Rosemary Parkinson, Contributor
Left: The English gave us soups like this one filled with corn, chicken feet, carrots and other goodies. Right: The Amerindians were found cooking with Scotch bonnet.
This is the first of a two-part series that looks at Jamaican food facts. Last week's review questioned our readiness with regard to the current hype on Caribbean cuisine. If teachers or parents pass this information on to children, if restaurant owners ensure their employees understand same, giving both groups the title 'food history disciples', may be the ball will start rolling. There's always a place to begin in order to reach a satisfactory end.
THE AMERINDIAN LEGACY
THE PRE-Columbian Tainos brought cassava, sweet potato, corn, callaloo, beans, hot peppers, guavas, ground nuts, pineapples and pawpaw from South America. They ate wild animals and seafood including shellfish from both sea and river. A stock pot or soup was kept made from shellfish and meats. Mix this Amerindian soup with the British 'stews' containing vegetables, tubers and dumplings and out comes the thick potage Jamaicans enjoy today - fish tea, cow and chicken foot, cow cod and red peas soups etc.
Once seasoned and cured with pimento and peppers, meats were cooked by the Amerindians on wooden spits over hot fires - a method called Brabacot or Barbacoa. This was the precursor of barbecue (not an American invention). Pimento is a single berry indigenous to Jamaica, closely related to the bay and clove trees. The Spanish called it Pimienta de Jamaica (Jamaica Pepper), the British developing its demand around 1509, calling it allspice because it resembled the French quatre-epices (pepper, cloves, ginger and nutmeg).
Hot peppers were called Scotch bonnets by the British for their resemblance to the Scottish tam. Left to hide in the deep forested mountains after the English invaded 'Spanish' Jamaica, the Maroons, taught by the Tainos to season and preserve wild meats, used covered earthen pits for cooking - a tradition brought from Africa that caused little smoke, keeping them safe from discovery. This would be named jerk. Brought out of the mountains by the Portland Maroons into Boston in the '50s, the rest is history.
PINEAPPLE AND PAPAYA
The Amerindians transported pineapple shoots to islands as far as Jamaica. The earliest Western record of the fruit was documented on landing in Guadeloupe by a Spaniard who was part of Columbus' second voyage in 1493. The scientific name for pineapple 'ananas' was derived from the Tupi Indian name 'nana' because of its resemblance to a pine cone. The Spanish named it piña or piñe. Pineapples were taken to Hawaii from Jamaica.
Today, the world considers pineapple a Hawaiian phenomenon - a good example of what will happen to our cuisine if we do not protect it totally! Jamaica has two types of pineapple - the cowboy and sugarloaf. Papaya or pawpaw was called 'Fruit of the Angels' by the Tainos who recognised it as being medicinal. High in vitamins and minerals, the skin is used as a poultice to aid healing while ingesting the seeds is purported to help to prevent cancers. The Spanish later introduced same to Manila, India and Africa. Trelawny is the parish known for the sweetest papaya.
CASSAVA AND CORN
Cassava is a tuber that when peeled, scraped, pressed, roasted and grated makes bammy. This same method was used by the Amerindians for the making their 'bread'. The Taino word for sweet potato, patata, became batata in Spanish, and potato in English. The white potato arrived from South America in the 17th century - more than a hundred years after finding the sweet potato in Amerindian hands. The English potato is not British or American but belongs to the New World and called Irish here. Now sweet corn was called mahiz.
The Tainos taught the English to make 'lob-lolly' or ship's gruel - a mixture of corn or maize mixed with water, the forerunner of dishes such as turned cornmeal and hominy porridge here in Jamaica.
COCOA AND VANILLA
Cocoa or Cacao was discovered in the New World by the Spanish. The botanical description for cocoa - Theobroma - comes from the ancient Greek words for 'god' and 'food'. Xocoatl was what the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas called their stimulating drink brewed from cocoa beans - Food of the Gods - using it in sacred offerings. The Tainos followed suit. Vanilla carried the same reverence and was used as a flavouring for the chocolate made from the cacao. Jamaica's cocoa and vanilla is revered to this day and cocoa balls are still grated, boiled with milk and used to make cocoa-tea.
HONEY, BANANAS AND COCONUTS
Bees were originally brought by the Spanish. With Jamaica's wild and planted fruit, Jamaica bees create an incredible honey that picks up the flavour of whatever blossom the bees have fed on. Clarendon is the honey parish. Now 'honey produced from reeds' was how Theophrates travelling with Alexander The Great in 336 BC described bananas. Edible bananas originated in Malaysia - explorers taking them to the Indian Ocean and Africa some two thousand years ago. The Spanish brought bananas to Jamaica as early as the 1500s. There are several types of bananas on the island, all rich in potassium and much sweeter than those grown 'abroad'.
It was during the 16th century that the word 'cocos' appeared - a derivation from the Portuguese word meaning 'monkey face'. The coconut, known as the Tree of Life, has numerous uses. The green or yellow but mature coconut contains a thirst-quenching water that cleanses the blood and kidneys, its soft flesh a delightful morsel. The inner brown tuft of the dried coconut makes an old time mattress (not the most comfortable) and a good base for growing orchids. The hard flesh inside is grated to make coconut milk for traditional Jamaican dishes. The heart or inside of the trunk can be eaten like heart of palm. The fronds make excellent roofs and when dried, can be woven into bags, hats, baskets and mats. The shell on the inside of the brown hairy nut holding the water is used in making utensils such as spoons, forks, bowls, cups, bags and jewellery.
CITRUS
Oranges were grown in China long before Europe knew they existed. Columbus brought the Seville orange to Jamaica. Today, sweet oranges are grown in Clarendon and St. Catherine. Ortanique, created in Manchester, is a hybrid of tangerine and sweet orange - hence the name Orange-Tangerine-Unique. Both Jamaica and Barbados lay claim to having created the grapefruit - the first record of the name coming from Jamaica in 1814. It is a hybrid of the sweet orange and shaddock - the latter a citrus larger than a grapefruit brought to the West Indies from Polynesia. Another Jamaican original Ugli®, Hoogli or Tangelo is the result of breeding and hybridisation experiments that crossed Seville oranges, tangerines and grapefruits some 70 years ago. The name Ugli® is a registered trademark. Limes were used by the Amerindians to marinate their fish and shellfish. This historic detail supposedly found by Spanish settlers seems strange as it is commonly documented that limes originated in India and Malaysia.
More facts next week as we look at the rest of the island's settlers and what they brought with them.
How beautiful you are, Earth, and how sublime! How perfect is your obedience to light, and how noble is your submission to the sun! Second Treasury of Kahlil Gibran.
