As a result, they adapted to their surroundings and used herbs and spices available to them on the island such as Scotch bonnet pepper, which is largely responsible for the heat found in Caribbean jerks. įrom the start, the Maroons found themselves in new surroundings on the interior of Jamaica and were forced to use what was available to them. Jamaican jerk sauce primarily developed from these Maroons, seasoning and slow cooking wild hogs over pimento wood, which was native to Jamaica at the time and is the most important ingredient in the taste over the centuries it has been modified as various cultures added their influence. Only the Maroons continued the practice of hunting wild hogs and jerking the pork. While all racial groups hunted the wild hog in the Jamaican interior, and used the practice of jerk to cook it in the seventeenth century, by the end of the eighteenth century most groups had switched to imported pork products. It is speculated that the Taíno developed the style of cooking and seasoning.

The technique of cooking in underground pits is believed to have been used in order to avoid creating smoke which would have given away their location. It appears that these runaway slaves learned this practice from the Taíno. During the invasion of Jamaica in 1655, the Spanish colonists freed their enslaved Africans who fled into the Jamaican countryside, intermingling with the remaining Taínos and becoming some of the first Jamaican Maroons. Historians have evidence that jerked meat was first cooked by the indigenous Taíno. Jerk cooking has developed a global following, most notably in American, Canadian and Western European cosmopolitan urban centres. The word jerk refers to the spice rub, wet marinade, and to the particular cooking technique. The term jerk spice (also commonly known as Jamaican jerk spice) refers to a spice rub. 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. Jerk cooking is popular in Caribbean and West Indian diaspora communities throughout North America and Western Europe. The meat is normally chicken or pork, and the main ingredients of the spicy jerk marinade sauce are allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers. The smoky taste of jerked meat is achieved using various cooking methods, including modern wood-burning ovens. The art of jerking (or cooking with jerk spice) originated with Amerindians in Jamaica from the Arawak and Taíno tribes who intermingled with the Maroons. Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica, in which meat is dry-rubbed or wet marinated with a hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice. Scotch bonnet chili peppers (cultivar of Capsicum chinense)

Jerk chicken seasoning recipe