Adventures in Kashrus - I

Dut-da-da-duh! Lookie what we have here:

Jamaican jerk sauce with a hechshure (parve). It came today (yes, I have sunk to ordering groceries online!). It doesn't really "move" like jerk sauce (instead it sort of reminds me of cheap maple syrup). But the ingredients look promising; and it's stamped as being "spicy & sweet". So they are on the right track there.

Authentic Jamaican jerk is almost impossible to pull off here in a standard kitchen. For one, it is barbecued in a hollowed out steel drum with wood that is sprinkled with pimento seeds. The meat is then peppered and basted while being grilled. It is pretty dry and crispy when it comes off of the grill. But the finisher is that the meat is moistened again by being topped off with Grace's ketchup -- which is a totally different beast than the "American" ketchups like Heinz or Hunts. It's orangy-red in color and thinner in consistency -- sort of like thick, old hot sauce I guess. But I have never seen Grace's ketchup here (even in Miami) and it's probably not kosher anyway. In spite of it being several years since eating authentic jerk, I will never forget what it is supposed to taste like...

So we'll see how good these folks do with trying to put that taste in a bottle. :-)