The Food of Newfoundland

Okay, so anybody who has gone to Newfoundland can say that if there's one thing that Newfoundland does differently, it's food. As someone from Newfoundland who has travelled all over Canada, I can tell you that we definitely do food differently, so I figured I would take some time and talk about our food traditions.

First off, I want to talk about some basic food thoughts.

• We put vinegar on most everything. Fries, fish, chicken, you name it. It's something in every Newfoundland fridge. When we're not using it as a condiment, we're pickling stuff in it. Pickled foods (such as beets, pickles, and olives) are another big thing here.
• We drink a lot of tea. When I say a lot of tea, I mean A LOT OF TEA. The kettle is always on. Orange pekoe is the poison of choice for the most part, although some prefer earl grey.
• Crush Soda has two flavours available only in Newfoundland: Pineapple and Birch Beer. Pineapple tastes just like if a pineapple popsicle was made into a soda with a hint of pure liquid joy. Birch Beer tastes like normal Root Beer but is significantly better, and it's pink. You can find them in very sparse locations across Canada, but it's sold everywhere in Newfoundland and it is the greatest joy in life.
• Molasses goes on many things, especially toutons (Newfoundland's version of bannock) and toast. Screech is a type of rum produced in Newfoundland. Since Newfoundland played such a major role in European trade routes with the rest of the world, sugar cane was often brought through here. Sugar cane, when refined, creates molasses and rum. Screech is known for being particularly sharp. There's a ceremony called 'Screech ins' where people take a shot of screech, kiss a cod fish, then swear the Screecher's Oath in order to become honorary Newfoundlanders.

Jiggs (on the left) of Bringing Up Father, the most likely
namesake of Jiggs Dinner.

Newfoundland's most signature dish has to be Jiggs Dinner. Jiggs Dinner most likely gets it's name from Jiggs, the main character of the comic strip Bringing Up Father, although this cannot be said with certainty. The main ingredient in Jiggs Dinner is salt beef, which is similar to corner beef. It's beef riblets that are salt-cured and pickled in brine until it's so salty you've gotta boil it in a huge pot full of water for hours to make it's consumption survivable. Other ingredients in Jiggs Dinner are potatoes, turnip, cabbage, carrots, and peas pudding. Peas pudding is made of yellow split peas boiled until they can be mashed into a thick, dry pudding. What makes it so signaturely Newfoundlandish is that it is all boiled in the same pot as the salt beef, giving it all a very distinct salty flavour that can't be replicated with simple table salt.

A jar of savoury from Mt. Scio Farm here in St. John's,
Note that NL savoury is not to be mistaken with 'summer
savory'. They are similar but not the same.

Jiggs Dinner, often called cooked dinner, is often served with a main protein; often a roast or whole poultry. While salt beef is the main ingredient to cooked dinner, the most important ingredient is hands down the dressing and gravy. Newfoundland dressing, often mistaken with mainland stuffing (which is an insult to the ambrosia that is dressing), is made of bread crumbs, butter, pepper, and savoury. Savoury is a type of spice mostly found in Newfoundland (but again can be found in certain other locations) is a green herb that when cooked turns black and gives Newfoundland dressing it's unique taste. And of course no cooked dinner is complete without gravy. Newfoundland gravy can be distinguished by it's thick and dark appearance, as well as it's strong, salty flavour. Something I find really depressing is when someone in the mainland says there will be gravy with dinner and it's thin and white and tastes like flour and water. It's really sad, but I guess that's how people may feel when they see our gravy, how mistaken they are.

Cod is another food that has been significant to Newfoundland food. Since the fishery has always been a hopping business here since John Cabot first landed here, it has been readily available food for centuries. Cod is often battered either in a basic flour batter or a beer batter and fried, either in a pan or deep fried, and served with tartar sauce. Our tartar sauce is mayonaisse, horseradish, and relish. I don't know if that's tartar sauce everywhere though. I just say this because a lot of places I have visited across Canada use Miracle Whip and dill and call it Tartar sauce, which maybe we're the different ones or maybe I've just been going to weird places.

The logo of Purity Factories. It has had
some face-lifts over the years but has
stayed mostly the same.

One more thing that I feel is greatly relevant to the idea of Newfoundland food is Purity Factories. Purity Factories was founded in 1924 and has become a rather famous example of Newfoundland food. They produce all sorts of products such as cream crackers (which are absolutely delicious), peppermint nobs, all sorts of candies, biscuits, and cookies, jam jams (my personal favourite), and flavoured syrups that are comparable to grenadine. Something very special they make is hard bread, comparable to hardtack, which was a staple food for fisherman and a key ingredient in fish and brewis, which is another big food here in Newfoundland. Fish and brewis is the epitome of homecooked meals here in Newfoundland. It is salt fish, hard bread, and mashed potatoes all mashed together and usually eaten with vinegar, mustard, or some other condiment.

An ad for Jam Jams, the crowning
creation of Purity Factories. They are
small, soft molasses cookies with a
Purity-made jam between them.

But yeah, that's a bit of information about some of my favourite Newfoundland foods. Feel free to comment, like, subscribe, share, etcetera etcetera, you all know the drill. If you have any questions or notice any foods I may have forgotten that you would like me to cover, let me know and I can always add it in somewhere. If there's one thing I love talking about, it's food.