Getting to the Meat of the Jamaican Jerk Episode

This method of cooking – developed by necessity to be low, slow, and local – delivers rich flavors and textures. Anney and Lauren dig into the history of Jamaican jerk.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to say. We're protection of I Heart Radio.
I'm an A Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today
we have an episode for you about Jamaican jerk Yes,
and they're so intense. So I'm like, I'm not even
hungry right now, and I am so mad that I'm
not actively eating jerk chicken. Yes, me too, Me too.

(00:32):
I was tried. I tried really hard to avoid pictures
on this one because I was like this, it's going
to be bad, and you just can't. You just can't. Yeah,
all that crispy skin, Oh my goodness, Okay, all right, um.
Speaking of this episode was inspired by the fact that

(00:54):
there are some really heck and good Jamaican restaurants around Atlanta. Um,
and sometimes they liked to whatever quirks of like where
I live and and restaurant hours. They are the only
thing that is available to have delivered to my home.
And not that I'm complaining that is a wonderful problem

(01:17):
to have, um, because yeah, like when that happens, it's
just me and my roommate, UM ordering way too much,
way too much food and then just having this gorgeous
glut of like plantains and jerk and me being the
happiest um because it reminds me so much of growing

(01:37):
up in South Florida and having access to that kind
of thing. And A yeah, I mean that sounds lovely.
I'm jealous and happy for you. I definitely didn't have
good Jamaican jerk until I moved to Atlanta. Share that was. Yeah,
my small North Georgia mountain town, that was not a

(02:00):
cuisine that was that was not a thing that was
availab or if it was, it's possible it was, but
I didn't know about it. Um. But when I got
to Atlanta, as I said before, I was like, oh
my gosh, there's this whole world of foods I've never tried.
And I remember I remember some of the Jamaican restaurants
I've been to and just being like, I'm so angry

(02:22):
this wasn't part of my life earlier. Ye right, Oh goodness.
I feel like I remember, like the day that a
Jamaican restaurant opened in my in my small suburban town
in South Florida, even um where it like replaced like
a like a subway or something like that, and I
was just like, this is so infinitely better. Thank you.

(02:42):
Thank you humans for bringing this so close to me.
Ah yeah, anyway, okay, yeah, I'm sorry, just like got
lost in memories. Um uh Here in the United States, Um,
there is a National Jamaican Jerk Day. It is the

(03:03):
fourth Sunday in October this year, that's October. Yeah there
you go. Alright, alright, I guess this brings us to
our question. Sure, Jamaican jerk what is it? Well? Uh,

(03:23):
Jamaican jerk is a style of cooking that involves uh
marinating or rubbing and then wood smoking proteins low and
slow in a pit or grill. Chicken, pork, goat, and
fish or other seafood are all common, and like American barbecue,
the exact ingredients and methods can vary, and like everyone

(03:44):
has a favorite, everyone's recipe is a guarded secret. Um.
But generally speaking, UM, what you're talking about here is
a spicy and sweet marinade or rub of salt, ginger, scotch, bonnet,
green onion, time and all spice, um, applied for like
twelve to twenty four hours and then grilling until you

(04:07):
achieve this this char on the outside and just incredibly moist, smoky,
tender meat on the inside. Um. No matter what cut
of what protein you are using, it is warming and
heavy and bright and crisp and juicy and smoky. It
is so satisfying. Um. It's like a It's like a

(04:28):
searing hot bask in the sun, and I want it.
I know. Oh m hmmm. Uh. The best marinader rub
is probably made from all fresh ingredients. Uh. Ground right
when you're about to start working with the with the food. UM.

(04:50):
Depending on the recipe, you might add other stuff. Soy
sauce instead of salt is pretty popular. UM. A sugar
of some kind of white or brown granulated sugar may
be honey. UM. Other spices like peppercorn, cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg,
other types of chili peppers like a helopanos which are
much more mild, or haba arrows which are about the same. UM.

