What “Jerk” means
Jerk is a Jamaican way of seasoning and cooking meat, usually chicken or pork, with scotch bonnet pepper and pimento (allspice), then slow-cooking it over a fire. It's used as a noun ("di bes jerk") and before a food ("jerk chicken").
Examples
Mi waan nyam some jerk chicken
I want to eat some jerk chicken.
Di jerk pan a smoke
The jerk pan is smoking.
How to use it
An everyday food word known worldwide. Jerk pans, steel drums cut into grills, smoke on roadsides across the island.
Cultural context
Jerk was born with the Maroons, who slow-cooked wild pig over pimento wood in the mountains. Boston Bay in Portland is famous as jerk's spiritual home.
Where it comes from
Likely via Spanish charqui (dried meat), the same root as English "jerky".