[Jessica Harris] Perhaps no Caribbean food is more widely known than Jamaica's jerk.
Well, Jerk for many people - certainly many people outside of Jamaica - is emblematic of Jamaican cooking.
There is probably no dish more connected with Jamaica by non Jamaicans than jerk,
and the wonderful thing about jerk, is it does have such a rich and deep culinary background in
culinary history. From the Maroons to the present day, you can read the history of the Jamaican table through jerk.
Our culinary adventure takes us to Scotchies - a Kingston eatery......
Welcome to Scotchies! Let's go see what's cooking!
......Where we watch as the dry rub is prepared and seasons the pork before it is placed on the grill.
Well, he's going to combine the special spice - the secret formula spice - and the salt, and then do the dry rub on the pork.
And then add the wet rub.
The first stage of the seasoning process is a dry rub.
Stage two of the seasoning process is a wet rub,
which is a combination of the scotch bonnet peppers....and we only use the yellow scotch bonnet......
Again, combined with spices.
The process for preparing jerk chicken is slightly different.
This is a spice for the chicken. Or the dry rub for the chicken I should say.
It is a slightly milder combination than that of the pork.
Same ratio: four ounces to four pounds.
So, for our process, we cut the chickens through the breast, and butterfly them.
It is easier to handle on the grill this way.
Again, as in as with the pork, the dry rub is added first. And then the wet rub.
And the pepper that is used on the chicken is also a little bit diluted in comparison to what's used on the pork.
[Jessica Harris] Jerk is a term that is often misused.
Bill Moore offers us some chef-ly advice, and a warning about the misuse of the term, "jerk."
[Chef Moore] As we've seen, real jerk is a long process. It really takes days of marination and slow cooking.
But the jerk spices are used throughout cooking now. But it's just important for chefs to understand, that if they're going to use
the jerk seasonings commercially - they buy or they make their own - that's a jerk spice.
I can "jerk" tofu, but it's not jerk tofu. It's jerk seasoned or jerk spiced tofu, as opposed to jerk.
If you don't cook it over pimento wood and you don't slow cook it, it's not jerk and don't call it Jerk.
While the jerk is slowly cooking, yams and sweet potatoes are being roasted as accompaniments.
As our charring green cannonballs of breadfruit.
It's time to eat!
So, this is real jerk.
A slow, long, low, wonderfully cooked, beautifully done.....
[Chef Steve Jilleba] And also, I didn't realize the role the wood played. [Jessica Harris] The wood is incredible!
[Chef Steve Jilleba] I mean, I always knew about the spices and some, but I mean, that's a whole other role of the....
[Jessica Harris] I mean, people who do barbecue in the states know the difference between hickory....and so.... [Chef Steve Jilleba] That's a big part in the states.
[Jessica Harris] Absolutely. Absolutely, there you go.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] I can't wait. [Jessica Harris] Just use your fingers, boy.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] I know.... [Jessica Harris] Alright, be cute. I'm having a finger one.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] Hmm, that's great. [Jessica Harris] Well, now here at Scotchies, they do not only jerk pork,
but jerk chicken, and jerk pork sausage, and jerk chicken sausage.... So we've got a whole range of things.
The pork is the classic.
The chicken is newer, if you will.
They also do fish at Scotchies, which is interesting, but this is your range.....
Now the traditional accompaniment? Fried dough, called festival.
An extraordinary thing. And then to start it out, we have one of those classic Jamaican soups. We have some pepper pot here.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] So, this is with the callaloo.... [Jessica Harris] This is the callaloo. We've got some ground provisions, we've got a little bit of - I think we've got pig parts - I think this looks like pig tail to me.
So it's just one of those glorious, rich, dense lovely Jamaican soups.
[Chef Steve Jilleba] And then, some little dumplings too, there. [Jessica Harris] Well, I don't know about that....Spinners in here? You had a dumpling? Alright, alright....
[Chef Steve Jilleba] I had *two* in mine. [Jessica Harris] Oh, well you got *mine,* that's the trick.