When a Newfoundlander has plenty to eat, she is said to have lashings or thousands; when she has too much grog (food), she is said to be blocked.
Jiggs’ dinner is a relatively new term, apparently coined from the Maggie and Jiggs cartoon (1915–1950).
afters ∼ dessert, especially a Sunday dessert after a home-cooked meal.
all accardin’ cake ∼ a cake made all according to the ingredients the cook had on hand.
baked salt fish ∼ salt fish roasted in the oven until blisters form. The blisters containing the salt can then be wiped off.
baker’s fog ∼ store-bought bread.
bangbelly ∼ a pork-and-molasses cake made with soda. The cake is baked, fried, or boiled like dumplings in a stew.
barksail loaf ∼ bread made with just a colouring of molasses.
bark-sall (-sail) duff ∼ a steamed molasses pudding made with spices.
bay bun ∼ a molasses-and-pork bun.
bicky ∼ store-bought plain cracker.
bitch and dogbody ∼ a cake made of flour, fat pork, and molasses.
blackjack ∼ a variety of molasses from the West Indies.
blind mush ∼ a soup made with vegetables and cabbage.
blueberry grunt ∼ a blueberry pudding in a bag tied with a string and boiled with vegetables in the same pot.
boiled dinner (a scoff) ∼ a meal of vegetables and salt beef cooked together in one pot.
bottomer ∼ a thin, flat cake.
brack ∼ Irish fruitcake.
branny ∼ coarse bread of rye, oats, barley.
britchin ∼ the roe from a codfish.
bubble and squeak ∼ leftovers of Sunday dinner eaten the next day.
burgoo ∼ 1. hash of vegetables cooked for a ship’s crew. 2. seamen’s oatmeal gruel.
burned ocky ∼ boiled molasses.
butter dole ∼ drawn butter.
cabbieclaw (Scottish) ∼ a dish of salt cod.
calavances ∼ small white beans used in soup.
Candlemas cake ∼ a sweet cake baked for Candlemas Day.
chaw and glutch ∼ a meal of bread and tea.
cheat bread ∼ bread made of whole wheat flour.
chibol ∼ a type of mild onion.
chidley ∼ the white, lacy inside flesh of fish.
chip potatoes ∼ potatoes boiled after chips of skin are taken off here and there.
chitlings ∼ roe of cod contained in britchins.
chommy ∼ Monday’s fried hash made from Sunday’s cooked leftovers.
chuckley bread ∼ bread that is gritty and badly made.
close bread ∼ bread with too much salt, and kneaded so hard it doesn’t rise well.
cloth pudding ∼ any kind of pudding: raisin, pease, blueberry, etc., spooned into a cloth bag, tied over, and dropped into the pot to be cooked with salt beef and vegetables.
coady ~ a sweet sauce made of sugar, butter, water, and vinegar for puddings and pancakes.
coady dipper ∼ a sauce made from molasses, starch, and vinegar.
codlin ∼ an unripe apple.
cod sounds ∼ the air bladders of a codfish (a gelatinous sac attached to the backbone) browned with cubes of pork and salt beef.
cod tongues ∼ part fleshy, part gelatinous tongues, fried or stewed.
coffin ∼ a rough pastry used as a lining in an oblong dish for sweet and savoury fillings.
cold locker ∼ leftovers of salt beef, pork, and vegetables served cold.
conversation ∼ a sweet round candy with a motto.
cooked feed, a ∼ a full, hot meal of meat, gravy, and potatoes.
country bread ∼ homemade bread baked with a hard crust, so that it won’t get “squat” when it is carried into the country for lunch.
coupie egg ∼ hen’s egg.
cracknels ∼ fat pork cut into small pieces, rendered with onions, and then heaped on fish and brewis.
craft fresh ∼ fresh game (birds or animals).
crowdy ∼ oatmeal and milk.
crubeens ∼ pickled pigs’ feet.
damper cake ∼ fried dough baked on top of a stove damper.
dandy cakes ∼ little cakes sold for 10¢ each.
dolly dodger ∼ a piece of fried bread dough.
doughboy ∼ a mixture of flour, baking powder, and water dropped into a boiler of hot water.
dry diet ∼ a regular meal of ship biscuit, dried salted fish, and meat. Little water.
ducky-dough ∼ a dough ball given to a child by a mother mixing up a batch of bread dough.
duff ∼ a pudding made of water, flour, molasses, and baking powder cooked in a duff bag.
dunch bread ~ bread that doesn’t rise.
duncher ∼ a small cake containing cubes of fat, sweetened with molasses.
