The spirit of cookery

A plant largely grown in the West Indies, and supposed by the Abb6 Eaynal to have been brought from Africa by negroes, by them and the Indians termed manioc or macjnioc (French manioque), producing large tubers on its roots, was by Linne termed latroqYia manihot. This name, derived from iatron, ‘remedy,’ andp/inyo, ‘I eat,’ is intended to be expressive of the properties of different species of the genus, which were supposed to be healing as well as nutritious. Humboldt termed the plant laniq^ha manihot. Its roots or tubers become very large, and expand even to the size of a man’s thigh ; their external tint is gray, green, or red, their pulp always white; their juice is milky; by rasping, leviga- tion, and pressure, they yield three products — a qndp, a starch, and a juice. The pulp, when obtained by mere comminution of the tubers, and drying, is called couaque ; when it has lost some of its starch by levigation, and is dried, perhaps slightly cooked outside in the shape of small thin round cakes, it is called cassava/'' (spelled also cassavc and cas.savi) ; such cassava cakes, with milk, eggs, and cur- rants, form an excellent pudding. The mere starch, free from nitr’ogenized, pectin- and gum-like bodies, is called * Yoce Cassava. C/. Humboldt, ‘ Plant. /Hcjuinoct.,’ ii. 108 ; Subeirtin, Joimi. (le Pharm., xiv. 393 (the poison lost in 36 hours) ; Bajon, ‘ Mem. sur Cayenne,’ i. 433 (poison passes into distillate) ; Finnin, of Surinam, in a letter to Herat .and Helens, ‘Diet.,’ ii, 481, Cf, also Aublet’s and (Irauelli’s works on Cayenne, C.issvuyi, TAPIOCA, AND CASS A P/P 315 vioussctcltc (iu Cayenne cypipci) ; the former is supposed to ibe a corruption of 'inucJicicho, the Spanish word for ‘ child ^(Merat and Delens interpret ‘ child of the manioc ’). When this starch or flour is dried on hot iron plates, it becomes iCooked and transformed into a body called tapioca. The third prodiict of the tubers is the milky juice, which in the fresh state is poisonous to man and animals. The poisonous principle is either destructible by air or volatile, .as the juice loses its poisonous qualities within thirty-six hours after it has been expressed, and immediately by boiling ; the poison passes into the distillate. When this juice is condensed to a treacle-like thick extract it becomes xassareep, now to be described. Cassareep or cassarip, the concentrated juice of the tubers ■of the lanipha, is not mentioned by any of the earlier 'writers on the subject of this plant, and we may therefore :surmise that it is a relatively late discovery. It is a brown, slightly sweet, aromatic thick extract, which communicates an extraordinarily savoury taste to meat-gravies. Its prin- ■cipal value appears in the construction of the West Indian Pepper-pot. If this extract be not well sterilized after it is bottled, it is liable to pass into alcoholic fermentation, burst the bottle, and become lost. The sterilized extract, or ex- tract which has fermented, will keep for an indefinite period. When the juice of the tubers is allowed to ferment by itself, it yields a weak spirituous liquid called ouycou, from which a spirit can be distilled. There is a siueet variety of manioc called canianioc, the juice of which is not poisonous, and which can be eaten without any other preparation than baking in an oven or boiling in water. 3i6 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY CHAPTER XXVI.