Ackee and saltfish
Jamaica's national dish, most often eaten at breakfast. Its roots go back to colonial times, when imported salt cod was cheap, long-keeping food and ackee had been brought to the island from West Africa. Ackee is a fruit whose cooked flesh resembles scrambled egg — in colour, texture and fragility. That fragility dictates the whole technique: ackee goes in only at the end and only with a lifting motion. Stirred vigorously with a spoon it quickly collapses to mush.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Desalting the cod 720 min
- Boiling the cod 10 min
- Vegetables 15 min
- Combining 5 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneDesalt the cod overnight
Cover the cod with cold water and keep in the fridge 12 hours, changing the water three times. Without changes the salt levels in the water and the fish even out and the cod stops giving up salt — it stays too salty despite the long soak. Thick pieces may need up to 24 hours.
Ingredients: 400 g salt cod · 2000 ml water
Boil briefly and flake
Cover the desalted cod with boiling water, cook 10 minutes, drain and flake it with your fingers, discarding skin and bones. Taste a piece: if still too salty, boil it for another 10 minutes in fresh water.
Ingredients: 400 g salt cod · 2000 ml water
Flaked by hand — and taste it for salt before you go on.Drain the ackee very gently
Drain the tinned ackee and lift it out with a spoon rather than tipping it. Cooked ackee has the texture of very soft scrambled egg — poured into a sieve it breaks up before it ever reaches the pan.
Ingredients: 540 g ackee · 3 tbsp oil · 20 g butter · 1 tsp black pepper · ½ tsp allspice
Soften the onion and peppers
Fry the onion, peppers and garlic in the oil for 6 minutes, until soft but still springy. The peppers should keep a slight bite — the only textural element in a dish otherwise made entirely of soft things.
Ingredients: 1 pcs onion · 2 pcs peppers · 2 pcs tomatoes · 4 pcs spring onions · 3 cloves garlic · 4 pcs thyme · 1 pcs scotch bonnet
Peppers stay springy — the only texture in the dish.Add the scotch bonnet whole
Add the thyme, tomatoes and the whole, uncut scotch bonnet and cook 2 minutes. Whole, it gives its fruity aroma without searing heat — cut or split, it releases the heat of its membranes and seeds and the dish becomes fiercely hot. Stir carefully so as not to pierce it.
Ingredients: 1 pcs onion · 2 pcs peppers · 2 pcs tomatoes · 4 pcs spring onions · 3 cloves garlic · 4 pcs thyme · 1 pcs scotch bonnet
Add the cod and season
Add the flaked cod, season with pepper and allspice and cook 3 minutes. Do not salt — the cod still carries plenty and it seasons the whole dish. Taste before adding any salt at all.
Ingredients: 400 g salt cod · 2000 ml water
Fold in the ackee with a lifting motion
Remove the chilli, add the butter and fold in the ackee gently, lifting from underneath with a spatula. Three or four movements, no more. Stirred like scrambled egg, ackee quickly turns to mush.
Ingredients: 540 g ackee · 3 tbsp oil · 20 g butter · 1 tsp black pepper · ½ tsp allspice
Three or four lifts — never stir it like scrambled egg.Warm covered and scatter spring onion
Warm 2–3 minutes covered, without stirring, so the ackee heats through in the steam. Scatter with chopped spring onion and serve with fried plantain, festival dumplings or simply toast.
Ingredients: 1 pcs onion · 2 pcs peppers · 2 pcs tomatoes · 4 pcs spring onions · 3 cloves garlic · 4 pcs thyme · 1 pcs scotch bonnet
Before you start
Tinned ackee only
Fresh ackee is poisonous until the fruit opens on the tree by itself and needs expertise to clean safely. Tinned ackee is already cleaned and cooked, so it is safe — outside Jamaica it is the only sensible option.
Scotch bonnet always whole
In Jamaica the chilli often goes in whole and comes out before serving. The point is aroma, not heat: scotch bonnet has a distinctly fruity smell that passes into the dish, while most of the burn stays in the white membranes and seeds as long as the pod is intact.
Eat it straight away
This dish does not keep — ackee disintegrates on reheating and after a day in the fridge becomes a uniform mass. The cod can be desalted and flaked a day ahead; the rest takes a quarter of an hour.
