Newfoundland and Labrador
Fish & brewis: salt cod, hardtack.
Fish and Brewis
Fish and brewis — salt cod and hardtack rehydrated and fried with salt pork — is Newfoundland's survival pantry turned national dish.
View page →Newfoundland is Canada's easternmost island, joining the Confederation only in 1949 and isolated at sea for centuries, so its food stands alone. The base is salt cod — since the 16th century, when French, Spanish and Portuguese fishermen came to fish the Grand Banks, salt-dried cod was the island's indispensable staple and the reason Europeans first set foot in North America. The signature, fish and brewis, rehydrates salt cod and hardtack hard bread with salt pork into a soft, savory pot — a lesson in reviving pantry stores. Irish and West-Country English settlers brought Jiggs dinner, a Sunday one-pot of salt beef with root vegetables and pease pudding. Further north, seal flipper pie, moose stew and cod tongues and cheeks are centuries of hunting and fishing made into dinner.
The Palate
Start Here
Salt cod and hardtack rehydrated with salt pork into a soft, savory pot.
Why start here · Newfoundland's pantry-store cooking in one dish.
Salt beef boiled with cabbage, potato, carrot and pease pudding — the Sunday pot.
Why start here · The Irish-West-Country inheritance.
A fried delicacy of the cod's most tender parts, a Newfoundland specialty.
Why start here · The off-cut that became a pride.
The Pantry
See all 33 ingredients›
Herbs & Spices
Grains & Staples
Sauces & Condiments
How They Cook
Techniques that define this cuisine
Other regions
Siblings within Canadian — each its own tradition.