Home > Categories > Food > Sauces and Condiments > Busha Browne's Authentic Jerk Seasoning review
An authentic Jamaican blend of herbs and spices to create a 'hot' marinade. The tradition of 'jerking' meat is unique to Jamaica. Originally applied to wild boar in the 17th Century, it is now an integral part of Jamaican life.
Streetside vendors cook jerked pork and chicken over hot charcoal and branches of pimento. The aroma is irresistible and the taste delicious.
To jerk meat, chicken or fish: use 1 to 2 teaspoons of jerk seasoning per half-kilo of meat or fish. Rub the seasoning well in with oil and allow to stand and marinade for at least one hour. Grill or barbecue until golden brown.
Product reviews...
I must be crazy, i tried this today before reading any other reviews so i had no idea what to expect.
Last night my wife marinated four tenderized beef steaks using half a jar mixed with olive oil, we left this over-night and cooked it for dinner on our barbeque.
It was amazing, one of the nicest seasonings i have used in a long time. I, and others who tried it, (including an eleven year old)loved the taste it gave the meat and admittedly it was almost too strong for me but i managed to eat my share without needing to cool my mouth, and the flavour lasted for quite a while afterwards.
I will undoubtedly try this again on other meat dishes that pop up in the near future.
This, for me, was one of the hardest to review. The reason? I am vegetarian, and so the normal methods of adding the Jerk seasoning wasn't going to work for me. My better half refuses to try anything with spice and my daughter is too fussy to be reliable - so it was up to me. Eventually!
So, with a few vegetarian options in hand, such as Tofu, Gluten 'steak' and even just plain vegetables. Rubbed in the seasoning and after a time, grilled everything. I have to say not everything was successful, but everything was edible. But remember this is designed for meats more than anything else.
Being a chillie addict, this wasn't so spicy for me, but had a great range of flavours that added extra zing to the food, removing the blandness and giving that Caribbean flavour to foods.
I can heartily recommend this to vegetarians and carnivores alike.
I honestly wasn't too sure what to expect with this, but I decided what the heck, lets just give it a go.
Firstly this was not quite how I expected it to taste, it was definitely hot and spicy, more so than I expected, so I decided to find another way to use this product, so I decided to try adding some to a wee sample of a mixture of soy sauce and worcester sauce, mixing well together and then bushing gently over the meat and leaving it to soak and marinade in the fridge overnight. This turned out to be perfect for me so I will continue to use it in this way from now on.
Having eaten Beef Jerky before I made the wrong assumption that this would be exactly the same, boy was I and idiot..... I should have realised that most americans have no tolerance for hot and spicy food, and so most of theirs is substantially watered down so to speak.
I initially used the recommended levels of jerk seasoning on a nice bit of prime steak, well that was when I learnt that Jamaicans have a far better tolerance to hot and spicy that I was really aware of. Don't get me wrong, it tasted great, just a bit too much on the hot side for me.
So after a bit of experimenting I came up with a nice balance that I found worked perfect for me. So it wasn't as flavoursome, but in the same instance my tastebuds weren't burn off the roof of my mouth either.
Absolutely divine! There isn't much else to say, but I will try.
I tried this on a variety of meats and without fail it made the meat taste astounding. REALLY hot and spicy, but delightfully tasty. By using less of the seasoning, you can tone the heat down to avoid sending your tastebuds to Club Dead of course, but then you miss out on the sheer brunt of the sensation.
I think this small jar is going to last me a good long while, simply because I won't use it that often as my family aren't really ones for the brutal assault on the tastebuds that I get the occasional cravings for, but that just makes this better value for money as far as I am concerned, and guarantees there will always be some when I get the urge to carbonise my tongue.
All in all, well worth the experience, if only once to see if you are hardy enough.
I wasn't too sure about this - from what I had heard it could be quite potent, more than I could handle... but then, I love a challenge.
After trying a number of tongue-scorching options, I decided to go for the 'slow and mellow' option... so after mixing a little bit of this with a lot of rice bran oil, I gave a couple of steaks a good rub-down, then vac-sealed them, popped them in the fridge overnight, and left them to marinade.
Lunchtime the next day, and out they came and straight into the frypan with some garlic-infused oil and a hefty dash of freshly ground seasalt and black peppercorns... when done, I left them to sit and rest while I quickly fried up a couple of eggs, and then onto a plate and out with the can of Lift+ - because you need something acidic to take away the burn.
I was amazed! The flavour wasn't anywhere near as bad as my first disasterous taste-test. (NEVER try something like this on it's own... I don't care what big-name chefs says, this is NOT something you taste-test straight from the jar!) There was a rich spicy tang without the huge fire, and the more subtle flavours were able to come out and showcase themselves.
I next tried the same trick, with a little more spice and a little less oil, on some chuck steak which I first chopped into cubes before bagging and flavouring. Once they had 'soaked' overnight I quickly rolled them in a bit of cornflour and browned them in batched, then popped them into the slowcooker with some chopped fresh veges and a can of diced tomatos. 7 hours later I had a delightful casserole that had a huge landscape of flavours, yet all were able to be tasted clearly.
Overall, this is certainly a lovely flavourative. You can use a little - for the subtler tastes, or a lot - if you prefer nuking your tongue, but no matter how you use it you will find it carries a wonderful, authentic taste to your dishes. Well worth a try... if it's not your thing, well, it isn't very expensive so it's a cheap test that may introduce you to something wonderful. My advice: Start small and work your way up the heat scale.
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