From the start, Newfoundland has been all about fish. European settlers didn’t go there for the scenery (rugged) or the weather (always changing, often dreadful) — they went for the cod, and later the haddock and other valuable fish that were once so abundant on the nearby Grand Banks.

But for as long as anyone can recall, the island’s favorite food has had nothing to do with the sea. Newfoundlanders have a voracious appetite for, of all things, waxed bologna.

Canada’s largest bologna producer, Maple Leaf Foods, estimates that the province’s 530,000 residents put away 4.2 million pounds of bologna a year.

In much of North America, bologna is one of the least respected of processed meats, seen as fit only for a ho-hum sandwich. But in Newfoundland, it is an all-purpose protein suitable for any meal.