Cassareep is a thick black liquid made from cassava root, which is used as a base for many sauces and especially in Guyanese pepperpot. Besides use as a flavoring and browning agent, it is commonly regarded as a food preservative although laboratory testing is inconclusive.
Cassareep is made from the juice of the bitter cassava root, which is poisonous, as it contains acetone cyanohydrin, a compound which decomposes to the highly toxic hydrogen cyanide on contact with water. [1] Hydrogen cyanide, traditionally called "prussic acid", is volatile and quickly dissipates when heated. [2] Nevertheless, improperly cooked cassava has been blamed for a number of deaths. [3] Indigenous peoples in Guyana reportedly made an antidote by steeping chili peppers in rum. [4]
To make cassareep, the juice is boiled until it is reduced by half in volume, [5] to the consistency of molasses [4] and flavored with spices—including cloves, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper. [6] Traditionally, cassareep was boiled in a soft pot, the actual "pepper pot", which would absorb the flavors and also impart them (even if dry) to foods such as rice and chicken cooked in it. [7]
Most cassareep is exported from Guyana. [8] The natives of Guyana traditionally brought the product to town in bottles, [9] and it is available on the US market in bottled form. [10] Though the cassava root traveled from Brazil to Africa, where the majority of cassava is grown, there is no production of cassareep in Africa. [11]
Cassareep is used for two distinct goals, that originate from two important aspects of the ingredient: its particular flavor, and its preservative quality.
Cassareep is essential in the preparation of pepperpot, and gives the dish its "distinctive bittersweet flavor." [12] Cassareep can also be used as an added flavoring to dishes, "imparting upon them the richness and flavour of strong beef-soup." [5]
A peculiar quality of cassareep, which works as an antiseptic, is that it allows food to be kept "on the back of the stove" [13] for indefinite lengths of time, [14] as long as additional cassareep is added every time meat is added. According to legend, Betty Mascoll of Grenada had a pepperpot that was maintained like this for more than a century. [13] Dutch planters in Suriname reportedly had pepperpots in daily use that they kept cooking for many years, [5] as did "businessmen's clubs" in the Caribbean. [15]
The antiseptic qualities of cassareep are well known—so well known, in fact, that the Reverend J.G. Wood, who published his Wanderings in South America in 1879, was criticized for not mentioning the "antiseptic properties of cassava juice (cassareep), which enables the Indian on a canoe voyage to take with him a supply of meat for several days." [16]
In the mid- to late nineteenth century, as reports of adventures by English explorers became widely read in England, statements about cassareep and its antiseptic qualities became easily available; an early example was a publication in The Pharmaceutical Journal from 1847, [17] and similar references can be found throughout the late nineteenth century, such as in the work of Irish naturalist and explorer Thomas Heazle Parke [18] and in pharmaceutical [19] and trade journals. [20] Professor Attfield, professor of practical chemistry for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, however, in the 1870 edition of the Year-book of Pharmacy, claimed that his laboratory studies proved no effectiveness whatsoever. [21] Still, pharmaceutical journals and handbooks began to report of the possible use of cassareep, and suggested it might be helpful in the treatment of, for instance, eye afflictions such as corneal ulcers [22] [23] [24] [25] and conjunctivitis. [26]
The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used as a herb in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. The flavor that a bay leaf imparts to a dish has not been universally agreed upon, but many agree it is a subtle addition.
Manihot esculenta, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca, is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions as an annual crop for its edible starchy tuberous root. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are processed to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed, and industrial purposes. The Brazilian farofa, and the related garri of West Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying it.
Tapioca is a starch extracted from the tubers of the cassava plant, a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but which has now spread throughout South America. It is a perennial shrub adapted to the hot conditions of tropical lowlands. Cassava copes better with poor soils than many other food plants.
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Jamaican cuisine includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavours and spices influenced by Amerindian, West African, Irish, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern people who have inhabited the island. It is also influenced by indigenous crops, as well as, crops and livestock introduced to the island from Mesoamerica, Europe, tropical West Africa and Southeast Asia— which are now grown locally. A wide variety of seafood, tropical fruits and meats are available.
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Sancocho is a traditional stew in several Caribbean and Latin American cuisines. Latin variations represent popular national dishes in Dominican Republic, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. It usually consists of large pieces of meat, tubers and vegetables served in a broth.
Mofongo is a dish from Puerto Rico with plantains as its main ingredient. Plantains are picked green, cut into pieces and typically fried in more modern versions but can be boiled in broth or roasted, then mashed with salt, garlic, pork, broth, and cooking oil in a wooden pilón. Cassava and sweet potato are boiled then roasted or flash-fried, plantains can also be made in this method or roasted before flash-frying. The goal is to produce a tight ball of mashed plantains that will absorb the attending condiments and have either pork cracklings (chicharrón) or bits of bacon inside. It is traditionally served with fried meat and chicken broth soup. Particular flavors result from variations that include vegetables, chicken, shrimp, beef, or octopus packed inside or around the plantain orb.
Sopa de mondongo is a soup that originally came from Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It is made from diced tripe slow-cooked with vegetables such as bell peppers, onions, carrots, cabbage, celery, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic or root vegetables. The dish is generally prepared in former Spanish colonies in Latin America, Caribbean, and in the Philippines. The proposed etymology for mondongo is in the African Kikongo language, meaning “intestines, entrails of certain animals.
Pepper Pot is a thick stew of beef tripe, vegetables, pepper and other seasonings. The soup was first made in West Africa and the Caribbean before being brought to North America through slave trade and made into a distinctively Philadelphian dish by colonial Black women during the nineteenth century.
Pepperpot is an Amerindian-derived dish popular in Guyana. It is traditionally served at Christmas and other special events. Along with chicken curry, and cook-up rice, pepperpot is one of Guyana's national dishes.
The Patamona are an Amerindian people native to the Pakaraima Mountains of Guyana and northern Brazil. They speak a Cariban language, Kapóng, and have often been referred to interchangeably as Akawaio or Ingariko. Patamona are considered a sub-group of Kapon people.
Dominican cuisine is made up of Spanish, Indigenous Taíno, Middle Eastern, and African influences. The most recent influences in Dominican cuisine are from the British West Indies and China.
Piper auritum is an aromatic culinary herb in the pepper family Piperaceae, which grows in tropical Central America. Common names include hoja santa, yerba santa, hierba santa, Mexican pepperleaf, acuyo, tlanepa, anisillo, root beer plant, Vera Cruz pepper and sacred pepper.
Haitian cuisine is a Creole cuisine that originates from a blend of several culinary styles that populated the western portion of the island of Hispaniola, namely African, French, indigenous Taíno, Spanish, and Arab influences. Haitian cuisine has some similarities with "criollo" cooking and similar to the rest of the Caribbean, but differs in several ways from its regional counterparts. Flavors are bold and spicy demonstrating African and French influences, with notable derivatives coming from native Taíno and Spanish techniques.
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Parakari is a fermented alcoholic beverage made by Amerindians of Guyana and Venezuela. Like other cassava alcoholic beverages, parakari is made by dual fermenting cassava, which involves the use of an amylolytic mold by chewing it.
Couac, also called kwak in Guianese Creole and farinha de mandioca in Portuguese, is flour made from cassava root, peeled, soaked in water, grated and drained to remove the poisonous cyanide it contains. Cassava roots are sold in markets as the kramangnok for sweet varieties, and processed under the kwak names; kasav, cassava, sispa, tapioca or crabio for bitter varieties. Couac is widely eaten by the inhabitants of Brazil and the Guianas.