- Ripe ackee fruit, boiled
- Salt cod, soaked and flaked
- Onion, sweet pepper, tomato, thyme, Scotch bonnet
Ackee and Saltfish
Ackee and saltfish, Jamaica's national dish. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Ackee and saltfish is Jamaica's national dish: ackee, the soft yellow fruit of the ackee tree (brought from West Africa in the 18th century), sautéed with flaked salt cod, onions, peppers, tomatoes and thyme. The ackee must be fully ripe and properly prepared; unripe ackee is toxic, so this is a dish to eat, not to improvise.
It is breakfast food: served with johnnycakes, fried dumplings, roast breadfruit or boiled green banana. The saltfish is soaked overnight to tame the salt, then the whole pan comes together in minutes.
Key ingredients
Where to try it
- Jamaican breakfast tables: hotels, guesthouses and cookshops.
- Coronation Market area cookshops in Kingston.
- Eaten with johnnycakes or fried dumplings.