The History of Caribbean Jerk
- Kitchenproject
- Feb 18, 2016
- 2 min read
What exactly is "Jerk" cooking.
Jerk refers to a way that a meat, be it chicken, beef, pork, goat, fish, vegetables or fruit is seasoned and cooked. This style comes from Jamaica. The typical cooking style uses a marinade or paste that includes at least pimento, which is often called allspice, and scotch bonnet peppers, also known as habenero. The meat is then marinated and slow smoked over pimento wood. Pimentia o pimento is a Spanish word for pepper and early European explorers mistook this for black pepper, so they called it pimento.
What does the word Jerk come from?
According to most food history authorites, like Alan Davidson, and John Mariani jerk is a Spanish word that comes via the Peruvian word charqui, a word for dried strips of meat like what we call Jerky, in much of the world. The word started as a noun and then became a verb as in "Jerking" which meant to poke holes in the meat so the spices could permeate the meat. Jerk cooking experts like native Jamaican and author Helen Willinsky of "Jerk from Jamaica" says that the name Jerk also could have come from the turning of the meat in the marinade or from the way some folks will just jerk a strip from the roast on the BBQ. We just don't really know.
When did this style of cooking start?
Most historians agree Jamaica was settled by the Arawak indians over 2500 years ago from South America. They used similar techniques to smoke and dry meat in the sun or over a slow fire, that were common in Peru. This was important as the dried beef could be taken on journeys and eaten as is or chopped and reconstituted in boiling water. This ancient technique goes on today and is known as jerky.
In 1492 Columbus claimed it for Spain and enslaved the Arawak indians.
Soon they died and were replaced by African slaves.
In the 1700's some of the slaves escaped and hid in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and became known as Maroons, They had to keep watch closely to evade the British army from recapture.
With food in short supply the learned to catch wild boars in the forest. Using salt , peppers and spices they learned to preserve the meat. They knew not when their next kill would be.
The meat was spiced and wrapped in leaves to keep. When it came time to cook it they just placed it all in with hot rocks then covered or it was BBqued over a lattice of wood as shown above.
This evolved with the use of different spices to the cooking style that we know today as Jerk.
Modern Authentic Jerk Cooking today.
Jerk "huts" are all over the Caribbean Islands, and you can find them by the lovely smell. Many times they are shacks that are octaganal or circular built around a telephone pole to support the thatched roof. Dining is outside, as well as the cooking of the food.
Make your own Jerk seasoning and experiment with the taste of the Caribbean.
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