Jamaican jerk spice

Jamaican Jerk Spice

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Jamaican jerk spice

Jerk is a style of cooking

Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food....
native to Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about south of Cuba, and west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated....
in which meats are dry-rubbed with a very hot spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetable used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth....
mixture called Jamaican jerk spice. Jerk seasoning is traditionally applied to pork

Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig . The word, pork, is often meant to denote specifically the fresh meat of the pig, but it can be used as an all-inclusive term, to include cured, smoked, or processed meats It is one of the most-commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry dating back...
and goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
. Modern recipes also apply Jerk spice mixes to chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a Domestication fowl. Recent evidence suggests that domestication of the chicken was under way in Vietnam over 10,000 years ago....
, fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle . Beef is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of Australia, European cuisine and the Americas, and is also important in Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia....
, sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a prepared food, usually made from ground meat, animal fat, salt, and spices , typically packed in a casing . Sausage making is a traditional food preservation technique....
, and tofu

Tofu

Tofu , also , doufu , toufu, or bean curd , is a food of China origin, made by coagulating soy milk, and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks....
. Jerk seasoning principally relies upon two items: allspice

Allspice

Pimento

The pimento, pimiento, or cherry pepper is a variety of large, red, heart-shaped chili pepper that measures 7 to 10 cm long and 5 to 7 cm wide ....
) and Scotch bonnet peppers (among the hottest peppers on the Scoville scale

Scoville scale

The Scoville scale is a measure of the hotness or Pungency of a chili pepper, as defined by the amount of capsaicin, present.Some hot sauces use their Scoville rating in advertising as a selling point....
). Other ingredients include cloves, cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a small evergreen tree 10?15 metres tall, belonging to the family Lauraceae, and is native to Sri Lanka.The leaf are ovate-oblong in shape, 7?18 cm long....
, scallions, nutmeg

Nutmeg

The nutmegs Myristica are a genus of evergreen trees indigenous to tropical southeast Asia and Australasia. They are important for two spices derived from the fruit, nutmeg and mace....
, thyme

Thyme

Thyme is a well known herb; in common usage the name may refer to* any or all members of the plant genus Thymus ,* common thyme, Thymus vulgaris, and some other species that are used as culinary herbs or for medicinal purposes....
, garlic

Garlic

Allium sativum L., commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, and chive....
.

Jerk chicken, pork, or fish is said to be at its best when barbecue

Barbecue

Barbecue or barbeque is a method and apparatus for cooking food, often meat, with the heat and hot gases of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of charcoal and may include application of a marinade, spice rub, or Basting barbecue sauce to the meat....
d over aromatic wood charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances....
or briquettes.

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Encyclopedia

Jerk is a style of cooking

Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food....
native to Jamaica

Jamaica

Spice

Pork

Goat

Chicken

The chicken is a Domestication fowl. Recent evidence suggests that domestication of the chicken was under way in Vietnam over 10,000 years ago....
, fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, beef

Beef

Sausage

Tofu

Allspice

Pimento

Scoville scale

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a small evergreen tree 10?15 metres tall, belonging to the family Lauraceae, and is native to Sri Lanka.The leaf are ovate-oblong in shape, 7?18 cm long....
, scallions, nutmeg

Nutmeg

Thyme

Garlic

Barbecue

Charcoal

Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances....
or briquettes. Pimento (allspice

Allspice

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
or berries placed over coal

Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
s give jerk its authentic flavor.

The Quechua

Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
word charqui
Charqui

Charqui or charque, is a form of Jerky common in South America made from dried and salted meat, usually from horse, but also beef. This curing was done so the meat could be stored for a long period....
(dried meat

Dried meat

Dried meat is a feature of many cuisines around the world. Examples include:*Biltong, a feature of South African cuisine developed by Afrikaners to survive the Great Trek...
) gave the name to both jerk and jerky

Jerky (food)

Jerky is meat that has been cut into strips trimmed of fat, marinated in a spicy, salty or sweet liquid and then dried with low heat or occasionally salted and sun-dried....
. Jamaican "jerk" ties well into its first people; American Indian (Tainos) roots, since of all the modern barbecue

Barbecue

Taíno

The Ta?nos were Indigenous peoples of the Americas of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is believed that the seafaring Ta?nos were relatives of the Arawakan people of South America....
s' method. The Tainos would construct a grid of green sticks some distance above a smoldering fire of green

Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520?570-Nanometre....
pimento wood

Allspice

Allspice, also called Jamaica pepper, Kurundu, Myrtle pepper, pimento, or newspice, is a spice which is the dried unripe fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant, a tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico and Central America....
(that is, the wood of the allspice tree) in a shallow pit, place meat on the grid and cover it with pimento leaves to impart further flavour while trapping the smoke

Smoke

File:Bling-Bling Skywriting David Shankbone.jpgSmoke is the collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrainment or otherwise mixed into the mass....
for maximum effect.

