Pickapeppa Sauce

The classic Jamaican Sauce! Known as Jamaican Ketchup, and sometimes called Jamaican A-1 (it tastes more like Worcestershire Sauce or A-1 than ketchup), Pickapeppa Sauce is a unique combination of tomatoes, onions, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, tamarind, garlic, salt, peppers, thyme and cloves. There are some "secret ingredients" as well, of course, and the true formula is apparently known only to a few members of the family that now runs the company, though copycat recipes can be found.

One problem for copycat recipes is there's no way for most of us to replicate one of the key steps that makes Pickapeppa so special: aging. Indeed, a Pickapeppa Sauce enjoyed before its time is simply not a Pickapeppa Sauce. That time, by the way, is one full year, so don't try to brew up your own unless you have some patience. Oh, and you'll also need some oak barrels, 'cause that's what they put this stuff in to age it. You know, like rum.

Pickapeppa is thick and brown with the consistency of ketchup, so really you can use it in a similar fashion to its red tomato-based cousin.

Pickapeppa comes from the small village of Shooter's Hill, which is located up in the hills of Manchester in Jamaica's central region, southwest of Montego Bay. More specifically, it comes from the kitchen of Norman Nash, who developed the original recipe and started the Pickapeppa Company Limited in 1921.

Ingredients on bottle: Tomatoes, onion, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, garlic, salt, peppers, thyme, cloves