Fruit of a West African Evergreen Tree (Blighia
Sapida) named for Captain Bligh who introduced it to Jamaica.
Ackee is actually poisonous until it ripen-the yellow
flesh surrounding the black seeds is the only edible part,
It look like scrambled eggs when cooked. Ackee is most
often served with Salted Cod Fish (Saltfish) which forms our National Dish known as well, Ackee and Saltfish.
he term 'ackee' originated from the Twi language. Other names and variant spellings include Ackee, Akee, akee apple, Achee, or vegetable brain.
Closed Ackee Fruit
The Ackee or Akee (Blighia sapida) is a member of the Sapindaceae (soapberry family), native to tropical West Africa in Cameroon,Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. It is related to the Lychee and the Longan, and is an evergreen tree that grows about 10 metres tall, with a short trunk and a dense crown. The leaves are pinnate, leathery, compound, 15–30 centimetres long, with 6–10 elliptical obovate-oblong leaflets. Each leaflet is 8–12 centimetres long and 5–8 centimetres broad.
Open Ackee Fruit
The flowers are unisexual and fragrant. They have five petals, are greenish-white and bloom during warm months.The fruit is pear-shaped. When it ripens, it turns from green to a bright red to yellow-orange, and splits open to reveal three large, shiny black seeds, surrounded by soft, creamy or spongy, white to yellow flesh - arilli.
Clean and ready to be boiled
The fruit of the Ackee is not edible in entirety. It is only the fleshy arils around the seeds that are edible; the remainder of the fruit and seeds are . The fruit must only be picked after it has opened naturally, and it must be fresh and not overripe. Immature ackee fruit are also poisonous.