Eskimo pipsy ∼ dried fish with fresh seal oil and cranberries.
excursion bread ∼ dry sweet biscuit (similar to hard tack).
farrels ∼ pork pies made using rolled oats.
fat back ∼ fat from salt-cured pork rind.
figgy duff ∼ a raisin pudding boiled in a cloth bag, usually in the same pot as the vegetables and salt beef.
fish and vang ∼ pork and fish boiled together.
fish pearls ∼ small head bones of codfish cooked and browned, then grounded to a fine powder to be eaten by dipping a wet finger in it.
flacoons ∼ damper doughboys sometimes made of flour and water and dropped on the stove.
flan-dadolin ∼ bread dough rolled thin and fried in pork fat.
flang-tile ∼ a pancake.
flannel hash ∼ leftovers from a cooked dinner.
flick ∼ a thin vegetable stew made using small cubes of soaked salt beef.
flint biscuit ∼ hard tack.
flipper (fipper, phipper) supper ∼ a meal of seal flippers. The flipper is not the paw or pad (discarded). It is the shoulder: tasty, rich meat.
flummery ∼ fine oatmeal steeped a long time in water, strained, and then boiled and stirred until it is almost solid.
flummie (bannock, flummy dum, stove cake) ∼ dough made of flour, soda, and water. Some people strung the dough around the funnel of a stove and left it to bake.
fodge ∼ a thick cake or loaf.
fog meal ∼ a large meal.
frawsy ∼ a sweet cake or biscuit.
freshwater rice ∼ dampened flour rolled and placed in soup.
frico ∼ salted and peppered vegetables cooked in broth or water.
fritten bread ∼ a soaked ship biscuit fried with pork.
fungy ∼ bread that is full of air holes.
funnel bun ∼ bread dough baked on a hot stove pipe or stove lid.
gandy ∼ 1. a homemade pancake. 2. fried dough. gear,
plate of gear ∼ a helping of food.
grease cake ∼ a piece of dough dipped in fat and baked.
groaning cake (bide-in feast) ∼ sweet cake served in the home of a woman who had just given birth, or for a christening. All the neighbours attended.
groats ∼ whole grains, sometimes crushed.
grog bit ∼ a small amount of food accompanying a drink.
grog fish ∼ the first fish of the season.
guess cake ∼ a cake made by an unmarried girl with objects hidden in it. It was auctioned at a fair. Each guess cost the male five cents. Whoever got the most guesses won the cake.
Hamburg bread ∼ a hard, thick biscuit.
hard knob ∼ a large candy, often striped.
hard tack (bread) ∼ thick, oval-shaped coarse biscuits baked without salt and kiln-dried. hauler’s bread ∼ a meal of sweet raisin bread shared between neighbours after they had gathered in the fall and cut wood for their church.
heavy mess pork ∼ large chunks of pork without the rind.
heel tap ∼ the end crust of a loaf of bread.
hert cake ∼ a cake made with blueberries.
Indian meal ∼ a dark, coarse cornmeal.
Jerusalems ∼ chewy taffy.
joanie ∼ bread dough cooked on the lid of a stove.
John casey ∼ blueberry pudding.
khaki dodger ∼ a molasses biscuit or bun.
king cake ∼ a cake made as a yearly tradition in Newfoundland families loyal to England. Inside the cake was a charm. Whoever found it in their piece of cake was king for the day.
Labrador slice ~ a thick slice of homemade bread.
lad-in-a-bag ∼ boiled pudding.
laddher (ladder) ∼ tough, hard-to-chew pork rind.
lassy jimmies ∼ molasses buns.
lobscouse ∼ a thick soup or stew of vegetables and salt meat, fatback, and molasses.
locker feed ∼ pease pudding over a scalded water duff.
lolly ∼ thick gruel.
long sweetness (long-tailed sugar) ∼ molasses.
mammerisms ∼ 1. a shortened form of lobscouse. 2. a sailor’s name for stew meat, vegetables, and ship’s biscuits.
manchet bread ∼ white homebread enriched with eggs, butter, and milk.
moreish ∼ food that guests want more of is referred to as moreish.
mug-up ∼ a cup of tea with biscuits.
must go ∼ leftovers that have been around too long.
nosh ∼ 1. to eat or drink, 2. food.
nummies ∼ common candy.
orphan ∼ a piece of dough left over after the baking pans are full.
