Sometimes being a pig and a jerk is a fantastic combo…

I am not a crazy woman craving for a jerk and/or pig to come my way, not the human kind. I was of course talking  about the fact that I love a good piece of pork meat and a good rub of jerk spice in my barbecue. So here the term “jerk” refers to a (great) spicy seasoning rub originally from Jamaica but now also popular in other Caribbean countries. The adjective “spicy” is key because the more scotch bonnet peppers you actually include in your spice mix, the more authentic the flavour is. But for the least brave among us (a.k.a. me), the lesser the scotch bonnet peppers the more bearable the jerk dish. Recipes I have seen recommend one pepper for a mild dish, four peppers for a spicy dish and more than 6 peppers for a very spicy/authentic jerk recipe. Other key ingredients for the jerk are nutmeg, the egg-shaped seed of an evergreen tree, mace, the dried reddish flower covering the nutmeg seed, and bois d’Inde, namely the leaves of the allspice tree. Jerk is especially great for grilled pork shoulder, pork tenderloin or chicken. And I have to admit that I took the recipe at its word, meaning that I used the jerk seasoning rub to massage the pork meat. Yes you read that right. I even butterflied some areas of the pork shoulder so as to increase the contact area between the meat and the spice rub during the massaging operation. I then let it marinate overnight, and all that work paid of in the end as I obtained a wonderfully flavourful meat dish which I enjoyed with a crunchy salad and plain rice.

Jerk pork

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Serves	4-6
Prep time	20 minutes
Cook time	4 hours
Total time	4 hours, 20 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish

Ingredients

• 1.5 to 2kg pork shoulder
• 2 tablespoons thyme
• 1 tablespoon mace
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 to 3 scotch bonnet peppers, (chopped)
• 2 teaspoons ground bois d’inde (optional)
• 2 tablespoons sea salt
• 6 to 8 scallions, (coarsely chopped)
• 1 medium-size onion, (coarsely chopped)
• 8 garlic cloves

Directions

1.	Put all ingredients but the meat in a food processor and blend to obtain a smooth puree, that your jerk spice mix or rub
2.	Rub the meat with the jerk spice mix and let it rest in the fridge overnight
3.	When removing the meat from the fridge and putting it on the oven grill or the barbecue grill, try to keep as much jerk on the pork as possible
4.	Grill at a low temperature for 4 to 5 hours
5.	Serve and enjoy
6.	Tip: If your pork shoulder cut has a layer of fat on it, make sure this fat is not touching the grill in order not to loose all the juice from it. And if you are using a barbecue, you can heat only one side of the grill while cooking the meat on the opposite side.

Tip: If your pork shoulder cut has a layer of fat on it, make sure this fat is not touching the grill in order not to loose all the juice from it. And if you are using a barbecue, you can heat only one side of the grill while cooking the meat on the opposite side.