Ackee and Saltfish

Jamaica's national dish: boiled ackee folded through salt cod fried with onion, tomato, thyme, scallion, and Scotch bonnet

Origin: Jamaica

From the journey of Ackee.

Ackee and saltfish is the dish the Jamaican government names as the national dish, and it is made of two foods that arrived on the island in the service of slavery. The ackee came from West Africa in 1778: the catalogue of Hinton East's botanic garden above Kingston records that it 'was brought here in a Slave Ship from the Coast of Africa'. The saltfish came from the North Atlantic. The plantations fed the people they enslaved on imported salt cod, and the grade they were sent was the lowest the fishery made; in the Newfoundland trade, 'West-India fish' was, in the words of a writer of 1818, 'the refuse of the whole'. When the two were first cooked together is not recorded, but the pairing has long outlived the plantations, and it is now the island's defining breakfast. Cooked, the ackee looks remarkably like softly scrambled egg, and it tastes mild, rich, and faintly nutty, which is why it needs the salt and the heat of everything else in the pan. The cook's whole skill lies in handling it gently. The arils are boiled only until tender, folded into the saltfish at the very end, and heated through without stirring, so that they keep their shape. Jamaicans distinguish two kinds by the aril: 'butter' ackee, soft and yellow, which collapses easily, and 'cheese' ackee, firm and cream-coloured, which holds together; the firmer cheese ackee stands up better in the pan. The ackee must be ripe, and the rules for preparing it are not optional. Only pods that have opened on the tree are gathered, the black seeds and the pink membrane are removed from every aril, and the water in which the arils are boiled is thrown away. Unripe ackee contains hypoglycin A, which causes the dangerous illness long known in Jamaica as the vomiting sickness. For Jamaicans abroad the dish comes from a tin. Jamaica cans the arils in brine for Britain, Canada, and the United States, although the United States banned the import in 1973 and admitted the first shipments from approved Jamaican processors only in 2000, so that for twenty-seven years ackee and saltfish could not legally be made there from the island's own fruit.

Ingredients

Saltfish

250 g boneless salt cod (saltfish)

Ackee

24 fresh ackee pods that have opened fully on the tree, or one 540 g tin of ackee in brine, drained
1 tsp salt, for boiling fresh ackee

To cook

3 tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 spring onions (scallion), chopped
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
0.5 Scotch bonnet chilli, seeded and finely chopped (or a whole one, pricked, for less heat)
0.5 small green or red bell pepper, thinly sliced (optional)
1 medium tomato, chopped
0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put the salt cod in a bowl, cover it generously with cold water, and leave it to soak overnight, changing the water once or twice.
Drain the fish, cover it with fresh water, and simmer it for 10 minutes. Drain again and leave it to cool, then pick out any skin and bone and flake it into small pieces.
If you are using fresh ackee, take the arils out of the opened pods, discard the black seeds, and pull away the pink or red membrane from the hollow of every aril. Rinse them in cold water.
Bring a pan of water to the boil with the salt, add the arils, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are tender but still whole. Drain them carefully and throw the cooking water away. If you are using tinned ackee, skip this step: simply drain and rinse it.
Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, spring onions, thyme, Scotch bonnet, and bell pepper, and fry for 4 minutes, until soft.
Add the tomato and the flaked saltfish and cook for 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the tomato has softened and the fish has taken up the seasoning.
Add the ackee and fold it in gently with a spoon, lifting rather than stirring. Season with the black pepper and heat through for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the thyme stalks, and the whole Scotch bonnet if you used one, and serve at once.

Notes

Serve it as Jamaicans do at breakfast, with fried dumplings, boiled green bananas, yam, roast breadfruit, fried ripe plantain, or bammy, and often with a side of steamed callaloo. Tinned ackee is already cooked and very soft. Add it at the very end and only warm it through, or it will turn to purée. Outside Jamaica, tinned ackee is the safe and usual choice.

The Gastrographer

Name: Ackee and Saltfish
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Jamaica
Ingredients: 250 g boneless salt cod (saltfish); 24 fresh ackee pods that have opened fully on the tree, or one 540 g tin of ackee in brine, drained; 1 tsp salt, for boiling fresh ackee; 3 tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil; 1 medium onion, sliced; 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 3 spring onions (scallion), chopped; 2 sprigs of fresh thyme; 0.5 Scotch bonnet chilli, seeded and finely chopped (or a whole one, pricked, for less heat); 0.5 small green or red bell pepper, thinly sliced (optional); 1 medium tomato, chopped; 0.25 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control