COPPERWhat is the national dish of Jamaica?
The national dish of Jamaica is ackee and saltfish: salted cod, soaked and flaked, sautéed with onion, tomato, scotch bonnet pepper and thyme, then folded with the soft yellow flesh of the ackee fruit. It is usually eaten at breakfast. No law names it, but it is universally regarded as the national dish, and the ackee itself is an official national symbol: Jamaica's national fruit.
What is ackee?
Ackee (Blighia sapida) is the fruit of a tree that grows up to about 15 metres. Its red and yellow pods, 7.5 to 10 cm long, burst open when ripe to show shiny black seeds sitting on a pale yellow aril. Only the aril is eaten.
The tree is not native to Jamaica. It was brought from West Africa, probably on a slave ship according to the Jamaica Information Service, and its name comes from the Twi language of Ghana. Captain William Bligh took plants from Jamaica to England in 1793, which is why the botanical name honours him. According to the Jamaica Information Service, Jamaica is the only place where the fruit is widely eaten.
Jamaicans distinguish two types by the colour of the aril: "butter", soft and yellow, and "cheese", firmer and cream-coloured. In much of West Africa the fruit is used mainly as medicine or to make soap, though it is eaten as a dried paste in parts of northern Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
Ackee must be handled correctly. The unripe fruit contains a toxin, hypoglycin, so pods are only picked once they have opened on the tree by themselves, the arils are cleaned of red fibre and the cooking water is thrown away. Jamaica exports it in tins, which is how it is sold abroad.
How ackee and saltfish is made
The salt cod is soaked overnight, changing the water twice, then simmered 15 minutes and flaked. Onion, bell pepper and scallion are fried in coconut oil, then a whole scotch bonnet pepper and thyme sprigs go in; leaving the pepper whole gives its perfume without the raw heat.
A chopped tomato collapses into the pan, the saltfish takes on the seasoning for a few minutes, and the ackee goes in last. It is warmed for about 3 minutes and turned only two or three times so the arils stay whole. The full method is in our ackee and saltfish recipe.
Tinned ackee only needs draining, gently, because the arils break easily. Fresh ackee must come from pods that opened on the tree and is boiled for 20 minutes first. Serve with the scotch bonnet and thyme stalks lifted out.
Is it officially the national dish?
Jamaica's official national symbols, set out by the Jamaica Information Service, are the flag, the coat of arms, the ackee as national fruit, the doctor bird, the lignum vitae flower and the blue mahoe tree. The dish itself is not on that list: the government describes ackee as "a component of the dish ackee and codfish".
In practice there is no rival. Reference works on Jamaican food all call ackee and saltfish the national dish. Its two halves tell the island's history: the ackee arrived from West Africa, and salted cod was imported as a cheap, long-keeping protein for enslaved people.
The dish also has a place in popular culture. Harry Belafonte's 1956 song "Jamaica Farewell" includes the line "Ackee rice, saltfish are nice", and The Guardian has reported that the sprinter Usain Bolt often eats ackee and saltfish for breakfast.
What to serve with ackee and saltfish
A typical Jamaican breakfast puts ackee and saltfish next to one or more starchy sides:
When saltfish and its seasonings (onion, scallion, thyme, garlic) are cooked together with plain rice, often with ackee, the one-pot result is called seasoned rice.
- Fried dumplings.
- Boiled green bananas or roast breadfruit.
- Hard dough bread, a Jamaican white loaf.
- Seasoned callaloo, cooked amaranth greens.
- At lunch or dinner, rice and peas or plain white rice.
Other dishes to know from Jamaica
Jerk chicken goes back to the smoking and grilling techniques of the Taíno, the island's first inhabitants. Chicken legs are scored and rubbed with a paste of allspice, scotch bonnet, scallion and thyme, marinated 24 hours, then smoked slowly over pimento wood. Chicken is only the best-known version: pork, fish, conch, shrimp, lobster and sausage are jerked too.
Rice and peas is rice cooked in the dark liquid of red kidney beans (the "peas") with coconut milk, thyme and a whole scotch bonnet that must not burst. It starts from dried beans soaked overnight, because tinned beans give the rice none of its colour.
For another island's answer, see the national dish of Trinidad and Tobago and more Caribbean food. All three recipes are on our page about the food of Jamaica.
The recipes
- Ackee and saltfish🇯🇲 Jamaica · 12 hours and 35 minutes
Jerk chicken🇯🇲 Jamaica · 1 day and 2 hours
Rice and peas🇯🇲 Jamaica · 13 hours and 30 minutes
Questions people ask
Is ackee poisonous?
Unripe ackee is: it contains hypoglycin. The fruit is safe once the pod has opened naturally on the tree, the arils are cleaned and the cooking water is discarded.
Why is it called saltfish?
Saltfish is salted, dried cod. It was brought to the Caribbean as a cheap protein that kept without refrigeration, and it must be soaked before cooking.
When do Jamaicans eat ackee and saltfish?
Mostly at breakfast, with fried dumplings, boiled green bananas or breadfruit, though it is also eaten with rice and peas.
What is Jamaica's national fruit?
The ackee. It is one of Jamaica's official national symbols, alongside the flag, coat of arms, doctor bird, lignum vitae and blue mahoe.
How do you pronounce ackee?
AK-ee, with the stress on the first syllable.
Keep reading
- Traditional food of Jamaica: 14 dishes to know
- What is the national dish of Antigua and Barbuda?
- What is the national dish of the Bahamas?
- What is the national dish of Barbados?
- What is the national dish of Cuba?
- What is the national dish of Dominica?