Journalist Unravels The History Of Caribbean Barbecue
Image Source: Greg Dupree/Food & Wine
Hallmarks of Caribbean barbecue include allspice, vinegar, Scotch bonnet chiles, and tropical fruit such as guava, according to food journalist Kayla Stewart. These elements can be traced to the Taino, an Indigenous people who inhabited various Caribbean islands. Today's barbecue in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago was also influenced by African communities and European colonizers who brought new ingredients and cooking techniques to the islands. Of course, fire and smoke remain central to this barbecue style, and jerk remains its most well-known expression, in which allspice (berries of the pimento tree) creates a flavoring paste for food cooked over pimento wood. And with that story, I am now hungry for jerk pork and a cold beer.
