Jamaican Food 101: Recipes to Get You Started (2024)

The Soul of Jamaican Cuisine

Ask someone, “What exactly is Jamaican food?” and the answer will probably include the following: jerk chicken, rice and peas, oxtail and broad beans, beef patties, curried goat—all delicious and all equally perceived as heavy, fattening, and heavy on the meat and starch. While not incorrect, this is a severely limited perspective of our cuisine. Jamaican food is certainly hearty, but at its core it is also very wholesome, with vibrant flavor profiles that easily suit a more balanced diet. Dishes are often prepared al fresco over an open fire, and even the most simple, rustic meals are replete with a diverse range of fresh produce, as befits the heritage and traditions of a multicultural society.

The best cooks in Jamaica are self-taught, and many learned their craft and inherited their culinary prowess from their forebears. Sadly, as we lose our elders, we are also losing the knowledge and wisdom they harbor because their techniques and traditions are passed along orally and manually, rather than being documented. With this in mind, the question of how we can define and preserve Jamaican food traditions for a modern marketplace is a relevant one. The real key to finding the soul of Jamaican food lies in an exploration of our past to reveal the culinary surprises that dwell there.

After the formal abolition of slavery in Jamaica, the country underwent a long and arduous process that ultimately resulted in freedom for the formerly enslaved in 1838. This set in motion the most significant and far-reaching social and economic revolution in the history of Jamaica. According to Jamaican historian Sir Philip Sherlock, people who had been enslaved were determined, however humble their circ*mstance and no matter how difficult the struggle, to build their own homes, form new communities, and most importantly, remain outside of the plantation system.

Many families turned to subsistence farming for survival. They raised a range of crops and animals to feed and clothe their families; any surplus produce was sold at local markets by family members themselves (often the women). Many of the ingredients that have become the staples of the daily Jamaican diet (like ackee, breadfruit, yams, sweet potatoes, green bananas, coconuts, and plantains) were born from and produced under this system. Interestingly, most of the ingredients that we currently view as quintessentially Jamaican actually originated off the island. Breadfruit came from Tahiti; salt cod from the Atlantic; yam and ackee from Africa. These were and still are the foods most consumed and highly favored by Jamaicans of all walks of life.

Taking a step back, an understanding of Jamaican cuisine requires a sense of just how many cultures have contributed to Jamaican society and influenced our food preparation.

• Tainos were the indigenous people of the island; they cultivated chile peppers, cassava, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, yampi, corn, arrowroot, guavas, star apples, pineapples, and cashews. Bammy, or cassava bread, was a staple of the Tainos.
• Spaniards were the first Europeans to inhabit the island, arriving in 1494 with Christopher Columbus. They introduced citrus, tamarind, coconuts, bananas, sugar cane, ginger, pomegranates, and plantains. Escovitche fish and bammy is the result of the merging of these two early cultures—escovitche fish from the Spaniards and bammy from the Tainos.
• The British captured Jamaica in 1655 from the Spaniards and controlled the land until 1962. They built their kingdom on sugar cultivated by enslaved African labor. They exported rum, sugar, molasses, cocoa, and coffee, which they traded for flour, pork, and pickled fish. Those imports became staples in the local diet and are still favorites today. The British also introduced breadfruit, otaheite apples, mangoes, turmeric, black pepper, and coffee. The British Cornish pasty is the forerunner to the beef patty, and the Jamaican fondness for porridge is a legacy of the Scots.
• Africans were initially brought to the island as enslaved laborers under Spanish rule. It was under British rule, however, that their numbers were greatly increased. They brought their own methods of food preparation along with certain prized foods like yams, coco (taro), and okra; they have the largest influence on the cuisine of the island.
• Chinese indentured laborers came to the island post-emancipation in the mid-nineteenth century. Jamaican Chinese recipes were initially limited, as many of the ingredients they were accustomed to cooking with could not withstand the long journey and high temperatures. Soy sauce, dried noodles, and five spice powder were available by the end of the century, and vegetables like pak choy (also referred to as “pat choi” or “papchow”) have since become extremely popular.
• East Indians came to Jamaica between 1838 and 1917, also as indentured laborers. They are known for the introduction of curried dishes like curried goat; they also introduced roti and eggplant.
• Throughout the centuries, smaller groups of Portuguese Jews, French Huguenots, Syrians, Lebanese, Germans, Scots, and Irish have also made their way to Jamaica for various reasons (prisoners, exiles, indentured workers), making the landscape far more multicultural and diverse than many realize.

