Everyone's heard of jerk chicken. In fact, jerk is the hot spicy mixture of pimento spices and scotch bonnet peppers that's either marinaded or rubbed into the meat or fish before it's barbecued over a smokey fire. You can have jerk shrimp, jerk pork, jerk tofu... and even jerk vegetables (if you must).

Traditionally the food is cooked on a grill over a slow, smoky charcoal fire in a pit. Now, everyone knows the classic Jamaican barbecue that's made out of a hinged drum with a chimney stuck on the end.

The real jerk experience is a mix of patient slow cooking and genuine Jamaican flavours. You won't get anywhere close on a home barbecue with supermarket sauce out of a bottle. Charcoal or gas won't give you the right smokey fire. But you can get close enough if you take the trouble to mix your own jerk seasoning and throw some well-soaked wood on the fire. Wet wood stops the fire from getting too hot and gives you lots of the aromatic smoke you need for that real Jamaican jerk flavour. Now you know why Jamaican barbecues come with a lid and a chimney.