Boiled dinner is the only-in-New-England version of the Irish-American dish corned beef and cabbage. Everything in the meal, except for corn bread, is prepared by boiling, usually all in the same pot: corned beef and cabbage plus any combination of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas. Beets are also frequently included, but they are cooked separately so as not to dye everything else red. Never fancied up with gravy or upscale cuts of meat, boiled dinner is a quintessential square meal that has become an emblem of the Yankee kitchen’s forthrightness. Leftovers are the ingredient list for red flannel hash.
Meat and potatoes. And carrots, cabbage, parsnips, and beets: the classic New England boiled dinner.