padre ∼ fish fried with scruncheons (pork cubes) mixed with scrubs(pieces) of torn bread.
pap ∼ bread soaked in milk.
parley cake ∼ sweet cake.
parson harvey ∼ 1. a piece of fried dough. 2. a molasses cake made of soaked bread.
peas ∼ fish spawn.
poreens ∼ small potatoes.
pork loaf ∼ a vegetable pie with chips of pork in it.
pork tit ∼ a child’s pacifier.
pot head (head cheese, brawn) ∼ The head of an animal is boiled and the meat is removed from the bones and set with spices.
pratie oatens (boxty bread) ∼ mashed potatoes mixed with oatmeal, made into cakes, and fried.
puddocks (fish stomachs) ∼ These were cleaned of their white substance and cooked, making their own gravy.
punky ∼ thick (often cold) porridge.
rand ∼ straps of fat from a seal, or pork from a pig’s belly.
relish ∼ food that hits the spot. It satisfies.
rock bun ∼ plain bun or salt pork bun.
rose cake ∼ bread with raisins or currants baked in it.
sadogue ∼ soggy cake that doesn’t rise.
sagomite ∼ a mixture of cornmeal and dried fish.
salt junk ∼ pickled beef.
scarum ∼ 1. drawn butter. 2. bread dough fried on stove.
scoff ∼ a large home-cooked meal.
scoff and scuff ∼ lots of traditional food, accompanied by music and dancing.
scotch dumpling ∼ a baked meal of cods’ puddicks stuffed with chopped livers and cornmeal.
scrump-up ∼ to overcook food.
scrunchins (scruncheons) ∼ fat pork cut into small pieces rendered with onions and heaped onto a plate of fish and brewis.
sculps ∼ cod cheeks.
shiva ∼ cod liver cooked up brown.
shoofly ∼ a brown sugar and molasses pie (a shoofly was also a child’s rocker).
short sweetness ∼ sugar.
siva ∼ dried cod liver.
skiver cake ∼ a dough made of flour, baking powder, and salt. This was rolled around a stick and roasted on an open fire.
slam ∼ bread made from coarsely ground wheat and refined flour. Hard to rise.
slim ∼ a one-layer cake, a pancake.
smother ∼ pastry that covers stew in a meat pie.
soft bread ∼ bread baked soft as opposed to ship’s biscuit, which is hard.
sops (sippets) ∼ small triangles of dried or toasted bread.
spruce bread ∼ bread made to rise from yeast concocted from small black spruce boughs placed in an iron pot and steeped for a few hours. Small potatoes, cut in pieces, were added to make the contents work (ferment) fast. The pot was placed in a warm place for three days until fermentation was completed.
square ∼ sweet square tart.
stir about ∼ a dough containing cut-up pork, stirred and fried.
stogger ∼ a heavy steamed pudding: a hearty filler.
stoggers and alexanders ∼ doughboys made with the alexander herb and served with “codey (boiled molasses).”
stop-short ∼ a snack given to a hungry person before a meal.
sucker (all-day sucker) ∼ a molasses candy.
sulick ∼ drippings from meat to make gravy, or from fish to make a sauce.
sunker ∼ a dumpling in a bowl of soup.
sweets ∼ candy.
tadie (tatey, tatie) ∼ potato.
taffy ∼ gum.
tea ∼ a light meal.
tea fish ∼ caplin. They were eaten late in the day because they supposedly made people sleepy.
tiffin (touton, morning glory, grease cake, gandy, tushin) ∼ a pan-fried piece of bread dough.
toddy ∼ a bun made from leftover dough.
tommy ∼ a loaf of bread.
tommy bun ∼ a small piece of dough.
upsit cake ∼ a cake made to honour the birth of a baby.
vang (scruncheons) ∼ salt pork fried and spooned on fish.
vinegar plant ∼ bacterial culture grown in home-fermented vinegar made from toasted bread, molasses, yeast, and water. Placed in a crock this concoction will produce a vinegar squall after a time.
vinegar strip ∼ a sauce for steamed pudding made from vinegar, molasses, flour, and water.
wack ∼ bread made from unrefined flour.
