Jerk Marinade
This is my go to recipe for jerk marinade. Making the jerk marinade from scratch adds much more nuance to this powerful marinade. This keeps very well in the freezer if you cant use it all in one week. Perfect for rasta pasta, jerk chicken, pizzas and much more.
The key is embracing the allspice (or pimento seed). This is a key element in any jerk paste. I like to order allspice berries whole in bulk from amazon to save on spice costs.
I like to use equal parts garlic and ginger. We are going to swap out some of the garlic for black garlic. This adds a nutty-balsamic depth of flavor. Scotch bonnet peppers are extremely difficult to find stateside. Habanero is the perfect substitute.
You must toast the dry spices. We open up much more volatile aromas in the spices. You get a much greater depth of flavor by doing this. Consider this step like giving your spices a shot of espresso to wake them up.
Next you need to uniformly grind the spices after they cool. Do not just chunk these in the blender with the aromatics and wet ingredients. First, we break up the cinnamon stick and nutmeg berry then we add these and the black peppercorns and allspice to a spice grinder. If you were to just throw these in the blender without pre grinding you run the risk of having unground chunks of nutmeg, allspice or cinnamon in your jerk marinade.
Finally, taking the time to blend everything to your desired consistency helps ensure the paste adheres to meats well. Remember that blending creates friction which creates heat. Blend for under 2-3 minutes. Depending on how powerful your blender is this is more than enough time.
A video of this recipe is coming soon. This marinade also makes an appearance in forthcoming videos for jerk chicken, jerk chicken nachos, and rasta pasta. Stay tuned.
Jerk Marinade
No more store bought jerk marinade! This is the only recipe you will ever need.
Equipment
- spice grinder
- mortar and pestle
- blender
- 10 in saute pan
Ingredients
Aromatics
- 12 scallions 245 g (2 bunches)
- 30 g black garlic 6-7 cloves
- 30 g garlic 5-6 cloves
- 60 g ginger unpeeled
- 4 g thyme 2 tbsp (picked from stem)
- 6 scotch bonnet peppers or habeneros
Wet ingredients
- 120 g malt vinegar ½ c
- 62 g soy sauce ¼ c
- 87 g molasses ¼ c
- 43 g dark brown sugar ¼ c
- ⅓ c water
Dry spices
- 64 g whole allspice berries ½ c
- 1 nutmeg berry 4 g
- 10 g whole black peppercorn
- 1 cinnamon stick ~5 g
Instructions
- Toast the allspice, pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a dry pan until fragrant over medium high heat. Use smell and sight as cues rather than relying on a set amount of time. For me this took about 8-9 minutes on an induction cooktop using a 10 in. carbon steel pan. DO NOT heat these to smoke point. If they start smoking you're done.
- Break up the cinnamon and nutmeg berry into more manageable pieces using a mortar and pestle, molcajete, or with the flat of your knife. We do this so that the spice grinder can more uniformly grind the spices.
- Let all of the spices cool for 10 minutes.
- Blend all of the spices in spice grinder to a fine powder.
- Remove the root ends and roughly chop scallions into 3 inch pieces.
- Blend ground spices, the aromatics, and wet ingredients in a blender until relatively smooth. No more than 2-3 minutes depending on the strength of your blender. You are looking for a paste-like consistency that is thick enough to adhere to meat but not so clumpy it can’t be spread.
- You can add 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt at this point or add no additional salt. I do not add additional salt because I add salt to whatever I’m marinating when I apply the jerk marinade to it.
- This will keep comfortably in the fridge for 7 days in a non reactive container (deli cup, glass jar, Tupperware, pyrex etc.). Any marinade not used within this time frame should be frozen. This will last in the freezer at least 6 months or longer.
