Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine October 2016

A Very
Strange Fruit
Ackee is a very strange fruit, almost a mistake of
nature. It is delicious and nutritious, yet can be poisonous
if not picked when perfectly ripe. It is so plentiful
in Jamaica that, fried with saltfish, it is considered
their national dish.
Captain Bligh, of The Mutiny on the Bounty fame, has
been blamed for importing this tree from West Africa
in the late 1700s (Blighia sapida is the botanical name
of the ackee), although it’s more likely it arrived on
slave ships. Ackee, like breadfruit, was considered a
perfect food for the slaves on Caribbean sugar plantations,
as it was cheap and nutritious.
Ackee, however, must be properly picked and cooked.
Ackee fruit or pods must fully ripen naturally and split
open while on the tree. Immature ackee is poisonous,
and so is overripe ackee. Only the fleshy ivory-colored
arils around the black seeds are edible. The remainder
of the fruit, including the red pods, the base membrane
and the seeds, is poisonous. The ackee arils
must be cleaned, washed, and boiled. This water must
be dumped and cannot be used again for cooking.
Picked before ripe, ackee contains a toxic alkaloid
that blocks the liver from releasing the natural supply
of glucose to your body. We use glucose or blood sugar
constantly for energy and maintaining body functions.
Every few hours our body needs another burst of
natural sugar to keep our blood sugar levels normal.
About two hours after eating unripe ackee fruit, nausea
begins followed by vomiting, dizziness, fever, convulsions,
coma, and even death. This is caused by the
lack of blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, which can be
corrected by an IV of glucose. The illness resulting
from eating unripe ackee is known as the “vomiting
sickness of Jamaica”. Most cases of poisoning are
young children of very poor families.
Even though this fruit can be life threatening, ackee
is a major Jamaican export of more than a half a billion
dollars a year! The US did not permit ackee
imports until 2005 because so many people died from
eating unripe ackee. Now Haiti is canning fully ripened
fruits and exporting to the American market. I’ve been
lucky to locate a few trees in Trinidad and find the correctly
ripened fruit at Pricemart.
Ackee grows throughout the Caribbean, and Central
and South America as an ornamental, but not all cultures
consider it an edible fruit.
Ackee is a distant relative of the lychee. Its pale
green blossoms have a nice aroma. To me, the fruit
resembles that of a cashew. As the ackee ripens it
becomes red or orange. Mature fruit split open to
reveal three black seeds in a creamy flesh.
How can a tree with poisonous fruit be Jamaica’s
national food? When properly prepared, the ackee is
CARIBBEAN COOKING BY SHIRLEY HALL
delicious, and rich in vitamin A, zinc, iron, potassium,
and calcium. A good-sized ackee weighs about a half
pound and has about 150 calories. Ackee provides
enough protein that it can be the center of a meal. It
can be consumed fresh, baked, boiled in milk, or in
soup. Ackee can be cooked with fish, pork, or chicken.
It is absolutely delectable fried with onions, tomatoes,
peppers and saltfish.
If you have your own tree, the fruit will be free!
Ackee could make an excellent backyard tree to shade
your hammock. It is a tropical evergreen, which will
grow in most well drained soils and loves plenty of
sun. Allow plenty of space, as it gets to 30 feet, both
high and wide.
Please don’t be frightened away from this fruit.
When you buy or pick fresh ackee, take the ackee
arils out of the pods, remove the black seeds, and
with a small knife remove the little pinkish-purple
string membrane. Always drain the ackee after boiling,
and discard the water. Have an experienced local
person show you how all this is done. If you are timid,
buy canned ackee!
Simple Ackee and Saltfish
2 Tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 onion, chopped
1 sprig of thyme
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sweet pepper, chopped
4 tomatoes, diced
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 hot pepper, seeded and minced
10 ackees, cleaned
1 pound of saltfish
When cleaned, put the ackee in a pot with boiling
salted water and boil it for 10 minutes until the ackee
is almost soft. Drain. Rinse, soak, boil and flake the
saltfish. Prepare the vegetables.
In a large frying pan, heat the oil. Add the curry
powder, onion, thyme and garlic, stirring constantly.
Then mix in the remaining vegetables, adding the
ackee last. Keep stirring gently and add saltfish. Cook
covered for two minutes.
Ackee with Ochro
12 ackees, cleaned
4 Tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
8 okra, chopped *
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 bunch chives, chopped
1 hot pepper, seeded and minced
1 sprig thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt to taste
When cleaned, put the ackee in a pot with boiling
salted water and boil it for 10 minutes until the ackee
is almost soft. Drain. In another pot, add the oil and
sauté the onion, tomato, okra, garlic, chives and hot
pepper. Add about two tablespoons of water and the
remaining ingredients. Cook until the okra is tender.
Add the ackee to the vegetables and simmer, stirring
gently for two minutes.
* best if left to dry a few hours in the sun before
preparation begins
Shirley Hall is the author of The New Caribbean
Home Garden Guide.
MARIANNE NORTH
OCTOBER 2016 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 37
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