Jamaican · snack

Stamp and Go

Stamp and Go reads richness 5.0, salinity 4.6 and allium 3.6 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Jamaican snack, about 12 hr 59 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 5.0 · Salinity 4.6 · Allium 3.6 · Umami 3.3 · Heat 3.1 · Herbaceous 3.0 · Fruity 2.9 · Sourness 2.7 · Marine & Briny 2.3 · Sweetness 2.3 · Nutty 2.2 · Floral 1.5 · Warm Spice 1.4 · Funk & Ferment 1.2 · Bitterness 1.1 · Citrus 1.1 · Earthy 0.9

What's in it (14)

Time & effort: about 12 hr 59 min (39 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 61.7 kcal, 1.2 g protein, 3.4 g fat, 6.7 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

  1. Saltfish fritters, eaten from paper with the fingers. The name is said to come from sailing-ship galley orders — stamp and go — and Jamaicans have been frying them for at least two centuries. Salted cod is the point of the dish and there is no fresh-fish version of it; buy the bone-in salt cod from a Caribbean or Portuguese grocer, not the desalted fillets.
  2. Soak the saltfish in the 1.5 litres of cold water overnight, about 12 hours, changing the water twice.
  3. Drain, cover with fresh water and boil 20 minutes until it flakes easily.
  4. Drain, then bone, skin and flake the fish finely, about 10 minutes. Squeeze it dry.
  5. Whisk the flour and baking powder with the cold water and the egg for about 3 minutes into a thick, smooth batter roughly the consistency of pancake batter.
  6. Fold in the flaked fish, onion, escallion, scotch bonnet, thyme leaves, tomato, ground pimento and black pepper, about 3 minutes. Escallion is what Jamaicans call the local scallion, thinner and more assertive than the supermarket kind. Taste the batter for salt — the fish usually brings enough and adding more before you check is how these get ruined.
  7. Rest the batter 20 minutes so the flour hydrates and the fritters come out light rather than tough.
  8. Heat the coconut oil to 175 C and drop in heaped tablespoons, four or five at a time. Fry about 3 minutes, turning once, until deep gold and crisp at the frilled edges. Drain on a rack and eat hot, with a wedge of lime and pepper sauce.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Keep reading: what richness, salinity, allium mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

See how this dish fits your palate — take the short taste test →

Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.