Originally the jerk meat was cut into strips and dried in the sun

Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
for use at a later date. A small fire was lit under the meat so that the smoke would prevent flies from laying their eggs

Egg (biology)

In most birds and reptiles, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo....
on the raw meat. Native Americans

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
also use this method and also call it jerk meat, as was shown in an episode of Ray Mears

Ray Mears

Raymond Paul "Ray" Mears is a United Kingdom author and TV presenter on the subject of bushcraft and survival techniques, best known for the shows Ray Mears' Bushcraft, World of Survival and Extreme Survival....
the survivalist's programme on the BBC. (See also jerky

Jerky (food)

Jerky is meat that has been cut into strips trimmed of fat, marinated in a spicy, salty or sweet liquid and then dried with low heat or occasionally salted and sun-dried....
.)

A grill over an open fire suffices in the modern rendition. The widely available pre-made seasoning mixes give a passable jerk flavour to meat baked

Baked

Baked can refer to:...
in a kitchen

Kitchen

A kitchen, is a room or part of a room used for food preparation including cooking, and sometimes also for eating and entertaining guests, if the kitchen is large enough and designed to be used that way....
oven

Oven

An oven is an enclosed compartment for heating, baking or drying. It is most commonly used in cooking and pottery. Ovens used in pottery are also known as kilns....
.

The term "jerk" comes from the Spanish word "charqui", which means dried meat. It has the same root as the word "jerky", as in beef jerky. The cooking method is a combination of Caribbean cooking styles influenced by the African slave communities. The Caribs, a native Caribbean group known for their aggressiveness and their cooking, would construct makeshift grills of green sticks over an open fire to prepare jerkies and grilled meats. The Maroons, runaway slaves brought over from Africa to work as sugar plantation slaves, introduced their methods of meat preparation to the Arawak indians of the Caribbean. The Arawak combined these African cooking techniques with local Caribbean ingredients. The Arawak were constantly raided by the Carib tribes and many of their women were taken as captives. The combination of these three cultures: Carib, Arawak, and African, has lead to this cooking technique. Because the history of this technique is so varied, there is a lot of flexibility here so get creative with your spice blends.

Modern day "Jerkers"

Jerking has evolved over time from pit fires

Fire pit

Fire pits have been in existence for a very long time and despite many technological advancements since the advent of man's use of fire, they have remained a popular item because of their versatility....
to old oil

Oil

An oil is a chemical substance that is in a viscosity liquid state at room temperature or slightly warmer, and is both hydrophobic and lipophilic ....
barrel

Barrel

A barrel or cask is a hollow Cylinder container, traditionally made of wood staves and bound with iron hoops. The term "barrel" typically refers to wooden vessels that are small enough to be moved by hand, up to puncheon size ....
halves as the container of choice. Around the 1960s, Jamaican entrepreneurs sought to recreate the smoked pit flavour, and relatively quickly came up with a solution. The solution was to cut oil barrel

Barrel

A barrel or cask is a hollow Cylinder container, traditionally made of wood staves and bound with iron hoops. The term "barrel" typically refers to wooden vessels that are small enough to be moved by hand, up to puncheon size ....
s lengthwise and attach hinges, drilling several ventilation holes for the smoke. These barrels are often heated by layers of charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances....
, which some say lends itself to making the burnt smokey taste.

Street-side "jerk stands" are most frequently found in Jamaica

Jamaica

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, comprising the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman....
. Jerked meat, usually chicken or pork, can be purchased along with hard dough bread or Jamaican fried dumpling

Dumpling

Dumplings, as defined in a standard English dictionary, fall in two main categories: these are either "piece[s] of dough, sometimes filled, that are cooked in liquid such as water or soup" or alternatively "sweetened dough wrapped around fruit, such as an apple, baked and served as a dessert." More generally, dumplings may be any of a wi...
or festival which is a variation of the dumpling that has a sweet flavour because it is made with sugar, served as a side. The starch

Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
in the bread lend themselves to counteracting the powerful pepper of the jerk. Recipes for Jamaican jerk spice vary, and it is often debated around jerk stands about which chef's secret recipe

Secret Recipe

Secret Recipe is a lifestyle caf? chain and has become a household name following its debut in Malaysia since 1997. Secret Recipe has successfully established its brand name in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand by virtue of its quality cakes, fusion food and distinctive service....
of spice

Spice

Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
s makes the best jerk seasoning.

Jerk cooking has followed the Jamaican diaspora

Jamaican diaspora

The Jamaican diaspora refers to Jamaicans who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such Jamaicans, and the ensuing developments in their culture....
all over the world

World

World is a common name for the planet Earth seen from a human worldview, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general....
, and authentic jerk can now be found at restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery ....
s anywhere a significant population of Jamaicans exists, such as the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, or the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

Jamaican jerk spice

Modern day "Jerkers"

See also

External links