Each person has a  unique relationship with food, from the first introduction where there’s little choice as to the menu,  to a lifelong evolving  palate carved  from new  flavors, textures, and aromas. Then there are the lucky ones who get to add direct farm-to-fork and stem-to-mouth experiences.  This  was my early childhood in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica,  living among an abundance of rotating  fruiting trees and seasonal edibles on vines, stalks, shrubs and in the ground. While this expanded my palate, I’ve often wondered how I survived my early childhood wanderings and  food curiosity.

Picture of Ackee Fruit posted by K. Valerie in Jamaican Foods. 

My ackee memories exist  in stages.  The strongest memory,  however, is not a taste memory.  It was the experience as a young child  looking up at what appeared to be “eyes” in the form of the bulging shiny black seeds in  an opened ripe ackee on a tree in my Mooma’s (Grandmother)  yard.  Adding to  this startling encounter  was the hushed  sound of the  rustling  wings  of a large  bird feeding in the high canopy of the majestic nearby bread fruit tree.  This was further memorialized   when I stepped distractedly onto a ripened fruit  smashed against the rocky path introducing me to the “frequently to-be-encountered” decaying tropical fruit mush, complete with feeding insects and crawlies.  Growing up  in this tropical  Garden of Eden required me  to get comfortable with  the cycle of growing and dying  things.  This ackee memory was  just a part of  my young self, processing  my environment.  

Cleaning Ackee is done by hand, a  labor intensive effort.  Photo:  Jamaican Gleaner

In another childhood ackee memory, I served as a link in the farm-to-table chain, tasked with cleaning  ripe ackees for cooking.  Easy to do but can only be done by hand as captured in the picture of a commercial ackee operation above.  Cleaning  involves removing the edible yellow flesh  from the red pod, pulling out the large black seeds from the flesh and removing a tendril that runs along the folds of the flesh.  I saw myself as “old enough” because I   shadowed my Mooma and had a close-up as to how it should be  done.   I recall  tasting a piece of the  uncooked flesh  and experiencing just how bland it was in contrast   to  how tasty it would become  when cooked and paired with the right partner. 

Ackee like tomatoes,  another fruit eaten as a vegetable, falls into a class of transforming  foods—mild enough to marry  flavors without overpowering its partners and in the process creating  new flavors.  At that  stage of my childhood, I certainly loved  its pairing with salted cod or salt fish as it is called in the Caribbean—a  combination  that has rightfully elevated Saltfish & Ackee to become Jamaica’s National Dish. 

Picture from Wikipedia

While I was  too young to cook Ackee & Saltfish in Jamaica,  I knew how it should taste  from excellent home cooks who cooked with ingredients intensely  flavored from  Jamaica’s “terroir”— its  unique   soil, climate,  sunlight and micro-climates .  The challenge was how to duplicate this in a foreign land.  Like Rice and Peas, Escovitch Fish, and  other outstanding Jamaican dishes, Ackee & Saltfish became a challenge  to master in America.

Flavoring freshly picked ackees is not often a step in preparing Ackee & Salt Fish  in the United States, unless someone has brought some from Jamaica, or you’re in parts of Florida with homegrown ackees. So, when preparing Ackee & Saltfish in the US you are likely using  cooked ackees canned in a brine.  Like most canned vegetables, they lose some flavor, can become too  soft  and can easily fall apart. So, the approach to an excellent Ackee & Salt Fish dish is to treat the canned ackee with respect and gingerly fold it  into the seasoned Salt fish at the last stage of the preparation.   

As to the selection of canned Ackees, there are many good options as there are 12 brands which export ackees to the US.,  some too broken up for my liking.  Choosing is pretty much determined by your  personal preference and how much you’re willing to pay.   Some may remember when selling  canned ackees was  prohibited  in the US  , or so they say, because of the concern that un-ripened ackees contain a poison .

Yet, during that period, while prohibited in the US, it was sold in Canada and UK and became the popular “ask” to those traveling to those countries—“bring me some ackee” which was dutifully hidden from the custom inspector.  Some US Caribbean grocers, however, sold it on the black market, took advantage of the prohibition, charged what the market would bear for this precious food,   selling  it at premium prices to Jamaican Americans longing for home and willing to pay this illegal tariff.  This  contraband was hidden under the counters.  You had to know to ask for it.  

My approach then  has been  to master the saltfish partner in the Ackee & Saltfish marriage by delving  into its components.  and finding substitutes or added ingredients or techniques to approximate the flavors from  the redolent herbs and spices grown in Jamaica.

Chasing this flavor  has  become a lifetime challenge, which has included exploring  how others have approached it,  asking  questions of excellent cooks, and sometimes asking questions of no one in particular.  Cooks in Jamaica may puzzle at the effort to attain the flavor so easily available in Jamaica.

Picture of salted cod from Wikipedia

As to the Salt Fish, over the years, I have experimented with or asked  –what is the best saltfish to select,  should it be the packages with thicker fleshy fish avoiding the thin stringy parts ,  is it best to use cod or can  another  salted fish work, what is the best way to remove the salt—is it by boiling, or by repeated  changes in room temperature water, just how much of the salt should be removed to not affect  the consistency or flavor, should it be hand shredded or cut up or both to achieve  greater penetration of the spices and herbs , what is the best ratio of fish to ackee,  what about using fresh cod for those concerned with salt, and isn’t this just another variation on the dish?

Amazon picture

As to the seasonings,  can any dried thyme work or should there be a combination of fresh and dried, should you only use fresh and how do you select from the great variety of thymes offered in grocery stores, can you find Jamaican thyme locally and does it compare with your memory?  

How do you replace the intense escallions  in Jamaica given that available scallions, or green onions are pretty flavorless, should you supplement it with other onions, if so, what type and what about supplementing with a dash of onion powder, should you add bacon or other substitutes in search of the missing underlying umami, should you add scotch bonnet pepper (or a small dab of good jerk seasoning)?

What is the role of black pepper in this dish, should it be freshly ground? If you add tomatoes, which are the best type to add, should they be deseeded, should they be fleshy, should you roast them such as roasted Romas  or cherry or grape tomatoes combined with sun-dried tomatoes?

Can  the allspice be enhanced if toasted then ground up, or is it best to just include the whole allspice berry  (and remove later), does the age of the allspice matter, should you start the sauté with olive oil or a nonflavored oil with a little coconut oil, should you add sweet peppers and minced garlic? 

Whether you are able to duplicate this Jamaican flavor is very subjective.

After all of this effort, don’t be upset, however,  if when you  share your masterpiece with your American friends, someone either thinks it is an egg dish or as I vividly remember my ex-husband, Henry,  saying I love the eggs but I’m not so sure about  the  fish.