Jamaican Cooking Tips

Get Jamaica now provides another Jamaican food resource in the form of Jamaican cooking tips and hints. We provide 30 Jamaican cooking tips each week with an archive of these Jamaican cooking tips

Using alcohol in Jamaican cooking recipes: When using Jamaican beer, Jamaican wine or other alcoholic beverages in Jamaican recipes, a lot of alcohol is left after cooking so use only a tempered amount.

Jamaican Otaheite Apples: When cooking fresh Jamaican apples for Jamaican recipes for pies or sauces 1 pound raw  Jamaican apples is equivalent to ½ pound cooked Jamaican apples. Jamaican apples absorb odors and emit ethylene gas, which causes other Jamaican fruits to ripen quicker.

Jamaican bacon: is cured and smoked pork. In Jamaica pork bacon is made from the rib eye of boneless Jamaican pork loin An open package of Jamaican bacon keeps for about 1 week. Unopened vacuum sealed packages of Jamaican bacon will keep in the freezer for about a month before the fat begins to oxidize and turn rancid. Blanch heavily salted Jamaican bacon in boiling water for a minute before using in Jamaican recipes to reduce the amount of salt in the bacon.

How to use Jamaican baking powder: In double acting Jamaican baking powder, carbon dioxide is produced when moisture is added, and again when it is heated. Using too much Jamaican baking powder will produce a product with a coarse grain, and broken cell walls in the ‘air’ bubbles, which will cause the product to eventually fall. When you use too little, the Jamaican recipe will not rise enough and will be heavy. Jamaican baking powders lose strength over time. They should be kept tightly covered, moisture will cause them to deteriorate faster.
If you increase the eggs in a Jamaican recipe, decrease the Jamaican baking powder by ½ teaspoon for each extra egg added.

Using Jamaican ripe bananas: If Jamaican bananas ripen before they are picked, they lose their taste and texture. To ripen green tip Jamaican bananas quickly, keep them at 70 degrees F, with very high humidity and no air circulation for 2 or 3 days. Best storage for ripe Jamaican bananas is 65 degrees F with 80% humidity, and very good air circulation. They should keep for a week or so like that. Do not hold green Jamaican bananas much below 59 degrees F. The skin will turn a dark brownish color and they will develop an off taste. Unlike most other Jamaican fruits, Jamaican bananas develop their best eating quality after they are harvested. This allows Jamaican bananas to be shipped great distances. Almost our entire supply of Jamaican bananas, available year-round, is grown in Portland and St. Mary parishes. Jamaican bananas are sensitive to cool temperatures and will be injured in low temperatures.

Keeping Jamaican beef steaks: Jamaican beef steaks and other cuts will keep 5 days at 35 degrees F, and 8 days at 30 degrees F. Frozen quickly at 0 degrees F in airtight packages, beef cuts will keep up to 6 months. Don’t use Jamaican beef kept longer than this in Jamaican recipes.

Jamaican Sweet Peppers: Carve out Jamaican sweet peppers and stuff them with any Jamaican rice recipe or use them as colorful containers for dips or other edible Jamaican food. Include sliced peppers on your next Jamaican vegetable recipe. Jamaican sweet peppers can be used as a colorful garnish, for other Jamaican recipes and can be used to create colorful and exciting Jamaican meals by adding a mixture of different colored sliced or chopped peppers Jamaican salad recipes, Jamaican pasta recipes, and other Jamaican dishes.

Using Jamaican butter: Jamaican butter absorbs odors very easily and quickly, so keep covered. Jamaican made butter is delicate sweet in flavor, with a fine highly pleasing aroma. Jamaican butter is made from high-quality fresh sweet cream which makes the Jamaican butter smooth, creamy texture with good spread ability. No large chunks of salt maintains with Jamaican butter as salt completely dissolved and blended. This makes Jamaican butter a great ingredient in Jamaican food recipes.

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