The technique of jerking (or cooking with jerk spice) originated from Jamaica's indigenous peoples, the Arawak and Taíno tribes, and was adopted by the descendants of 17th-century Jamaican Maroons who intermingled with them.[1][2]
The smoky taste of jerked meat is achieved by using various cooking methods, including modern wood-burning ovens. Chicken or pork is usually jerked, and the main ingredients of the spicy jerk marinade / sauce are allspice[a] and scotch bonnet peppers, which are native to Jamaica and were cultivated by the Taínos.[3][4]
Etymology
The word "jerk" is said to come from charqui, a Spanish term of Quechua origin for jerked or dried meat, which eventually became the word "jerky" in English.[5]
The term jerk spice (also known as Jamaican jerk spice) refers to a spice rub. The word "jerk" refers to the spice rub, a wet marinade and mop sauce made from it, and to the particular cooking technique.[6]
History
Taíno term barabicu or barbacoa means “framework of sticks”— applied to a wide range of structures, including earth oven / cooking pit and a raised wooden grill for roasting and smoking foods.
According to historical evidence, jerked meat was first cooked by the indigenous Taínos.[7] During the invasion of Jamaica in 1655, the Spanish colonists freed the enslaved Africans who fled into the Jamaican countryside, becoming some of the first Jamaican Maroons.[6] They intermingled with the remaining Taínos, learning and adapting aspects of their culture including the practice of jerking.[8][5][9]
The method of cooking in underground pits is speculated by some to have been used to avoid creating smoke which would have revealed their location.[10][11] However, this technique is common throughout the world, and is best known in Hawaii, in the form of kālua-style imu cooking, central to the luau, as well as, barbacoa in Mesoamerica.
Historians further concluded that the Taínos developed the cooking methods and seasoning styles used throughout the region. The method of jerking meats on native pimento wood also came from the Taíno term “barabicu” or barbacoa, which means “framework of sticks”, applied to a range of wooden structures, including a raised wooden grill for roasting and smoking foods.[12] This Taíno technique has been applied throughout the Americas, with many food historians concurring that all forms of barbecue in the Americas are descendants of this cooking style.[13]
In the 17th century, all racial groups hunted wild hogs in the Jamaican interior and used the practice of jerking to cook them. However, by the end of the 18th century, most groups had switched to imported pork products, while the Maroons largely continued the practice of hunting wild hogs and jerking pork.[14]Jamaican jerk sauce believed to have been primarily developed by these Maroons, added flavour to wild hogs which were seasoned with herbs and allspice before slow-cooking over pimento wood.[b][3] The heat found in Caribbean jerk is largely attributed to the use of scotch bonnet peppers.[15] Over time the basic recipe has been modified as various cultures added their influence.[16]
Jerk cooking and seasoning have followed the Caribbean diaspora all over the world, and forms of jerk can now be found at restaurants almost anywhere a significant population of Caribbean descent exists, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States,[17] coastal Panama,[18]Costa Rica,[19]Honduras, Nicaragua and San Andrés. As such, Jamaican jerk has developed a global following, most notably in American, Canadian and Western European cosmopolitan urban centres. Poulet boucané (or 'smoked chicken'), a dish found in French Caribbean countries such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, is quite similar to traditional Jamaican jerk chicken.[20]
The cooking technique of jerking and the results it produces, have evolved over time, from using pit fires to grilling over coals in old metal barrel halves.[21] Around the 1960s, Caribbean entrepreneurs seeking an easier, more portable method of jerking, began cutting oil barrels lengthwise, adding holes for ventilation and hinged lids to capture the smoke.[21] These barrels are fired with charcoal, and have become widely used across the island. Other jerking methods include wood-burning ovens.[16]
Street-side "jerk stands" or "jerk centres" are frequently found in Jamaica and the nearby Cayman Islands,[22] as well as, other places that experienced waves of Jamaican migration, like San Andrés. Jerked meat, usually chicken or pork, can be purchased along with hard dough bread, bammy (a native cassava flatbread), Jamaican fried dumplings (known as "Johnnycake" or journey cakes), and festival, a variation of sweet flavoured fried dumplings, served as a side dish.[23]
Due to the growing international popularity of Jamaican jerk, a number of unauthentic jerk products are being sold outside of Jamaica. Consequently, the Jamaican government trademarked Jamaica Jerk, as a geographical indication (GI), in September 2015[28], making Jamaica the first country in the English-speaking Caribbean to register a GI.[29] The move is aimed at guarding against those who seek to capitalise on the Jamaican brand, and to protect the quality, characteristics and reputation of Jamaican jerk internationally from misrepresentation and imitation.[28][30]
12A fragrant spice native to the Caribbean, the dried ground berry of a particular species of the flowering shrub Pimenta dioica. The Jamaican name for allspice is "pimento", due to conflation of the words pimenta and pimento. It is also called myrtle pepper.
↑A flowering shrub native to the Caribbean, Pimenta dioica, also called myrtle pepper; conflated from "pimenta" , another name also for the berry and spice known as allspice.)
References
↑Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PhD). University of Southampton. p.235.
↑Carey, Bev (1997). The Maroon Story: The Authentic and Original History of the Maroons in the History of Jamaica 1490-1880. Kingston, Jamaica: Agouti Press. p.67-75. ISBN978-9766100285.
Cook, Ian and Harrison, Michelle. "Cross over Food: Re-Materializing Postcolonial Geographies". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 3 (September 2003), pp.296–317. Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
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