(05:11):
Other aliens like garlic or onion. You're gonna put vegetable
oil in a marinade. Maybe maybe an acid like vinegar
or lime or orange juice or the zest of those
fruits for a popa flavor. UM. But the real star
of the show here is the grilling technique. UM. Ideally,
by modern tradition, you're looking to okay, lay down charcoal

(05:33):
under a grate, then lay logs or sticks of a
fragrant allspice wood also called pimento would or bay laurel
wood on top of the grate. And you want this
wood to to smoke or steam, not burns, so it
might be either a green that is uncured or soaked
in water prior to use. Bay leaves may also be
added to this layer. Then you lay your marinated or

(05:56):
rubbed meat directly on top of that wood, and then
cover the whole thing with a metal lid. So um,
as you cook it, you're you're getting heat and smoke
from the charcoal uh, steam uh and or smoke and
flavor compounds from the wood, and then heat reflected from
the metal lid. Um, and all of this comes together

(06:17):
uh in a lovely way. Um. If you are trying
to replicate this at home and you do not have
access to these types of wood, specifically, j Ken G.
Lopez Alt over its Serious Eats suggests soaked bay leaves
and whole allspice berries as a substitute. Yeah. Yeah, so
you can order this directly from Jamaica the wood so anyway, Um,

(06:41):
you can serve jerk on the bone or chop it
or pull it um, probably with like a vinegar hot
chili sauce on the side to help cut some of
the richness and add even more spice um, probably alongside
a starch like rice or plantains or bread um. Maybe
a lagoon of salad of vegetable mhm. And today, especially

(07:04):
outside of Jamaica, jerk can refer more generally to a
spice blend or flavor profile rather than a method of cooking. Um.
But that's like, that's like saying like like barbecue is
a flavor I mean, which that term can be used
to mean a flavor is in like barbecue chips or
something like that. But yeah, yeah, but we're both thinking

(07:31):
like bigger gestures. Yeah, I mean even barbecue usually has
that kind of here's how you cook it, and you
can put that into a flavor on chips. But but yes,
well what about the nutrition, um, don't eat cooking methods?

(07:57):
You're trying to think of a counter example? I know
you are. It feels like that would be like the
superhero who can eat, who can steal your energy? Sure?
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, like like the dazzler of
the kitchen dazzling. I love it. There we go. There's

(08:20):
another character dad. Oh my goodness, heck um. He just
SAPs your energy when you're trying to cook and turns
it into i don't know, like a light show or
laser powers or something. Yeah, yeah, okay, I love it.

(08:47):
Oh no, okay, alright, Sorry, I just got like a
lot of mental images involving like roller skates and like
disco makeup and like the whole thing, but like in kitchens,
which I also appreciate. So it's like Tony Board Day
and as Dazzler. Sorry, my brain went down a lot
there simultaneously back ostensibly a food show, we do have

(09:13):
some numbers for you. We do. Jamaica's the largest manufacturer
and exporter of Jamaican food products. Grace Foods sales about
three million jars of Jamaican jerk past annually all around
the world. YEP. The brand also sponsors the Jamaican Jerk
Festival in U Miramar, Florida, every November. This year is

(09:37):
their twentieth anniversary, and they also put on a festival
every year in Queens, New York. The company that incorporated
to run these festivals um is totally the same one
that created a National Jamaican Jerk Day. Um. Yeah, this year,
some thirty restaurants across South Florida and New York are
participating in National Jamaican Jerk Day up or so they

(09:58):
say apparently on their web site. UM, there is a
separate Florida Jerk festival over Memorial Day weekend and Lake
Worth Beach that's now in its nineteenth year. So options,
especially in Florida if you're in the United States, Options
in Florida. UM. And yes, the history behind Jamaican jerk

(10:23):
is long and fascinating. Yes, and we are going to
get into that as soon as we get back from
a quick break for award from our sponsors. And we're back.
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. Okay. So, the history

(10:45):
of Jamaican jerk tells the story of Jamaica's past and
especially the amalgamation of African and the Thai nu influences
and culture is coming together in Jamaica. So this again
is sensibly a food show. There is a lot of amazing,
often devastating, often inspiring history behind this one. UM. But

(11:06):
we're kind of focused in on what led to this
this cooking method becoming a thing. But just so you know,
there's a lot out there to read about it, so absolutely,
and I was I was thinking the entire time. I
was like, oh, man, like, should we have waited until
we hypothetically get to go to Jamaica Sunday talk to

(11:28):
people about it? Um? But then I was like, it's
all right, it's all right if if we if and
when we do, we just have to do an update.
And that's exactly exactly agreed. Agreed. Okay. So with that
being said, the Tai Knew were an indigenous Arab Caribbean
people originally from South America who settled on the island

