Jiggs Dinner

Jiggs Dinner is a boiled Newfoundland meal of salt beef and root vegetables, served with pease pudding and often a suet pudding. It is a regional dish of Canada, most closely tied to the island of Newfoundland, where the meat and vegetables are cooked together in one pot.

What it really is

Salt beef, the brined beef that is called corned beef in the United States, is simmered in water until tender. Carrot, cabbage, potato and turnip go into the same pot, so the vegetables take on the salty broth. Pease pudding is made from split peas that are boiled until they break down into a thick, mild purée. The suet pudding is a flour and suet dough that is boiled or steamed, and it is the part that brings wheat into the meal.

The cut of beef, the number of vegetables and whether a suet pudding is cooked at all can all change from one kitchen to the next.

How it's served

• Hot, with the sliced beef on the platter and the vegetables in portions beside it.
• Pease pudding cut into thick slices and set on the plate next to the meat.
• Suet pudding sliced and served alongside, where it is offered.
• Family style from one large dish, or plated by portion.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the meat as salt beef, and say that it is boiled.
• List the vegetables that come with it: potato, carrot, cabbage and turnip.
• Name the pease pudding as made from split peas.
• Flag wheat for the suet pudding, and ask the kitchen whether it also contains milk or egg.
• Say whether the suet pudding is included or an extra, because it is often served but not always.