page_title: Cassareep
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Cassareep / Production
caption_attribution_description: Species Manihot esculenta Genus Manihot Familia Euphorbiaceae on sale on Réunion Island. Español: La mandioca: uno de los productos principales de San José de los Arroyos
context_page_description: Cassareep is a thick black liquid made from cassava root, often with additional spices, which is used as a base for many sauces and especially in Guyanese pepperpot. Besides use as a flavoring and browning agent, it also acts as a preservative. Its antiseptic characteristics have led to medical application as an ointment, most notably in the treatment of certain eye diseases.
context_section_description: Cassareep is made from the juice of the bitter cassava root, which is poisonous (it contains acetone cyanohydrin, a compound which decomposes to the highly toxic hydrogen cyanide on contact with water). Hydrogen cyanide, traditionally called "prussic acid", is volatile and quickly dissipates when heated. Nevertheless, improperly cooked cassava has been blamed for a number of deaths. Amerindians from Guyana reportedly made an antidote by steeping chili peppers in rum.
  To make cassareep, the juice is boiled until it is reduced by half in volume, to the consistency of molasses and flavored with spices—including cloves, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper. 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.
  Most cassareep is exported from Guyana. The natives of Guyana traditionally brought the product to town in bottles, and it is available on the US market in bottled form. Though the cassava root traveled from Brazil to Africa, where the majority of cassava is grown, there is no production of cassareep in Africa.
caption: Cassava roots
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