In Jamaica, enslaved people who escaped plantations and claimed freedom in the mountains were called Maroons. When settling on the island’s interior, called Cockpit Country, they lived among the indigenous Taíno people and shared many traditions, one of which has become Jamaica's most famous culinary staple.
Jerk. A savory combination of peppers, scallions, garlic, ginger, pimento, thyme, and cinnamon, Jerk refers to how meat is seasoned, smoked, and grilled. Maroons hunted wild boar and other tough cuts of meat and turned them tender. And what’s most impressive is how Maroons cooked their jerk without the smoke or aroma helping enslavers to figure out where they were.
The Maroons couldn’t risk the smoke of an open fire outing them, so they wrapped their meats in pepper elder leaves and cooked them in an underground smokeless pit. With the constant threat of detection by enslavers, the community often had to stay on the move while hunting, preparing, and preserving their food, which they had to bring with them!
Much like barbecue from the American South, jerk isn’t just a remnant of the era of slavery. It’s a freedom food. Jerk gave Black people autonomy during a time when, for many, not even their bodies were their own.
No matter where colonization brought us, our people know how to make amazing things out of nothing—a deliciously Black part of our history.