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I know some a unnu ah gwaan bout chicken but mi nah deal wit dat.

When I was small we used to drive from Sav-la-mar in western Jamaica to Portland to visit my great-gandmother in Port Antonio. Looong drive but along the way we'd stop and get kola champagne and jerk pork. Couldn't tell you where exactly, but i'd guess well east of Mobay, along the likkle pyah pyah road that used to be the only way before the big highway. I actually never heard of jerk chicken until long after I left the yard, when my dad came back from a wedding. Maybe it was there and we never order, i dunno.

Anyhow... what I have had in recent years in (admitted, western) Jamaica isn't like what I remember and what is served in restaurants with a sauce and thing is not at all like what I remember. But food, like language, moves on.

Traditionally I think it was done slow over coals covered in green pimento saplings for a grill, and covered with a piece of tin roof. At least that's how I remember it. I don't have pimento bushes, and winter in Canada is cold, so that's not happening.

So, I have been experimenting with some very non-traditional ways to make something that taste like what I remember, and I'll share my method and results here for whoever is interested.

The basic method is to season the meat, cold smoke it, vacuum seal and sous vide it, then finish over hot coals. Like I said, *not* traditional.

I always season it overnight, because the meat take up the salt and it keeps the moisture. Sometimes I just use the walkerswood jerk paste, sometimes I'll add scotch bonnets, thyme and scallions too depending on how lazy I am and what is on hand. I find Walkerswood is closest to what I have in my mind, but Grace is alright.

Next day I start the electric smoker and cold smoke the meat for about and hour. Then I vacuum seal it and put it in the sous vide for about 3 hours at 140F. How long depends on what cut. Pork belly can stand a long soak, but leaner cuts start to break down and you end up with something more like pulled pork. Usually I use pork should when it comes on sale.

Then it comes out and you have a bag of ugly boiled meat and juices. This is the interesting part, because this was always a snack food, not a sit down dinner kind of thing, and cutting it up and putting it on rice and peas lacks something. That something is the juices in the bag. We coming back to that.

So then the meat comes out, and I let it sit and dry out a bit while the coals get ready. When they are good and hot, the meat goes over them for about 2 minutes per side. Too long and it dries out... you just want a good sear or what ppl who smoke meat call a "bark".


Slice it up, put it on or beside the rice and peas, and then those juices from the bag can go over both to moisten them up. Or slice it and place on a serving dish, and pour however much of the juices seems appropriate over it.

Make me tell you this... it is very nice.

I think this could work with chicken too, but less time in the sous vide. Next time my cuz @np comes by I'll try it with chicken b/c he is one of those pork haters

In reply to Arawak

Sounds good to me - still I prefer the pimento wood cooking. Are you using the Walkers'Wood seasoning or your own home made?

In reply to Arawak

Sounds good,those kinda processes are what makes the difference with meats..

In reply to Chrissy


I have made my own, but it's not any better than the Walkerswood + scallions/thyme/peppers so that's what I stick with now.

In reply to Arawak

Sounds great!

In reply to Arawak

I will try it on chicken. By the way, NP was "Rasta Ozzy" in Pluto Shervington's "Dat".

In reply to Phillip-3

In reply to Phillip-3


Haha. Crime will never pay


- edit wrong Pluto song, was thinking of ramgoat liver

In reply to Arawak

I've had good results steaming the pork for an hour in a walkerswood and soy sauce marinade. Then throw it on the coals.

In reply to VIX

Explain ‘steam in a marinade’???

In reply to Halliwell

Marinate pork with walkerswood and a little soy sauce overnight. Dump it all into a pot. Steam for an hour.

In reply to VIX

Thanks

In reply to Arawak
Boston, Portland is where it first 'landed' into Ja from up in Maroon land, so maybe that's where your parents stopped to fetch it back then. Where I come from (over the other side of the mountain from Sav) we had one single jerkerman for our entire area, and even then it was a weekend affair.
I agree too that I don't recall anything else being jerked beside pork before I emigrated.

In reply to Phillip-3
Yuh did know Nev from him JC teaching days?

--Æ.

In reply to Arawak

Nice to see you posting “regularly” on the board again. Thumbs up emoji

In reply to Arawak

Thanks for sharing that, I am planning to tackle some jerk recipes this BBQ season, though in chicken variety.

I want to fine chune or rather, create my own flavor.

I've only tried Jerk Chicken, to peppery for my taste, same as the spicy patties, too many flavours are lost with the pepper.

In reply to openning

You can make your own jerk seasoning without the hot pepper

In reply to Chrissy

I just looked up Jerk recipe, first time seeing it.
So different from the green seasoning that is popular in Barbados.
I have in my spice shelf, Oxtail spice, Cool Running Allspice, and Montego Curry.
I live too far from a West Indies population, and I don't think there is a good Caribbean restaurant here in Calgary, where you will take someone to enjoy a meal.
I've never been to one.

In reply to Chrissy

Well... you can make *something* without the hot pepper.

Scotch bonnet is pretty much the core flavour for jerk, along with scallion thyme and pimento smoke.

In reply to Arawak

Well since I eat nothing without pepper, I'm good to go

In reply to openning

You can cook anything at home these days. Recipes are everywhere with easy instructions

In reply to Chrissy

Also remember that Walkerswood & Grace have both hot/spicy & mild jerk seasoning.

Yes... it comes out good when you make your own.

I should add that one of the effects of the "long soak" in the sous vide is that the meat takes up a LOT more flavour but the heat is dialed way back. No idea why.

My son is a real pepperhead so I have to add back fresh scotch bonnets for him before i sear, but it suits my wife just fine.

In reply to JayMor

I thought you were in the group that used to go to Holborn Rd in New Kingston for jerk chicken.

Next time check out The Ultimate at Runaway Bay & Scotchies near where the new highway from Spanish Town meets the North Coast Highway. Good stuff. I hope they are planting lots of pimento trees in Jamaica.

Check your pm later.

(NP was a good footballer)

In reply to Chrissy

I have a number of cook boos, and I follow recipes if I am about to cook something new, or to kick it up a notch, if I am going to impress my nephew.
I enjoyed pepper as a kid, that's one way to eat most of the food, when my best friend came to our house, or I visited his.
He just hated pepper, and would get the bottle of the marinate and pour a little on the food.
Since becoming an adult and away from a caribbean population, I never used Hot Peppers in my cooking.

A Trini girlfriend, taught me how to cook Pelau, Oxtail, Curry Goat/ Chicken and Ackee and Saltfish, I usually go on Youtube for the latest tips, either Caribbean Pot or Deddy's Kitchen.
I've been around chefs for decades, did a lot of table side cooking in my younger days.
I enjoy peering wines with food.
You cannot do that, when Peppers or spices take over the dish.

Rasta nah eat pork and dis is why for me

In reply to deanjones

Octopus is off the table for you too?

In reply to Arawak


You need to showcase it somewhere.
Food caravan
The Ex.
Curry goat cricket match. (After your Covid needles)

In reply to Phillip-3

I'm thinking not this year, but maybe sometime next year we need a Curry Goat match somewhere.

In reply to Phillip-3

I use Walkerswood - better than mine and remember I don't eat red meat or pork but I jerk chicken, fish and shrimp.