The Jerk Style of Cooking in Jamaica

By Amanda Thurston

Amanda Thurston is an Ocala, Florida, artist who enjoys travel and has visited numerous destinations throughout Europe and the Caribbean. With food one of her passions, Amanda Thurston enjoys trying new dishes in the locales she visits, from the Cayman Islands to Jamaica. Mandy Thurston especially enjoys Jamaican jerk chicken.

The jerk style of cooking meat comes from the Arawak Indians, who originally inhabited Jamaica and smoked beef slowly or dried it in the sun as a way of preserving it for long journeys.

Introduction

Jamaican jerk meats have their immediate roots in cooking style of the Maroons, or escaped slaves, that fled from their Spanish masters when the British took over Jamaica from Spain in the 17th century. They subsequently hid from the British army in the Blue Mountains during the following decades and developed a method of using spices and peppers to preserve the wild boar they hunted. The meat was wrapped in leaves and cooked slowly.

Jerking eventually became used as a word for poking small holes in the meat, so that spices such as scotch bonnet peppers and pimento could easily permeate and enhance the flavor. Today, jerk shacks, each with its own individual recipe, are found throughout Jamaica.

Jerk Style of Cooking