Main Dishes
In Praise of the New England Boiled Dinner
When it comes to eating real food, we’ve got the plainest, squarest, and most wonderful meat and potatoes meal in America — the New England Boiled Dinner.
By Jane and Michael Stern|Mar 09 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanYield:
Ingredients
Instructions
Despite my Irish heritage, my love of corned beef came from my maternal, Swedish grandmother’s New England Boiled Dinners with vegetables from my New Hampshire Yankee grandfather’s garden! And that meant New England Style Grey Corned Beef!! I’m surprised your articles didn’t delve into the different types of corned beef. Actually, I was kind of shocked when I saw the red NY style corned beef in your article without any mention of the New England style.
If you try the grey corned beef, the water needs to be changed during cooking. (Or during soaking before cooking as I just read about.) I’ve always brought the brisket to a boil for five minutes then removed it and washed out the pot and re-filled it with fresh water bringing it back to a boil them simmering for hours. Without the changing of the water, the beef will be virtually inedible because it will be too salty. Learned that the difficult way the first time I cooked my own boiled dinner years after those grandparents had passed away.
Never had a bitter turnip in this boiled dinner! Brussels Sprouts are also excellent, need to cook a few minutes longer than the cabbage. And no chemicals turning the meat red in the New England style!! Unless you add beets of course.
That info about Maine…so wrong. I’ve never heard of anyone here in Maine putting anything but corned beef in a traditional boiled dinner. It is quintessentially Maine.
My paternal grandfather would cook a New England Boiled Dinner just about every weekend. It was easy for him to make and it would give grandma a day off of from cooking. However, grandpa insisted that a true New England Boiled Dinner is smoked shoulder, cabbage, carrots and potatoes and that Irish Corned Beer and Cabbage is Irish Irish Corned Beer and Cabbage. Grandpa came from a long line of mostly English colonists to New England going back to the Mayflower Pilgrims, and grandma was 99% Irish with her ancestors arriving in mid 19th century. I’m not sure if either of my grandparents ever cooked what they called Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage, as I don’t remember eating Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage at their house, as grandpa only served what he insited is a true New England Boiled Dinner, smoked shoulder, cabbage, carrots and potatoes. So at some point in my life, I was surprised to find that other New Englanders consisder what my family calls Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage a New England Boiled Dinner. Mad me go “Uh?” Even my mother’s parents of similar ancestry to my paternal grandfather, distinguished between the two and yes the maternal side would occasional coook the Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage, but more often their New England Boiled Dinner was also smoked shoulder. I enjoy either, but, I really prefer the texture of the smoked shoulder. And a couple of years ago, my dh and I went out for Irish corned beef and discovered that there is red corned beef and gray corned beef. We decided one of would order the red and the other the gray. We both discovered we prefer the red over the gray. It’s all in what you get used. Its funny the things we remember, how we think we know as normal from what we learned from our family when growing up. I seldom cook either corned beef or smoked shoulder (I can never find the latter), but this year for St. Paddy’s Day, I cooked the best Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage I have ever cooked. 🙂
Oh, how happy I am to see you mentioned smoked shoulder, cabbage, carrots and potatoes when they’re tossed together it is known as a “proper” New England Boiled Dinner.
Indeed!
Happy memories around this hearty cast of characters…
With respects to the varied names, well, I believe this is oh sooooooo New England too.
For example: ask anyone of Canadian heritage in New England, what is the difference between Gorton, Creton, or is it Corton??
And watch their heads tilt like a puppy hearing a noise for the first time.
But what you can count on is this – while the cast of ingredient may be slightly different here and there, what is omnipresent is the joy shared with this meal.
From the first time it hits the table to its last curtain call in the morning, it truly is a gift that keeps giving to the very end.
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So, from the comments, there is no consensus on Boiled Dinner….Here in the Midwest we make it with pork shoulder or a big chunk of ham, no beets, plenty of onions, carrots, and potatoes, cabbage optional……Made with corned beef, and cabbage, it is properly Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage, though I don’t think the Irish used beets….
“The Bar-Jo Restaurant in South Paris Maine” was actually located in Norway and unfortunately closed down over 25 years ago, but was nice to see it mentioned! My grandmother always made boiled dinner with ham per my grandfather who found corned beef to be too fatty…
Even although I’m a former New Englander, this meal often turns a salty grey, and tastes like turnip — Yuk !
Nana from PEI would scour the earth for parsnips for her grey boiled dinner…. it was considered something of a status symbol,worthy of a Sunday….
My mother as Newfoundland and my father was from Massachusetts. In Newfoundland a boiled dinner is called a Jiggs Dinner. So, since my mother was the primary cook we called it a Jiggs Dinner.
