Jamaican Ackee - A Caribbean Culinary Chimera
Ranked #4,901 in Food & Cooking, #86,656 overall
Ackee (pronounced "ack-key") is the national fruit and dish of Jamaica
Like reggae, Bob Marley, Red Stripe beer and Blue Mountain coffee, ackee is quintessentially and unmistakably Jamaican.
Every Jamaican at home and abroad longs for a Sunday breakfast of ackee and saltfish (ackee sauteed with salted codfish or baccalao,onions and tomatoes), served with fried plantains, johnny cakes (fried flour dumplings), boiled green bananas or yellow yam, and a slice or two of Jamaican hard-dough bread. Oh......yes!
Preferrably freshly picked ackee, of course, which is more flavorful and has a smoother more buttery taste; but canned ackee or frozen fresh ackee can be almost as good.
The ackee has an interesting history, diverse non-culinary uses, and the distinction of being a gastronomic delight with chimeric features: mouth-watering breakfast staple, and.....lethal poison, if prepared improperly. Ackees have high nutritional value and the exportation of ackee canned in brine is an important revenue earner for Jamaica and Haiti. Jamaica is the only Caribbean island in which the ackee is very popular, it is found in the other islands of the Caribbean, but is not consumed.
Let's learn all about the ackee!
Some ackee aliases
- Akee, achee
- Ackee apple
- Vegetable brain
- Akye-fufu(Ghana)
- Ankye(West Africa)
- Ishin(West Africa)
- Kaka(Ivory Coast)
- Finzan(Ivory Coast)
- Castanha(Brazil)
- Arbre fricasse(Haiti)
- Huevo vegetal(Panama)
- Arbol de seso(Cuba)
- Aki(Costa Rica)
- Merey del diablo(Venezuela)
'Blighia sapida' is the botanical name of the ackee
Close up picture of ripe ackee fruits
THESE ARE ACKEES: THE BRIGHT RED PODS ENCLOSE 2 OR 3 CREAMY YELLOW ARILS OR PEGS TOPPED BY SHINY BLACK SEEDS, ONLY THE ARILS ARE EDIBLE
Nutritional content of the Ackee - 100 gm of canned ackee contains:
Water - 76.7 gm
Lipids - 15.2 gm (50-58% polyunsaturated fats). >55% of the ackees fat content is the essential fatty acid linoleic acid). No saturated fats and no cholesterol
Protein - 2.9 gm
Carbohydrates - 0.8 gm
Fiber - 2.7 gm
Potassium - 270 mg
Sodium - 240 mg
Calcium - 35 mg
Trace amounts of Zinc, Iron, B Vitamins and Vitamin C
“Jamaican riddle: My father's chicken lays eggs which hatch chicks with red bodies and black heads”
The History of the Ackee
The ackee is indigenous to West Africa, not Jamaica!
Guess what? The ackee is of West African origin, and was brought to Jamaica in the 1700s aboard slave ships. Captain William Bligh (he of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) introduced the ackee to the scientific community in 1793 when he brought ackee plants from Jamaica to Kew Gardens in Britain. Slaves in Jamaica latched onto the ackee (it must have reminded them of home, or maybe it was all they had to eat!), and combined ackee with the good protein of salted codfish from the codfisheries of the North Atlantic, which was cheap and could withstand tropical temperatures without refrigeration.
Ackee therefore became a major food crop in the lowlands of Jamaica, and is deeply engrained in the culture and cooking of Jamaica. In its homeland of West Africa, ackee is now more valued for its role as an ornamental and shade tree, with ripe, rotting ackee pods being a common sight along the roadsides of Accra in Ghana.
Export of canned ackee from Jamaica to North America, Britain and other Caribbean islands began in the 1950's. Ackee exports from Jamaica grossed JA$400 million in 2005 and are an important revenue earner for this third world country.
Never eat unripe ackees, clean ripe ackee arils of their inner red membranes, and discard the water in which ackee is boiled
Properly harvested and prepared Ackee is "No problem, mon!"
Jamaican cookbooks on Amazon.com
Ackee-Delite flip flop sandal by JAMFLIPS - Available online at www.jamflips.com
Great ackee t -shirts and gift items on CafePress
Visit www.cafepress.com/caribbeandelite to see more
Buy an ackee plant on eBay!
Grows easily in South Florida - you need a big backyard, though!
The Deadly Ackee - A novel set in Jamaica
Five Star First Edition Mystery - The Deadly Ackee and Other Stories of Crime and Catastrophe
Amazon Price: $14.90 (as of 02/13/2012)
Murder mystery novel featuring the ackee plus 4 other good short stories
Release Date: 12/31/1969
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Some non-culinary uses of the Ackee
Did you know the ackee was this versatile?
IF YOU ARE STILL WARY OF EATING ACKEE, CONSIDER ONE OF THESE NON-CULINARY USES! :)
MEDICINAL USES
- Anti-helminthic - In Brazil, an aqueous extract of ackee seeds, follwed by a purgative, is used to treat parasitic infestations of the bowel.
- Febrile, diarrhoeal illnesses - In Cuba, ripe ackee arils are blended with sugar and cinnamon for dysentery. In Colombia, the leaves and bark are used in a tea for stomach ailments.
- Topical analgesic- In Cote D'Ivoire, ackee bark is mixed with other spices and applied to aching joints or wounds. Young, crushed ackee leaves can also be applied to the forehead for headache, or used as a poultice for ulcerating wounds.
- Conjunctivitis - In West Africa, an extract of ackee leaves is used to make eye drops.
- Aphrodisiac stimulant - Also in West Africa, the pulverized bark of the ackee tree is mixed with hot peppers and rubbed on the body as a stimulant
HOUSEHOLD AND BEAUTY PRODUCTS
- Cologne- In Cuba, an extract of ackee blossoms is used to make cologne
- Soap - In West Africa, green ackee pods are used for clothes washing as they produce a rich lather. The ashes from burned green ackee fruits may also be used for laundry.
- Wood- Ackee trees have strong, termite-resistant wood which is used for building and construction, or to make boxes, casks, oars and paddles in West Africa
More good info on the ackee
- 7 deadly regional delicacies
- This blog lists 7 deadly delicacies, including the Jamaican ackee.
- CDC article on Jamaican vomiting sickness
- A report in the Morbidity and Mortality Report from the CDC in 1992. Has some good references to other scientific publications on ackee poisoning. Haiti and Burkina Faso in West Africa have had outbreaks of ackee poisoning like Jamaica.
- PubMed article
- Abstract on ackee poisoning outbreak in Haiti in 2000. Good links to a number of other scientific articles on the topic.
Love to hear from ya!
Our readers speak......
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dyharris
May 9, 2009 @ 9:13 pm | delete
- nice lens on ackee, love the ackee jamflips
check out my lens at www.squidoo.com/dyharris
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WritingforYourWealth
Sep 5, 2008 @ 1:35 am | delete
- I'd not heard of ackee--sounds interesting!
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ThomasC
Sep 4, 2008 @ 4:15 pm | delete
- I have never heard of this fruit either! Thanks for teaching me something! Blessing your lens for you!
ThomasC
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caeleykahn
Aug 25, 2008 @ 10:48 am | delete
- Wow! Fascinating! What a lot of work went into creating this lens. Thanks, learned something new!
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TrishH
Jul 7, 2008 @ 3:24 pm | delete
- love this lens. Very interesting. Will share with my older son. He loves to learn about new things. I really like this.
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