Vol. 52 — Pimento Smoke and the Sunday Pot
Jamaica
From Boston Bay to the Blue Mountains
Standfirst
Jerk turning slowly over pimento wood, ackee softening in the pan, oxtail left to give way on its own time. Jamaica cooks with smoke, heat and a great deal of generosity.
Chapter One
Smoke first, spice after
Jerk starts the night before: scotch bonnet, pimento, thyme, scallion and ginger worked into the meat and left to settle. The next day it cooks low over pimento wood, and the wood matters as much as the rub — that sweet, peppery smoke is the flavour people travel for.
It is a technique carried into the island's interior by the Maroons, where meat had to keep and a fire had to stay quiet. Today it lives at the roadside drum pans, where you smell the grill long before you can read the sign.
Jamaica does not cook quietly. It seasons early, cooks slowly, and expects you to stay for a plate.
— On the Jamaican kitchen
Chapter Two
The Sunday pot and food eaten walking
Sunday belongs to the big pot — oxtail with butter beans, curried goat made in a quantity meant for other people, brown stew chicken browned in sugar first, and rice and peas simmered in coconut milk with thyme and a whole scotch bonnet lifted out before it bursts.
The rest of the week is eaten standing up. Patties from the shop that still has the good ones at four. Festival beside fried fish. Escovitch under pickled peppers. Pepper shrimp by the bag, red and blazing, with a stack of napkins.
The Jamaica poster — jerk chicken, ackee and saltfish, oxtail, curried goat, patties, festival, escovitch fish, toto, gizzada, sorrel and Blue Mountain coffee drawn as one illustrated kitchen wall.
Chapter Three
Kitchen, bedroom and everyday wear
Pieces for people who keep scotch bonnet in the freezer, argue about seasoning oxtail, and know exactly where the patties are still hot.
Blanket — Ocho Rios
T-Shirt — Kingston
Sweatshirt — Port Antonio
Vol. 52 — Pimento Smoke and the Sunday Pot — the pieces
Shop the Jamaica pieces
Everything photographed in this issue that is currently in the studio.
Jamaica · Apron
Jamaica Food Apron
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Jamaica · Blanket
Jamaica Food Blanket
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Jamaica · Food poster
Jamaica Food Poster Black
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Jamaica · Sweatshirt
Jamaica Food Sweatshirt
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Jamaica · T-shirt
Jamaica Food T-Shirt
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Jamaica · Tote bag
Jamaica Food Tote Bag
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Jamaica · Food poster
Jamaica Food Poster Pink
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Jamaica · Food poster
Jamaica Food Poster White
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The Collection
The Jamaica Collection
Jerk, ackee and saltfish, oxtail, curried goat, patties, festival, escovitch fish, sorrel and Blue Mountain coffee — the Jamaican table in one illustrated composition.
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Gifts & celebrations
Where Jamaica belongs
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