To Spice Up Your Summer Barbecues, Look To Jerk Seasoning

If you want to turn up the heat when cooking on the grill this summer, you might want to try some jerk seasoning. While you can purchase pre-mixed spice blends and marinade pastes, making your own will ensure you get the freshest flavors in your food.

When you're mixing up a batch of your own homemade jerk seasoning, you'll need to gather quite a few different spices. Salt, pepper, and sugar are pretty standard to start off with. But you'll also need to add in some allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and thyme. Some recipes also call for the addition of onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, paprika, cumin, and cloves.

Its heat comes in with the scotch bonnet peppers — though some might want to add in some cayenne or red pepper flakes to amplify the spice a little extra. To make the spice mix into a paste for easy spreading on your food, simply add a little oil and vinegar.

Although the spiciness of the seasoning is at the forefront of the blend thanks to the peppers, the other seasonings add some complexity to the flavor. Cinnamon and nutmeg add some warmth and are usually associated with sweeter flavors.

This blend of spices is most commonly used as a rub or marinade for meats, though it can also be used to flavor vegetables and tofu for a plant-based approach. Additionally, it can be added in as a seasoning sprinkled into plenty of dishes for an extra spicy kick.

If you're looking to cook up some more authentic food, jerk seasoning is actually an essential part of Jamaican jerk chicken — a dish commonly enjoyed on its namesake island around Christmastime. Once the chicken has been coated in the seasoning blend, it should be cooked slowly over medium to high heat, allowing the flavors of the spices to fully permeate the meat. In fact, allowing the meat plenty of time to cook is actually a callback to the original jerk method of cooking.

Jerk seasoning was invented by a group called the Maroons. They lived in the mountains of Jamaica, and the jerk method of cooking was shared as a tradition among them. The term officially refers to the entire cooking method of seasoning, smoking, and grilling meats. It was used to tenderize tougher meats — originally from wild boar — to make them more indulgent. Once the meat was seasoned, it was cooked low and slow, with very little smoke to disguise its whereabouts.

The seasoning's rich history has retained importance over time, and the flavor remains an important part of the island's food culture. Although the specific cooking method is necessary for making authentic Jamaican jerk foods, the seasoning itself can still be used to create a deliciously spicy flavor to plenty of other dishes if you aren't so concerned with complete authenticity. If your taste buds are simply craving a little more spice, try seasoning your foods with some jerk seasoning the next time you go out to the grill.