My roots are Irish, mainly, Scottish and Englush. My Aunt was from Ireland. Everyone used the red flat cut corned beef for the boiled dinner. It is the most flavorful and less salty in my opinion.
The Community Church in Harrisville, NH served boiled dinner on the Saturday before St Patrick’s Day! 43 lbs of Corned Beef, 10 lbs of Carrots, 5 heads of cabbage, 12 lbs of potatoes, 5 loaves of Irish Soda Bread. Definitely comfort food here in New England…
I 100% agree that arguing over the “right” recipe could start a civil war. I found myself adamantly nodding along and agreeing at times and making disgusted face and shaking my head others. New England Boiled Dinner is one of my most favorite meals.
very interesting article – really enjoyed reading them.
Bravo! This fine article harkens back to the days of more literary food writing. Long live the Sterns!
I DO not agree that a New England boiled was Corn beef I am a life long New Englander (73yrs old) and my family had a N E boiled dinner once a wk and it was always Smoked shoulder (Corned Beef was only on St Pats day) W/pots cabbage and carrots…the left over shoulder was used for Ham salad that was ground up and mixed w/cains mayo and mustard…Also Sunday morning after church what was left was sliced and fried w/bacon… home fries and eggs… it was a weekly meal that I could not wait for….I WANT IT NOW !!!
I agree. My dad made our boiled dinner with a “Daisey ham”. If corned beef was used it was “corned beef and cabbage dinner” Both dinners had the potatoes, cabbage, carrots and turnip.
Same here. Miss a Daisy Ham.
I agree!
Agreed!
Corned Beef was for St. Patrick’s Day because it was so expensive.
My family on both sides are of Canadian descent when they came down, they settled in New Bedford, MA. and I’m 2nd generation and 100% French.
If Memere, the aunts, or my mother made a NE Boiled dinner it was always a Smoked Pork Shoulder… when it went on sale. The dinner included the usual Cabbage, Carrots, Potatoes, Whole Onions, a chunked Celery Stalk, Salt, Pepper, and possibly a Bay Leaf.
It never lasted very long.
It’s still a fond memory and I make it as often as I can in late fall and winter.
I’ve used a smoke shoulder for years. Made it for my siblings, my children and now my grandchildren. But I’ve always added turnip to the pot. They ALL loved it. Cooked ALL together in one big pot after I par boiled the shoulder, drained the salt water and started fresh. Oh So Good!!!!
Being a former NewEnglander now living in Broken Arrow, Ok., and a vegetarian, I take great delight in omitting any sort of meat product. But I love (and make often in wintertime) the boiled dinners. I start with a large head of brocoli or cauliflower or cabbage, and add all sorts of veggies and spices. Yum!
Rique’ Lydem
Former Burlington, Vermontier
In my house yes we love our cb hash. But we use it all for our hash. Cb, potatoes, carrots, and yes cabbage. I have yet to see anyone, anywhere use the cabbage. I do not understand why it is always left out.
Will it be heresy to make it in an Instant Pot? As a name “Pressure cooked corn beef” doesn’t ring true, but everything else I’ve cooked in it has been tender and juicy. It won’t steam up the windows and the wonderful smells should still scent the house. Hints and opinions most welcome!
In the fall, my grandmother would make a “Harvest Dinner” with ham with bone in, and fresh vegetables from the garden. She would grind up all leftovers and mixed well, served with or without an egg. Gram liked hers with pickles or relishes she had preserved, and always kept “pot liquor” (cooking liquid”).Not to waste anything she made pea soup with the ham bone. I make it this way, except for St. Patrick’s day I use red corned beef. Depending whom I’m cooking for beets go in (red potatoes), some folks don’t like red potatoes. But they get ground up in the “red” flannel Hash. Hash freezes well also. I live alone and find it hard to cook for one, its nice to have meals ready , just thaw and heat up .Sorry hit submit
comment bottom twice, now 3 times!
I think that “a brine made from salt and gunpowder (the latter contained in shells known as “corns,” hence the name)” is incorrect. “Corn” was originally a name for any small particle, not the container. (In England, most menus and packages still say “maize” if they mean what we usually call corn.) Grains of salt and of the gunpowder itself would both have been “corns”. Note that gunpowder wasn’t even necessary; one of your readers notes “grey corn beef”, which was made with plain salt, not reddened by the nitrates from gunpowder.
I grew up in NH and our boiled dinners we ham, cabbage, carrots, onions and cabbage.
But she did make corn beef the same as the ham dinner. I’ve been making boiled dinner with ham and veggies for all my life. I’m retired now so it’s a boiled dinner few times a week! Cornbread beef is ok but prefer ham!
I am a former Bostonian and proud of it! I miss my Mom cooking the boiled dinners on Sunday. It was always about traditions and I loved helping her. I now cook it with my children and grandchildren and it is such a wonderful comfort food for me!