Wesleyan bread ∼ bread made with a few raisins and eaten mostly at Christmas time.
white pot ∼ a form of bread and butter pudding.
bare-legged cup of tea ∼ black tea with no food.
dark and dirty ∼ rum and cola.
beaver ∼ a drink of rum at 11 a.m.
beaver pride ∼ a drink made from steeped beaver testicles.
berry ocky ∼ 1. a partridgeberry drink. 2. a hot drink of wild berries.
bohea tea (twanky) ∼ a mixture of spirits and tea taken with three meals a day in the early nineteenth century.
boilers ∼ a mixture of beer and whisky.
bung your eye ∼ a strong drink.
bushy ∼ an outdoor drink.
calibogus (callabogus) ∼ a mixture of rum, molasses, and spruce beer (a drink that is older than screech).
clingy ∼ a drink made from a mixture of water and Purity syrup.
dawn ∼ a drink of rum.
elevener ∼ a drink of liquor taken at 11 a.m.
evening ∼ a glass of liquor taken after a hard day.
flip ∼ a concoction of liquor, eggs, and sugar (a pep drink). A mug of flip is meant for a lazy (no energy) person.
flip (Irish version) ∼ a drink of spruce.
fourer ∼ a drink of liquor or a light snack at four o’clock.
foxy ∼ a light-coloured rum.
freely ∼ a bakeapple drink given to mummers in Cape Freels.
Freshie ∼ a lemon crystal drink made from tiny lemon crystals.
garden beer ∼ beer brewed from homegrown hops.
grog ∼ a small shot of rum or whisky.
half-a-one ∼ half a glass of rum or whisky.
hot toddy ∼ a mixture of hot water and rye.
jimmie-jar (demi-john, demi-jean) ∼ a jar containing five gallons of rum.
juniper beer ∼ a fermented drink made from the boughs of the tamarack.
juniper tea ∼ tea made from the berries of the ground juniper.
kettle tea ∼ tea stirred with milk and sugar while in the kettle.
Labrador (Indian, crystal, marsh) tea ∼ leaves steeped from low-growing evergreen Labrador tea. People are cautioned not to boil Labrador tea from June to August for fear of releasing toxins. Its flowers have a delicate scent and the tea has narcotic qualities.
liquor ∼ the liquid off soup.
manna (mountain, maiden hair) tea ∼ a tea made from the creamy egg of the maidenhair or from its leaves.
molasses beer ∼ beer made from fermented molasses.
morning ∼ a drink from a rum keg in the morning.
mountain dew ∼ illicit whisky. In Ireland it was called potheen whisky and usually made in the mountains.
mulse ∼ boiled wine sweetened with honey.
near beer ∼ homebrew.
pinky ∼ a drink of cheap port wine; it is sometimes mixed with screech.
pinnacle tea ∼ Pieces of glacial ice (blue ice pinnacle) are melted. Its water is boiled and used in making tea.
rip ∼ An 1800s name for a mug of mixed rum and spruce beer.
root ∼ a stiff drink.
sack ∼ a fortified wine. Sherry is a fortified wine.
St. Peter’s gin or rum ∼ liquor from St. Pierre.
screech ∼ a dark Demerara rum bottled in Newfoundland.
sea stock ∼ rum carried on boats for medicinal purposes.
servants’ drink ∼ rum and molasses.
slew of one’s eye ∼ a small drink of liquor.
small beer ∼ weak beer.
spruce beer ∼ beer made of spruce tops and West Indian molasses.
square bender ∼ a drinking spree.
squashberry (button berry) ∼ a drink made from this tart, orange-red berry.
squatum ∼ a drink of home-brewed wine made from the juice of crushed(squat) berries.
stark-naked tea ∼ tea without milk or sweetening.
steam ∼ smuggled illegal pure alcohol.
stingo ∼ strong tea.
sugar tea ∼ tea sweetened with sugar rather than with molasses.
swallies ∼ ginger wine made from bottled essence, boiled water, and sugar.
swanky ∼ a hot cranberry drink made from spring cranberries. Several tablespoons of cranberry jam are dropped into the bottom of a glass. Then hot water is poured in and stirred.
swish ∼ rum remnants left in a rum barrel swished with water and bottled.
switchel ∼ 1. weak tea sweetened with molasses. 2. a drink of molasses, water, vinegar, and ginger. tip,
tipple ∼ one drink of alcohol. top ∼ Buds were steeped from the tops of a fir tree and its liquid mixed with molasses for a refreshing drink.
twig (draft) ∼ a small drink.
verjuice ∼ juice extracted from unripe fruit: crabapples, etc.
welt ∼ a large drink of hard liquor.
winker ∼ a name used in Wesleyville for partridgeberry juice which was kept in a wooden barrel.
wren beer ∼ home-brewed beer made for St. Stephen’s Day.
