If you’ve heard the popular Caribbean travel cliché or slogan, “365 beaches, one for every day of the year", then you’ve heard about Antigua and Barbuda.
Antigua and Barbuda is a small twin-island nation located in the Eastern Caribbean, known for white-sand beaches and cricket. You will find this twin island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, not far from St Kitts and Nevis (two-island Caribbean), and Guadeloupe.
This article shows how Antigua and Barbuda's pepperpot, souse, rum, and sweets are naturally stored in glass jars and bottles, recipes and how anyone in the UK can adopt the same style of Caribbean-inspired food culture at home.
Antigua and Barbuda's Food Culture and Traditional Storage Containers
Due to Antigua and Barbuda's location, its food culture has been deeply rooted in the traditions brought by Africans, shaped by colonial-era British and European influences, and built around the realities of island life, abundant seafood, tropical fruits, salted and preserved meats, and slow-cooked stews.
The most popular staple of Antiguan food is fungee and pepperpot, which is a rich dish of cornmeal dumplings served alongside a thick, slowly cooked stew of salted meats, spinach, and okra.
In Antigua and Barbuda, Saturday mornings are common with pudding and souse, the island's rich pickled pork dish, as breakfast. And no celebration in Antigua and Barbuda is complete without rum, the Caribbean's most iconic spirit, produced locally and consumed consistently.
Traditionally, in these twin islands, families used earthenware jars, which were locally inspired by the African calabash and Conaree pottery, to store salted meats, pepperpot stew, and fermented drinks.
The Conaree earthen jars have a long history in the Caribbean and are widely used. It is named after a village in St. Kitts, and it's connected to the African ceramic traditions brought to the islands from the 17th century onwards.
Aside from earthenware jars, they also used gourds. In modern-day Antigua and Barbuda, glass jars and bottles have largely become the go-to storage containers for various kinds of food and drinks. This is because they are airtight, mostly transparent, endlessly reusable, and perfect for Antigua’s hot, humid climate.
Antiguans and Barbudans Pepperpot and Salted Foods in Glass Jars
Traditionally, Conaree earthen jars were used across the Caribbean for cooking, storing salted meats, and keeping stews like pepperpot for days and weeks. In some traditions, pepperpot was kept permanently on the stove, refreshed daily with new ingredients, and this continuous cooking is considered a preservation method.
Pepperpot in the modern Antigua and Barbuda, is still a slowly cooked, deeply flavoured stew made with salted beef, salted pork, spinach, okra, cassareep, and Scotch bonnet and spices that improve with time. Leftover pepperpot is then portioned into Conaree earthen jars.
Today, Antiguan and Barbudan families pour cooled pepperpot into wide-mouth glass jars (similar to UK pickle jars or jam jars) and refrigerate for up to a week. The same storage applies to salted fish, pickled beef, and coconut-based sauces.
The use of glass jars with lids instead of plastic containers is because:
● They keep the deep flavour of pepperpot stable without any interaction with the stew's salt content or acidic ingredients.
● The transparency of glass jars allows them to see at a glance how much is left and the quality of the liquid.
● They are dishwasher-safe and fully reusable, which suits the low-waste ethos of Caribbean food culture.
Other Antiguans and Barbudans Slated Food
● Caltfish (Salt-cured Cod): The staple salted dish, commonly stewed with onions, tomatoes, and garlic.
● Saltfish and Fungi: The national dish consists of saltfish paired with cornmeal and okra paste (fungi).
● Ducana and Saltfish: A sweet potato and coconut dumpling (often wrapped in banana leaves) paired with salty, stewed codfish.
● Chop-Up: Sautéed eggplant, okra, and spinach (or callaloo) typically mixed with flakes of salted fish.
● Goat Water: A rich, savoury stew made with goat meat, herbs, and spices.
● Conch: Prepared as fritters, curried, or in stews.
Antiguans and Barbudans Pudding and Souse (Pickled Pork) in Pickle Jars
Pudding and souse is Antigua’s widely known Saturday morning dish for generations. Souse is pickled pork that is usually boiled, then marinated in vinegar, lime juice, salt, sugar, pickling spices, sliced cucumber, onion, and a fiery Scotch bonnet. It’s served cold alongside pudding, a spiced, steamed sweet-potato ball.
Pudding and Souse (Pickled Pork) Recipe in Pickle Jars
Ingredients
● 500g pork belly or trotters, cut into pieces
● Juice of 3 limes
● 100ml white wine vinegar
● 1 teaspoon salt
● Half a teaspoon of sugar
● Half a cucumber, thinly sliced
● 1 small onion, thinly sliced
● 1 Scotch bonnet pepper, finely sliced (adjust to heat preference)
● A small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
● Boil the pork in salted water for 45 to 60 minutes until completely tender, then drain and leave to cool.
● Slice or shred the cooled pork into bite-sized pieces.
● Combine the lime juice, vinegar, salt, and sugar in a bowl and stir until dissolved.
● Layer the pork, cucumber, onion, Scotch bonnet, and parsley into a sterilised wide-mouth pickle jar, pour the pickling liquid over until everything is well coated, and seal with an airtight lid.
● Refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.
● Serve cold, straight from the jar, and once opened, it can last for up to five days.
Wide-mouth pickle jars within the sizes of 500ml to 1-litre or more are great for souse because the chunky pieces of pork and the sliced cucumber and onion need enough space to sit in the pickling liquid without being crammed, and a wide-mouth jar makes serving with a fork or spoon easier.
Antiguans and Barbudans Rum, Sugary Drinks and Sweets in Glass Bottles
Antigua has a quiet but deep rum heritage. The English Harbour Rum (distilled at the historic Nelson’s Dockyard) is the best-known, but homes across the island also produce small-batch refer to as “bush rum,” which is infused with local herbs, bark, fruits, and spices.
Rum has always been bottled in glass, and for some important reasons like dark or amber glass bottles protect rum's colour and flavour from UV light, which can degrade the aromatic compounds in aged or infused spirits over time.
Aside from spirits, Antigua and Barbuda has a tradition of sweet, syrup-style cordials and drinks made from tropical fruits and spices such as tamarind, guava, sorrel (hibiscus), and ginger. These are bottled in glass bottles and small or mini glass jars for use at homes, and, increasingly, for sale at local markets and food festivals.
Amber glass bottles are the best choice for rum infusions and any fruit-based drink or syrup with easily degradable aromatic compounds. Clear glass works well for some rum, cordials and syrups where the colour of the liquid is part of the easthetics like red sorrel cordial or a deep gold tamarind syrup.
Antiguans and Barbudans Sorrel and Ginger Cordial Recipe in Glass Bottles
Ingredients
● 50g dried sorrel (hibiscus) flowers
● 30g fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
● 150g caster sugar
● 1 litre water
● Juice of one lime
● 2 cloves and a small cinnamon stick (optional)
Method
● Bring the water to a simmer with the ginger, cloves, and cinnamon if using.
● Add the sorrel flowers and simmer for 10 minutes until the liquid turns a deep, vivid red.
● Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until fully dissolved.
● Add the lime juice, leave to cool completely, then strain through a fine sieve.
● Pour into sterilised glass bottles and seal.
● Refrigerate and use within three weeks, diluting with still or sparkling water to serve.
Here is a quick overview of which glass containers are suitable for Antiguan and Barbudans foods and drinks:
| Food/Dish | Glas Storage Containers in Antigua & Barbuda | Glass Jars You Can Use |
| Pepperpot leftovers | Glass jars | Jam jars, pickle jars |
| Pudding and souse (pickled pork) | Pickle jars or glass jars | Pickle jars |
| Fruit preserves | Jam jars | Jam jars |
| General pantry storage | Food-grade glass jars with lids | Pickle jars, Jam jars, large food-grade storage glass jars |
| Rum and spirits | Glass bottles | Spirit bottles, rum bottles, wine bottles |
| Fruit-based cordials and syrups | Glass bottles or small jars | Glass bottles, syrup bottles, and jam jars |
| Soft drinks and beverages | Glass bottles | Glass bottles |
Interesting Things About Antigua and Barbuda's Food Culture
1. Fungee And Pepperpot Is The National Dish
Fungee and pepperpot is Antigua and Barbuda's national dish, being one of the Caribbean's great stew traditions, and its long shelf life when properly stored in sealed glass jars makes it one of the most naturally jar-friendly dishes in the region. Antiguan families occasionally make large pots of pepperpot, portion it into glass jars, and share it with family and neighbours or store it in the fridge.
2. Pudding and Souse is a Saturday Ritual
Pudding and souse is a consistent Antiguian Saturday food tradition. For vendors, they sell it from market stalls and homes across the island. It is often often packaged in glass jars or sealed containers for takeaway.
3. Antiguan Government’s Value-Added Food Processing Promotion
The government of Antigua and Barbuda has actively encouraged value-added food processing and bottling as part of its small-business development agenda to reduce food imports, recognising that local foods like hot sauces, fruit jams, sorrel cordials, and pickled condiments have real commercial potential when properly packaged in glass jars and bottles for local markets, the diaspora, and export.
Using the Right Glass Container in the UK for Antiguans and Barbudans Food
Antigua and Barbuda food traditions, such as pepperpot, souse, sorrel cordial, and rum, are widely enjoyed and made at home beyond the islands, and even if you are in the UK, you can still prepare these foods and drinks with the right recipes and containers. Here are the glass containers you should consider for different foods or drinks:
● For pepperpot and souse, use wide-mouth jars as earlier stated.
● For fruit preserves and syrups, use standard jam jars with metal or plastic-lined lids. These glass jars with lids can withstand heat during hot-filling.
● For rum and cordials, use amber glass bottles (dark glass protects to protect it from UV rays). For the caps, consider swing-top or screw-cap.
When it comes to these containers, what matters most is using food-grade glass, airtight lids, and the ability to easily sterilise them in a dishwasher or boiling water without cracking or breaking.
If you are looking for glass jars and bottles in the UK, check our collection of a wide range of food-grade jars such as pickle jars, jam jars, and wine, alcohol or even juice bottles.