Soft, buttery ackee fruit sautéed with flaked salt cod, onion, tomato, peppers and scotch bonnet — Jamaica's national dish.
What makes it ackee and saltfish
Ackee, folded in last and cooked gently so it doesn't break up.
Salt cod soaked, boiled and flaked.
Onion, tomato, sweet pepper, scotch bonnet and thyme.
Where it comes from
Ackee came to Jamaica from West Africa in the eighteenth century, very likely with the slave trade; its botanical name honours Captain Bligh, who took it on to Kew. Salt cod came from Newfoundland and New England as cheap, lasting food for the enslaved, traded against Caribbean sugar and rum.
Put together, they became a breakfast and then the national dish. Ackee has to be picked ripe, once its pods have opened on their own — unripe, it's poisonous — so outside Jamaica it's nearly always from a tin.
How it varies
With callaloo
Leafy greens cooked in alongside, or served next to it.