“You want a cup of tea? You know you do.”
“A cup of tea? You know I don’t.”
Sunday afternoons were once times for “drop-ins.” Some people didn’t automatically stay for supper. There was often a period of coaxing, which led to protests and finally the outcome, which brings me to my story.
My husband and I had come home from Toronto for a visit. One of Clarence’s relatives (I’ll call her Maggie) wanted us to drive “down the arm” and drop in to see some “relations.” Once introductions were out of the way, we were invited to make ourselves comfortable in the living room. The long finger of the clock seemed to move very slowly on that hot Sunday afternoon as words flew between Maggie and her friend, whom I’ll call Clara. Maggie’s husband, Joe, and Clara’s husband, Dick, were pretty laid-back and merely grunted or spoke in monosyllables the whole while.
When suppertime drew near and company was still around, there was only one thing to do, which is what Clara did. She said we were staying for supper.
“No, we didn’t come for supper,” said Maggie, settling back in her chair. “We promised the boys we’d be home for that.”
“It’s almost five and indeed you will have a cup of tea,” Clara declared. She rubbed her hands down her apron and made for the kitchen. The kettle was soon singing on the stove while Clara stood there chatting about us staying.
“No, we’re not going to stop. We’re going now,” Maggie said, turning to me. “Let’s go.”
I was the only one to get up. She didn’t seem to notice as she kept on talking.
“Sit down, maid,” said Clara. “You’re bidin’ fer supper.” Then she hurried back into the kitchen. A tablecloth and dishes soon appeared on the table. Then she was back for more chatter.
“We’re going now,” said Maggie, crossing her legs. I nodded and waited for my husband to get up, wondering if this was the normal process for the two women. The men didn’t seem to notice anything unusual.
Clara went back to the kitchen and Maggie called after her. “’Tis an awful lot of trouble; no good to talk to you.”
“’Tis no trouble, sure,” Clara called back.
“’Tis just as well to leave her alone,” said Maggie with satisfaction. Clara must have heard Maggie’s surrender because there were no more visits from the kitchen. The table was soon spread with canned ham and salads, along with thick slices of homemade bread, cheese and jam, cake, fruit, and cream dessert.
Maggie pushed back an emptied plate. She pressed on her stomach and remarked, “I’m fair popping. You shouldn’t have gone to all your trouble.”
“No trouble. We’ve got to eat too.”
“But you don’t have to feed the nation.”
“No, maid, I suppose not.” She went to refill Maggie’s cup.
I was amused by the game played by the two women. I wondered if the outcome was always the same.
Once the dishes were done, the two women went on to more important matters: who was in the hospital, who had died lately, who was getting married, what women “had the job done on them.”
In the end, both women seemed happy to have shared each other’s company, while the men seemed to have been apart from it all.
As we were leaving, Clara said, “You’d never say I cleaned my stove yesterday.”
“Yes, I would, maid,” Maggie answered.
Clara smiled with satisfaction and the day seemed to have come to a happy conclusion.
So, reader, as you sit mimpsing a cup of hospitality with friends or relatives, smile at Maggie and Clara. Perhaps you know one of them. Perhaps you are one of them.
barking kettle ∼ a large iron cauldron in which the bark of juniper, spruce or fir trees was steeped in hot water to tan and preserve sails and linnet nets.
bibby ∼ a small tin kettle with a large flat bottom tapering to the top. It has a long narrow sprout (bib).
boat’s kettle ∼ a high, narrow pot with a tightly fitted cover. It is suspended from a hook over the warm stove.
bogie ∼ a small stove.
bolts kettle ∼ a tin kettle used by a logger to carry his lunch to the lunch ground.
gold watch ∼ a red kettle.
hot arse ∼ a tin kettle with a small, flat bottom.
hurry-up ∼ a small, flat-bottomed galvanized tea kettle.
pipers ∼ tin, flat-arsed kettles with spouts (bibs) that sang (piping sound) when they were boiling.
pompey ∼ a small, broad-bottomed kettle.
silver watch ∼ a tin kettle.
slut ∼ a tin, flat-bottomed kettle tapering to a smaller neck, its topper made of sheet copper.
smut ∼ a tin kettle used on an open fire or grate.
stage lamp ∼ a tin kettle holding about a pint of kerosene (a coal tar product) or blubber. Its open flame gave a reddish, yellow glow.
Wesleyan kettle ∼ a little tea kettle that takes five cups. It heats quickly but cools rapidly.