(11:50):
over two thousand five years ago and gave the island
its name, which is a name that means land of
wood and water. One of those woods was the all
spice or pimento tree um, which is a large shrub
too medium tree native to Central America and the Caribbean.
Will have to do a whole episode on it, but yes,
I wanted to point out it's a critical flavor two

(12:14):
jerk style foods, and uh it was there. Yes, that
is very important because pretty much everything we're talking about
when it comes to jerk is native to Jamaica, and
that is Key yes Um, including this tree Um in
Columbus arrived and oversaw the mass murder of the indigenous

(12:36):
people there. It was more than a decade later before
the Spanish set up a small colony there, which mostly
existed as a trading post, and they also introduced enslaved labor.
As part of the war between Spain and Britain, the
British invaded Jamaica in the seventeenth century, causing the Spanish
to leave the island for Cuba. The enslaved people's escaped

(12:59):
and they became known as the Maroons. They encountered the
indigenous ten knew Um, and at that time the Tai
knew were extinct. The British further colonized and expanded, bringing
in more enslaved people to hold up the growing industry
of sugarcane um, and the Maroon population grew as more
enslaved escaped and joined them. The Maroons and the indigenous

(13:21):
population lived together in the mountains, and their cuisines and
traditions fused in a lot of ways, including in jerk.
The term Maroons was applied to these people's by colonial powers.
Um It roots from French and or Spanish words for
runaway with like negative connotations about blackness and or wildness.

(13:41):
And it was not only applied in Jamaica. There are
other African diaspora communities across the Americas that began with
people who escaped slavery, who have also been called maroons. Um.
Speaking of terminology, these people's in Jamaica would not necessarily
have applied this term to them selves, but neither they

(14:02):
nor the native populations in Jamaica or a monolith um.
There were different communities that developed their own different cultures
and have their own linguistic preferences for what to call themselves.
Um yes, yes, yes. And of note, other historians argue
that Africans who were forcibly enslaved and taken to Jamaica
may have already invented jerk and adapted it to what

(14:24):
was available. Um. The word jerk itself seems to have
come from the America's though possibly derived from the peruvianum charqui,
meaning like roasted or dried meat. And this is also
where we get the word jerky from yes um and
so early iterations of jerk involved seasoning like salt bird

(14:46):
peppers and pimiento. Yes, we talked about that all spice
yeah wrapped in elder pepper, wrapped in elder pepper leaves,
and then roasted and an underground smokeless pit for six
to nine hours. And this method was often used to
make tough and lower quality meats frequently hunted wild boar
um tasty and tender um. And it had to be

(15:09):
cooked this way underground and smokeless and scentless so as
to not give away their location. Uh. The spices used
were good for preservation too, meaning that it could both
last and be transported, so the whole thing was really
strategic um. Renowned chef garyelle Ferguson described it as quote
freedom manifested in food. After engaging in too long and

(15:33):
exhausting wars for much of the seventeen hundred's, the British
and the Maroons reached a deal, signing a peace treaty
and the Maroons remained free and self governing, although the
treaty did require that the Maroons refrained from helping any
more runaway in slage people are participating in uprisings, but
this meant that they could start cooking above ground on
a pimento wood fire, which was a much quicker method.

(15:57):
Later ingredients like Scotch, bonnets, alliance, garlic, time, cinnamon, and
various other things that pop up in modern recipes of
jerk were experimented with and added into the mix. The
British government abolished slavery in eighteen thirty four, and when
their rule in Jamaica ended in nineteen twenty six, the
Government of Jamaica was established. Meanwhile, Grace Kennedy Limited, the

(16:22):
parent of Grace Foods, was divested into its own company
in Jamaica in nineteen two. UM. Originally it was a
branch of an American trading company in Jamaica, but that
was that company's loss because it has since then grown
into one of the largest corporations in the Caribbean. UM

(16:42):
and yeah, is celebrating it's a hundred anniversary this year.
And in twenty fifteen, Jamaica filed for a Geographical Indication
or g I for Jamaican jerk with the goal of
establishing Jamaican jerk as the intellectual property of Jamaica. That's
under the purview of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Uh,

(17:04):
same same humans who are like, oh no, that's a
Swiss watch. That's a specific thing, right right. Um so
to do this, to established Jamaican jerk as Jamaica's intellectual property,
they pulled together an organization to research and formalize the
process of making jerk, and out of this they created
Jamaica Jerk Producers Association and the Jamaica Pepper Farmers Association.

