Cuisines
Caribbean Cuisine
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Caribbean cuisine is a fusion tradition built from the collision of Indigenous Taino and Carib foodways, West African cooking carried by the transatlantic slave trade, European colonial cooking, and later Indian and Chinese influence brought by indentured laborers after the abolition of slavery. Staples include rice, beans, plantain and cassava, alongside seafood and, on many islands, goat and chicken prepared with fiery Scotch bonnet chili. Jerk seasoning and slow smoking, most associated with Jamaica, and one-pot rice dishes such as rice and peas, are widely shared techniques across island cuisines that otherwise differ significantly by colonial history, whether Spanish, British, French or Dutch. Callaloo, a leafy green stew, and saltfish dishes reflect the region's plantation-era food economy.
Facts
Signature TechniqueJerk marinating and slow wood smoking 1 Origin Region Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Rum, Drinks Rum is the defining spirit of Caribbean cuisine and cocktail culture.
Uses Ingredient
Cassava, Ingredients Cassava is an Indigenous Taino staple carried into Caribbean cooking.
Scotch bonnet chili is central to Caribbean seasoning.
Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
Did jerk seasoning and slow smoking originate with the Indigenous Taino, with Maroon communities of escaped enslaved Africans, or as a fusion of both?
The pit-smoking technique is documented among Jamaicas Taino inhabitants before European contact, and Maroon communities in the same region are separately credited with developing the spice marinade and much of the technique as it survives today; oral tradition and food-history writing attribute the fusion differently depending on which strand a given account emphasizes.
What would resolve this Colonial-era written accounts or archaeological evidence dating the spice marinade specifically, rather than the smoking pit alone, would help separate the two strands; much of the record is oral rather than documentary, which may keep this genuinely unresolved.
Culinary and Caribbean historyCaribbean Cuisine (Wikipedia)
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.