Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Jamaican recipes, part of the Americas. This page provides links to all the Jamaican recipes presented on this site, with 43 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Indian recipes added to this site.

These recipes, for the major part, originate in Jamaica. Otherwise they are fusion recipes with major Jamaican components.

Jamaica, (Jamaican Patois: Jumieka, [dʒʌˈmi̯eka]) is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At 10,990 square kilometres, it is the third largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean.[11] Jamaica lies about 145 km (90 mi) south of Cuba, 191 west of Hispaniola (the island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 215 km south-east of the Cayman Islands (a British protectorate).

First inhabited by the indigenous Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of Africans to Jamaica as slaves. The island remained a possession of Spain, under the name Santiago, until 1655, when England (part of what would become the Kingdom of Great Britain) conquered it and named it Jamaica. When the English captured Jamaica in 1655 the Spanish colonists fled after freeing their slaves. These freed slaves fled into the mountains, joining those who had previously escaped from the Spanish to live with the Taínos. These runaway slaves, who became known as the Jamaican Maroons, fought the British during the 18th century and the name 'Maroon' is still used today for their modern descendants. During the long years of slavery Maroons established free communities in the mountainous interior of Jamaica, maintaining their freedom and independence for generations. Jamaica became an important part of the colonial British West Indies. Under Britain's colonial rule, Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on continued importation of African slaves and their descendants.

During the 18th century, Jamaica became one of the world's largest sugar-exporting nations, an industry that was heavily dependent on the slave trade. So much so, that black islanders came to outnumber whites by 20:1. Despite the abolition of the slave trade, and the adoption of laws granting the abolition of slavery the measures were resisted by the Jamaican ouse of Assembly. The Assembly claimed that the slaves were content and objected to Parliament's interference in island affairs. However, following a series of rebellions and changing attitudes in Great Britain, the nation formally abolished slavery in 1834, with full emancipation from chattel slavery declared in 1838 and many freedmen chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. After the abolition of slavery, Chinese and Indian migrants were transported to the island as indentured workers, bringing with them their cultures and cuisines. During the 1950s Jamaica slowly gained increasing independence from the United Kingdom and in 1958, it became a province in the Federation of the West Indies, a federation among the British West Indies. Jamaica attained full independence by leaving the federation in 1962.

With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. Most Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Because of a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, there is a large Jamaican diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The country has a global influence that belies its small size; it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion, reggae music (and such associated genres as dub, ska and dancehall), and it is internationally prominent in sports, including cricket, sprinting, and athletics. Jamaica has sometimes been considered the world's least populous cultural superpower.

Jamaica is an upper-middle-income country[17] with an economy heavily dependent on tourism; it has an average of 4.3 million tourists a year.[22] The country performs favourably in measures of press freedom, democratic governance and sustainable well-being. Jamaica is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with power vested in the bicameral Parliament of Jamaica, consisting of an appointed Senate and a directly elected House of Representatives.[11] Andrew Holness has served as Prime Minister of Jamaica since March 2016. As a Commonwealth realm, with Charles III as its king, the appointed representative of the Crown is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Patrick Allen since 2009.

Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet. Japan is a developed country and a great power, with one of the largest economies by nominal GDP. Japan has renounced its right to declare war, though it maintains a Self-Defence Force that ranks as one of the world's strongest militaries. A global leader in the automotive, robotics, and electronics industries, the country has made significant contributions to science and technology, and is one of the world's largest exporters and importers. It is part of multiple major international and intergovernmental institutions.

Etymology: The indigenous people, the Taíno, called the island Xaymaca in their language, meaning the 'Land of Wood and Water' or the 'Land of Springs'. Yamaye has been suggested as an early Taino name for the island as recorded by Christopher Columbus. Colloquially, Jamaicans refer to their home island as the 'Rock'. Slang names such as 'Jamrock', 'Jamdown' ('Jamdung' in Jamaican Patois), or briefly 'Ja', have derived from this.

Food and Cuisine:

Like the island's culture, Jamaica's cuisine is a rich blend of native Taino, Spanish, African, British, Chinese and Indian. There are many similarities with West African cuisines, particularly the use of heavily-spiced stews served with carbohydrate staples. But elements of Chinese and Indian cuisine are evident, particularly in street food and there is a strong British influence in the cakes and sweets. The island is famous for its Jamaican jerk spice, curries and rice and peas which is integral to Jamaican cuisine.

Some Jamaican dishes are variations on cuisines brought to the island from elsewhere. These are often modified to incorporate local produce and spices. Others are novel or fusion and have developed locally. Popular Jamaican dishes include curry goat, fried dumplings, ackee and saltfish. Jamaican patties along with various pastries, breads and beverages are also popular.

African cuisine developed on the island as a result of waves of slavery, such as callaloo from the Angolan dish calulu. The Spanish, the first European arrivals to the island, contributed dishes such as the vinegary escovitch fish (Spanish escabeche) by way of Spanish Jews. Later, the Cornish may have influenced the development of the Jamaican patty, a pasty-styled turnover filled with spiced meat. East Indian and Chinese influences can be found in Jamaican cuisine like roti, curried dishes, chow mein and sweet and sour meats as a result of indentured labourers who replaced slaves after emancipation. Salted codfish was brought by Portuguese Jews who had escaped the inquisition in the 1500s and is now used in the national dish ackee and saltfish. It has become a staple from the time it was eaten by enslaved Africans as a long-lasting source of affordable protein.