Vibrant and Satisfying to Body and Soul

Common to both traditional and modern Jamaican cooks, regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic status, is the use of staples such as yam, cassava, sweet potatoes, plantains, pumpkins, tropical fruits, fresh coconut, Scotch bonnets, ginger, and lots of aromatic spices and vegetables. Our food also heavily features simple salted and cured fish and meats. Imported salted cod, mackerel, and red herring were part of weekly food allowances issued to enslaved people on plantations and are still typically consumed daily—in fact, they are often more readily available, preferred, and eaten more frequently than fresh fish in Jamaica.

At its core, Jamaican food is fresh, bold, filling, pure, vibrant, and bursting with vitality. The dishes we prepare and the traditional methods of their preparation are deeply satisfying for both the body and the soul. In fact, many of the commonplace ingredients that we have been eating for centuries are currently trending in the health food industry for hitting all the right buzzwords: "alkalizing" greens (like callaloo), "healthy" fats (like avocado and coconut oil), "hydrating superfoods" (like coconut water), "gluten-free", "high-fiber" (like cassava, sweet potatoes, and yams), and "healing" herbs (like moringa).

Alfresco dining and entertaining is commonplace in Jamaica and it’s customary to see food vendors cooking up a storm in the streets, often alongside impromptu street parties. In Jamaica, the best local food is prepared by home cooks and roadside chefs who specialize in traditional favorites like pan chicken, jerk pork, or roast yam and saltfish. These dishes are always highly seasoned and often slow-cooked on a coal stove or live wood fire. Alongside the abundance of rustic and roadside choices, we also have an array of sophisticated modern restaurants, which make dining out in Jamaica an exciting affair.

The Lowdown

There are many cultural influences and traditions in Jamaican cuisine, so no introductory set of recipes can acknowledge them all. We chose these Jamaican recipes as our introduction to the cuisine because we felt each quintessentially expressed Jamaican culture, lifestyle, and dining traditions.

There is a pattern to our cuisine and dining habits: a shared set of ingredients, a preferred way of consuming them, and common techniques to prepare them. So we looked for the dishes that made us feel nostalgia and yearn for home; these are the dishes that we dreamed about on cold winter nights at university, that brought us comfort or joy when we were sad, or connected us to our loved ones by memory. We chose recipes because of where and how they are cooked and consumed, like popular street foods cooked over wood flame or coal fire (jerk pork, pan chicken and roast breadfruit).

We also chose hearty soups and stews that are commonly eaten at home for Sunday suppers and Saturday soups (stew peas, rice and peas, curry chicken, oxtail, pepperpot soup). We also paid attention to the delicious varieties of fried nibbles, snacks, and accompaniments that we eat daily in Jamaica (banana fritters, stamp and go, and festival). And finally, we chose to highlight classic Jamaican breakfasts and morning meals, which are often made with some sort of salted or pickled fish (pickled herring, mackerel rundown, escovitch fish) and are equally as often eaten throughout the day.

We learned from a very young age to appreciate the diversity of culinary experiences that our country has to offer. Our food history is rich with the influences of West Africa and the many who came or were brought here over the centuries. Jamaican food is spicy and so are our people. We share, above all, the ability to embrace life in all its colorful glory. From the many incredible home cooks, street cooks, and hosts that we have had the pleasure to break bread with, we have learned to embrace cooking as a way to show love, forge a sense of belonging, welcome strangers, create memories, and celebrate heritage. We hope you enjoy some of our favorite Jamaican dishes.