(17:29):
They standardized the process of what could be called Jamaican jerk,
and through a spotlight on Jamaican ingredients because again, pretty
much everything used in Jamaica jerk is native to Jamaica.
UM yeah, yes, And infringing on this using the labeled
Jamaican jerk when you're not Jamaican jerk can result in
a one million dollar fine or twelve months of jail. Serious. Yeah,

(17:55):
I think I think that the only thing, the only
thing that that off the top of my head I
know about that's not native to Jamaica is uh bay
uh bay laurel um. But as we which is originally
from the Mediterranean um and as we talk about in
our bay Leaf episode, UM has just a real spotty

(18:16):
history of when it got over to the America's So
I was trying to look into it today and was like, oh, yeah,
this was a very frustrating episode to do it was
um at any rate? Yeah, that that arrived here at
some point. So and in Jamaica as well, Yes, yes,
I love it. Well speaking of uh kind of not

(18:42):
Jamaican jerk. Various companies and celebrity chefs have offered less
than ideal jerk items or recipes um that have caused
quite a stir in response, especially on the Internet and
even on in like TV interviews. Yeah, chef Jamie Oliver's

(19:02):
microwavable like prepackaged dish of rice flavored with palapinos, ginger
and garlic, for example, The internet was swift in the
judgment on that one. For for their festive men use.
Some McDonald's locations in the UK offered a jerk chicken
sandwich that didn't go well go over well either, um

(19:24):
Campbell's jam and jerk chicken with rice and bean soup too,
which just the name might give you that's probably that's
probably bad. Um. Yeah, and and right like like, the
hubbub is generally about people who are not from the
cultures that developed jerk, using the term to market products

(19:48):
that have very little to do with actual jerk. Like like,
I mean, I guess if you really wanted to you
might be able to jerk rice, but that's not really
what that is. Like, that's just and it's certainly not
just rice flavored with alidos and ginger and carl. Yeah,

(20:10):
that's what it is. And I would I would go
so far as to say that no food that is
cooked in a McDonald's UM has truly been jerked. I
don't think that that's Again, that's not what that is. Yeah. Well, um,
And on a happier note, UM, just this year in

(20:35):
this is like kind of an off shoot story, but
I was so tickled by it. Okay, Jamaican jerk featured
in a competition for NASA. Okay, So every every school year,
NASA's Hunch Mission sponsors a culinary challenge for high school students.
UM teams work to create recipes that would meet astronauts

(20:57):
nutritional needs and that could be sent to U to
the International Space Station. And so this year, one of
the teams from Michigan that made it to the finals,
UM prepared a dish of Jamaican jerk pulled chicken in
a tamale with curry and pineapple salsa, served with roasted vegetables, UM,

(21:18):
and also a dessert of sweet potato bread pudding with
pecan and almond prayline sauce, both of which sound really
good to me personally. Um. The competition was held in
April of this year. They're not one of the teams
that won, but even getting that far got each of
those students in scholarship funding, so heck yeah for them.
Heck yeah. And I again, Lauren, you always impressed me

(21:40):
with the space bags. Wow, that's what you get when
you stick the words science on to the end of
your search terms space you go, you go a few
pages deep and and it's like you wanted to hear
about NASA, and I'm like, yep, yep, I did. Definitely

(22:01):
I love it and I'm always pleased with a space
back bob. So also, oh, man, like, like, tamales are
a great idea for space food, right because they're they're
so like compact, yes, transportable, yeah, tins yeah, yeah, goodness.

(22:23):
Oh now I want tomales too, Okay, alright, we're fine,
we're fine making jerk and tomales. I love it. This
is definitely one where I'm like, I'm planning when I
when do I need to order food next? Yeah, that's
that's going to be a Jamaican jerky yep, yep, and
a lovely day. It will be. It will be fantastic,

(22:46):
very much looking forward to it. But I think that's
what we have to say about Jamaican jerk. For now.
It is um. We do have some listener mail for you,
but first we've got one more quick break for a
word from our sponsors. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,

(23:09):
thank you. We're back with listen man. Mm hm ah. Yeah.
Your description really settled in my heart. Yeah, like a sun,
like basking in the sun. Yep, settled in my stomach.

