Jiggs Dinner
“Newfoundland Sunday boiled dinner — salt beef (corned beef) simmered slowly with cabbage, turnip, carrots, potato, and a 'pease pudding' (yellow split peas boiled in a cloth bag inside the same pot). Everything in one pot for 3+ hours; named after the 1913 comic-strip character Jiggs who loved boiled dinner. The pinnacle of Newfoundland Sunday cooking.”
Where it comes from
British boiled-beef-and-vegetables tradition transplanted to Newfoundland via early-1900s waves of West-Country English fishermen. The 'pease pudding in the pot' is the regional touch — a cotton-cloth bag of yellow split peas cooks in the same broth, absorbing all the meat-and-vegetable flavors. Named in the 1920s after the popular Jiggs comic; the name stuck.
On the plate
Fork loads up a Newfoundland Sunday plate — slice of pink-edged salt beef, soft cabbage wedge, cubes of mellow turnip and carrot, chunks of potato, a mound of golden pease pudding. Each vegetable tastes of meat broth as much as of itself; the salt beef is corned-beef tender. Pease pudding is silky-mashed and almost sweet from the long simmer. Gravy ties everything together. A complete plate for a complete day.
How it works
The pease-pudding-in-a-bag is the dish's structural innovation — it cooks IN the broth, absorbing all the beef-and-vegetable flavors, while staying contained so it doesn't make the broth murky. The salt beef desalts during the simmer (the salt diffuses into the broth), which also seasons the vegetables. Adding vegetables in sequence (turnip and carrot first, potato and cabbage later) accounts for their different cook times.
Variations
Modern Newfoundland version sometimes adds a smoked ham hock alongside the salt beef for additional depth. Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, PEI) skip the pease pudding entirely — Newfoundland purists argue this makes it 'just boiled dinner,' not Jiggs Dinner. Catholic-Friday version subs the beef for salt cod ('fish Jiggs Dinner').
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓40 min active · 200 min waiting
How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓- 11440 min
Soak 1.2 kg salt beef in cold water 12-24 hours, changing water once, to draw out excess salt.
- 25 min
Make pease pudding: tie 2 cups yellow split peas into a cotton cloth (allow expansion room), tie shut tightly.
- 37 min
In a very large pot, place salt beef + pease pudding bag + 8 cups water. Bring to gentle simmer.
- 4165 min
Skim foam first 15 min. Cover partially. Simmer 2.5 hours.
- 535 min
Add 1 large turnip cubed, 4 large carrots in chunks. Simmer 30 min.
- 635 min
Add 6 medium potatoes (peeled, halved), 1 medium cabbage cut in wedges. Simmer 30 min until everything is fork-tender.
- 75 min
Remove pease pudding bag. Open onto a plate, mash with butter, salt, pepper.
- 88 min
Slice beef thick. Plate beef + cabbage + turnip + carrot + potato + a scoop of pease pudding. Serve with a small bowl of cooking-broth gravy.
