Pumpkin Rice

Back in the 1800s, pumpkin and rice was a super popular recipe to make in Caribbean kitchens. In Caroline Sullivan's Jamaica Cookery Book from 1897, the recipe for pumpkin rice includes pumpkin, rice, scallion, tomato, butter, and salt cured pork (Click image to enlarge recipe). Something important to note about this recipe is that it's mainly just a guideline/suggestion for home chefs to follow. Recipes in the 19th century acted more as the bare bones of a recipe than specific how-to directions, meaning that this recipe likely had more other spices in it than specified here. It's also possible that instead of pork, this could be made with salt cured fish, as many other Caribbean recipes from this time period used salted meats interchangeably.

In contemporary kitchens, recipes are much more specific and meant to be followed to a T. For example, in Caribbeanpot's pumpkin rice recipe (see video below), the author specifies more aromatic ingredients like, garlic, onion, scotch bonnet peppers, thyme, black pepper, and ginger. These ingredients are incredibly common in Caribbean dishes, so even though we only see them pop up in contemporary recipes, it's likely thats just because of documentation, and that these spices were always meant to be in this dish. Contemporary Caribbean recipes are as approachable as any other since they have such specific directions, so go ahead, try it at home!