THE ORIGINS OF JAMAICAN JERK

Jerk Seasoning has it's origins deep in the colorful history of the Heroic Maroons of Jamaica.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, several of the West Africans who were brought to Jamaica as slaves escaped to the mountainous interior of the island, often mating with the Indigenous Arawak, or Taino People, forming rebel guerrilla communities. They became known as the Maroons.

Using long spears the maroons hunted and lived off wild boar that roamed the Blue Mountains

The Boar meat was slathered with a combination of salt, peppers and aromatic spices, notably Pimento (Jamaican Allspice), wrapped in leaves and the whole pig buried in a bed of hot stones in the ground to slowly steam in it's own juices. In some instances, the pork was slowly, patiently and tenderly grilled for 12 to 14 hours over a carefully controlled fire of green pimento wood to capture the unique essence of what is now known to the world as Jamaican Jerk.