meat. Housewives discovered if they cooked the vegetables in the same pot, the brine and meat would give them a great taste. The beef would be shipped in large barrels and you would select the pieces you want. Today the beef comes in buckets and can be bought anywhere.

Like I said, there can be other things in the pot as well like turnip greens and parsnips. The salt beef could be replaced with salt riblets also. One of my favorite things about a Jiggs dinner is the peas pudding. This is yellow split peas cooked in a pudding bag hanging in the pot. Some families do not use gravy on their Jiggs dinner but Lori's mom always cooks a roast or a turkey separately in order to create gravy. Here's a photo of my first plateful. I took it before I put the gravy on.

As you can see I'm not from Newfoundland originally because I have very little salt beef on my plate. I love the flavour it gives everything else but I'm not a fan the beef itself. Too chewy and stringy. I do love to make hash out of the leftovers the next day though so that makes me an honourary Newfoundlander.

db