H. Smith and Son's freshly made bammies. - photos by Paul Williams

Fish and bammy! What a delightful meal! A favourite of Jamaicans, here at home and abroad. However, we take it for granted and seldom stop to think how the bammy is made. We already know where the fish comes from and how it is prepared. But as for the bammy, most of us have no idea. Well, it goes through a very tedious process before it reaches our plates.

Last week Thursday, Food was fortunate to witness the process of bammy-making in a little factory operated by Omroy Anderson and Ronald Barnes at Safu Yard in the Charles Town Maroons village, in Portland. While showing the different stages of the process, Anderson, Barnes and his colleagues also explained how it is done.

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com

The residue of grated cassava that makes the bammy.

Roland Barnes of H. Smith and Son shows Food some cassava flour.

This makeshift grater is the invention of Omroy Anderson, one of the partners of H. Smith and Son.

Omroy Anderson operating the extractor that squeezes the juice from the grated cassava.

Several bammies are made at once in these Dutch pots.

The bammy-making process

There are other methods of making bammy, but this is how H. Smith and Son, as the business is called, does it.

1. Thoroughly wash the dirt from the cassava.

2. Remove the peel.

3. Wash the cassava again.

4. Cut it into medium-sized pieces or keep it as is.

5. Grate the cassava.

6. Collect the grated residue in a porous plastic bag placed under the grater.

7. When a sufficient amount is collected in the bag, remove it.

8. Pour water into the bag and tie the mouth.

9. Put the bag with the residue under the extractor.

10. Press the extractor to remove the starch and other unwanted substances.

11. When that is done, remove the bag with the residue.

12. Pour the residue from the bag on to a flat surface.

13. Let it remain until it is dry, stirring it from time to time.

14. Put dried residue into a basin and add flour and water.

15. Mix the dough. Put a portion into a small Dutch pot.

16. Place Dutch pot over coal fire.

17. When one side is properly baked, remove bammy from pot and replace, the unbaked side facing the pot bottom.

18. Remove bammy when the second side is sufficiently baked.

The result is a delicious, moist bammy that soothes the palate. Now, where is the fish?