Classic Irish Boiled Dinner

I may have over cooked it a tad, because I only had a 2lb shoulder, but it was perfect for St Patrick’s Day!

I couldn’t find any smoked pork shoulder so I just used a pork roast. Everything tasted great. I even saved the broth to make soup.

Enjoyable dinner. We like making this among other national meals -paella and other regional classics

Love this. Making it tomorrow. Did corn beef yesterday but not my favorite. I too grew up with my Irish grandmother always making a boiled dinner with a smoke shoulder. For a special treat, she would occasionally substitute corned spare ribs, keeping the rest of the recipe the same – so yummy.

Good but felt it needed more spice, so I added celery seed and garlic. Nice hearty meal.

I’m a Cape Bretoner and this was a Sunday favorite growing up. We would go to the beach, dad would make a fire in and around an old truck rim, set a pot with the ham to boil on it while we swam and played. The veggies were added and by supper time, when the evening was cooling off, we had a wonderful hot meal to enjoy. I don’t make it that often, when when I do, it even pleases my Portuguese in-laws. I use any ham, picnic or shoulder. To newfie it up, use salt corned beef with the exact same ingredients. (jiggs dinner) I don’t put the green beans in the pot, but do have them on the side and I do add turnip (rutabaga) One of the best meals ever. Making it for supper tonight! Yumm!

ahhhh the memories thanks for the recipe!!!

I’ve grown up eating boiled dinner, even drank the broth in a cup along side my dinner! Of all Irish meals, this is the tastiest!! A way to free up room in the pot is a pressure cooker. I usually cook two cottage rolls under pressure for a half hour. If its not cooked through using my meat thermometer I cook it for another 20 minutes. Then I remove the hams, put them in a pot with a fair amount of juice and keep them in a warm oven. Then into the pressure cooker goes the potatoes, carrots and turnip. Ohhh, take out some juice to add to the cabbage that will boil in another pot. Just fill the cabbage pot 2/3 up then add water. Now back to the pressure cooker, add more water depending on how much veg you have and cook under pressure for approx. 12-15 mins!!! I need boiled dinner now!!

I agree with magicshark. We grew up calling this New England Boiled Dinner. Always used a smoked shoulder but did not put green beans in it. The leftovers were indeed made into “red flannel hash” and the bone and broth were then used for bean soup. What memories! I still make it for special family get togethers.

My dad made this, but would use both corned beef and smoked shoulder. Oh, and he would toss in a length of linguica(Portuguese sausage). It was great!

This recipe must be related to what we fondly called “Boiled Dinner” in our family for as long as I can remember. It was brought to our Northwestern Ontario home from New Brunswick by my mother, who claims it was a popular dish in her home. Descended from Irish immigrants, her family made it using salt pork ribs (like the entry from the person in Nova Scotia). In our family, we use pork side ribs instead, and have added turnip, a stick of celery, and fresh-picked garden herbs (thyme, parsley, oregano, rosemary). While the water, ribs, onion, celery and store-bought turnip are starting to boil, I head out to the garden to harvest and add (in order) potatoes, carrots, beans, peas (if any left uneaten by this time), fresh herbs. YUMMY! Fondest memories of this dish are “harvest meals” near end of each summer and most comforting was showing up unannounced in New Brunswick for my grandfather’s funeral. Though no one knew I was coming there was an extra plate at the table and a huge pot of “boiled dinner” on the stove.

Great, very tasty. I added whole cloves and Goya seasoning. And cooked for 3 hrs. Adding the veggies during the last 30mins.

Great, easy, homey recipe! We used a ham cut into chunks & chicken broth instead of water.

I didn’t have a smoked pork – just regular, but I wanted to try this anyway. I didn’t add the cabbage or beans. My pot wasn’t big enough and I had a different recipe for cabbage anyway. To add more flavor I boiled the pork, potatoes, and carrots in chicken stock. Wow! The meat came out tender and the vegetables were so good! My husband loved the way my yukon potatoes turned out so much that I made him more with the leftover broth the next night. I will definitely be using this method again. Thanks!

Large pot is an understatement. I changed pots twice, finally settling on a 12 quart pot. I couldn’t find a smoked pork shoulder, so I used an unsmoked one and added two smoked pork hocks for flavor. I did add a few beef and chicken bouillion cubes to the cooking water for a little extra flavor. This was delicious – rustic and simple. I served it with Brennan’s Irish Soda Bread from this site.

I grew up on this…I make it but I use brisket instead, and I cook the brisket in water the night before and then when I am ready to add the veggies , I skim off most of the fat…we love it this way..nice and healthy ..

This is how I’ve made my boiled dinner for years (even with my Irish background, I never cared for corned beef). However I don’t add green beans and I always get a big smoked shoulder (arox 9 lbs). Remove any wrapping around the ham, put it into a pot (make sure it fits), put enough water into the pot to completly cover the ham, cover with lid. Bring to a good boil, and boil for one hour, turn it over in the pot, cover with lid and boil another hour. Remove the meat (keep the liquid), cover ham with foil and let it rest. Now put the potatoes, onions, carrotts, and cabbage (cabbage should be on top) also (if you like turnip you can add that too) into the liquid the meat was cooked in, this is where the flavor is, cook till veggies and potatoes are tender. PS if you need to you can add more water as you go, but only do this if it is needed. Also I don’t add any salt there’s enough salt in the smoked shoulder. Enjoy!

Fantastic!! What a rush of childhood memories of my grandmother’s kitchen. The ONLY substitution I made was to use a Cottage Ham – a ‘partially cooked’ pork shoulder. To be totally true to my family version, the cottage ham or pork shoulder should contain gobs of fat. The fat adds so much flavor.

This is a really easy dinner to put together. Not much to it but waiting on it to be done. I usually use a pre-seasoned pork shoulder for this, but it always comes out really TENDER! I’ve never had room for all the vegetables, so I always omit the cabbage and add in whatever I like until the pot is virtually overflowing. Perfect meal every time!

This is best made with a half ham. The first time I made it to these directions and it was VERY bland! I made it a second time with a half ham, and it was much, much, much better!

I didn’t really care for the green beans in this and the cabbage and potatoes were just too different in texture to really enjoy it. The smoked meat was delicious and it made some amazing gravy with drippings, but I didn’t really care for the smoky flavor in the vegetables. This was the first time I’d cooked onions in quarters and I will definately be doing that more often! Thank you for the idea!