Apart from reggae music, Jamaica is known around the world as the place for the culinary cooking method called ‘jerk’. Last weekend, Jamaicans and foreigners alike had a chance to satisfy their palates dining on delectable items from jerk meats, fish and poultry to jerk ice cream at the well-attended Jamaican Jerk Festival.

Now some of us have always enjoyed jerk chicken, pork and fish. But many had never tasted jerk lobster or shrimp, let alone jerk ice cream? It’s interesting how this can be applied to aljost any food item…

According to popular belief the term jerk derives from the word charqui, a Spanish term for jerked or dried meat, which eventually became jerky in English.

With the eclectic mix of peoples and cultures, Jamaican food has taken on parts of the culinary styles of countries such as India, West Africa, China, Britain and others. This method of ‘jerking’ meats in Jamaica is said to have been practiced by the maroons some of whose roots are in West Africa. Maroons used this method of cooking the meat in a pit, so that the smoke would not reveal their hideaway from the British. Conversely, it is also said that the Arawak (Taino) Indians who inhabited Jamaica used this method. They would cook these meats and placed it in a deep pit lined with stones and covered with green wood, which, when burned, would smoke heavily and add to the flavor.

In any case, if you have never tried authentic Jamaican jerk foods, it’s high time. Sadly it is quite normal for you to see many products purporting to be authentic Jamaican jerk, which are not. Jerk has become such an overused term and everyone and his family wants to say that their jerk is authentic. How can you tell the difference? For the Jamaican, it is simple. With jerk chicken vendors lining the many city streets and shops and restaurants selling jerk meats, Jamaicans have know what jerk should taste like. The said thing is that people who have not had it before, may very well have the imposters. But, there are some herbs and spices that are a must in jerk - pimento (allspice), scotch bonnet pepper, escallion, thyme.

The jerk may be imitated but never really duplicated. The authenticity is in the taste.

S.M.

Photos by U. Bennett