(23:31):
Cravings are bad, everybody, all right, Okay, Tracy wrote, just
listen to the sardine episode. This past November, my partner
and I went to a restaurant called Porto in Chicago
for my birthday. They recently won a Michelin Star for
their amazing seafood dishes inspired by Portugal. To expand on
what you mentioned in the sardine episode, the waiter explained

(23:53):
to us that can't fish in particular, sardines are considered
a delicacy and recommended a canned fish course. It was
so good we even got a can to take home.
I also was able to find some Spanish and Portuguese
brands of can sardines at cost plus World Market. Sardines
are pretty inexpensive, even fancy ones, and it felt like

(24:13):
a vacation in a Can. I've included pictures of the
sardine course and a hormone Sunday for dessert. Weird but delicious. Ps.
I believe in your tailor hamm abilities. Y'all love definitive
opinions and legal name drama, so it's perfect fit for Saver.
It's true, it doesn't mean we're not intimidated. Yeah, yeah,

(24:38):
thank you, hey, thank you. Oh that sounds so good.
That sounds so good to me. And the pictures looked amazing.
Um I want that, Yeah, I think that would be lovely. Honestly,
there there there was a restaurant, or there currently as
a restaurant that used to have this like specific Vick

(25:01):
canned program um eight arm here in Atlanta. Um I don't.
I think it's been years since they've done the canned thing. Um,
but yeah, they had this whole like like offshoot where
they were just like, oh yeah, and then come over
to the weird dark side of our restaurant where it's
all canned food and like a multi course meal. Yeah,

(25:22):
and very fancy. I went to that once and it
was quite Yeah, I never went I'm sad. Oh it
was quite good. But I remember at the time the
person I was eating waste was very suspicious of the
whole thing. He ended up liking it, but it was
kind of a funny, like every time you try something's

(25:42):
like But it was great. It was great. That's so cool.
O goodness, um Kelly wrote, thank you so much for
relaying the reply from Ben at the end of the
Sumac episode. That was delightful and it brought a huge
smile to my face. I'm so glad that info is helpful,
and I'm absolutely going to have to try out his

(26:04):
recipe for chocolate mouse. It sounds a mouth wateringly delicious.
I would also like to gently offer a tiny bit
of help to Lauren about the pronunciation of mascarpone. Yes,
you're doing this live. The first half of the word

(26:24):
throws a lot of people, but it should rhyme with Nascar.
It's spelled like mascara, but something about it makes it
very easy for our brains to scramble the phone emes
in the middle. I did definitely side note previously say
marscapone instead of mascarpone. There are some words you always

(26:46):
pronounced with some hesitation to be honest. Uh, Kelly continues, Um,
the last part can be pronounced either as one syllable
pone rhymes with phone, or as pone um, if you
want it to sound closer to how it's pronounced in Italian. Okay, Yeah,

(27:07):
I think I'm still gonna like, I'm gonna we're gonna
have to pin your email and anytime we have to
pronounce this, reference it again, because that's I'm not gonna
remember like maybe I'll remember Nascar. Yeah, No, I'm going
to remember that forever. But I think it's going to
be a very long time before I able to incorporate
it naturally, because for some reason, my brain has always
said marscapone, So mascar pone. It's always gonna sound like not.

(27:37):
There's gonna be doubt and fused. I think, um, maybe
we can do like a little workshop at practice, but mascrophone.
I can do this. We can. Yeah, we I think
you got it. That sounded pretty good. Um, it didn't
sound actively terrified while I was saying at that time,
cool improvement lots of improvement in a very short time.

(28:00):
So thank you. Yeah, yeah, thank you Kelly for the pronunciations.
We always we appreciate them. Oh my goodness. Yes, and
also yes, I do love so much again this listener
mail interaction where you learn from each other and help
each other and get recipes from each other. It's so great. Yeah,
so good, yes, um so. Thanks to both of those
listeners for writing. If you'd like to write to us,

(28:22):
our email is Hello at savor pod dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
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you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to

(28:43):
our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to
you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
things are coming your way.