Those who visited the West Indian court of the Colonial
and Indian Exhibition — and especially that part devoted to
British Guiana — must have noticed a number of flat white
cakes hung up in nets and labelled Cassava Bread^ but the
greater number of those who saw probably went away as wise
as before. They might also have seen, in this same court,
glass jars rilled with a white substance, cut in thin slices, and
labelled sweet and bitter cassava, and, at the entrance, they
might probably have been attracted by the figure of an
Indian woman, with a child on her back, sitting on a piece
of wood attached to a very curiously-shaped long basket, but,
unless they had lived in the West Indies, it would never have
occurred to them to connect this basket and the woman with
bread-making in any form ; yet this basket forms an important
adjunct to the art of bread-making in the West Indies, for
the cassava is the root of a plant known as Jatropha manihot,
or, shortly, manioc, which when fresh is a deadly poison, but
44
VARIOUS BREAD-STUFFS 45
when properly prepared is an excellent and very nourishing
food. The mode of preparation is to take the root and rasp
it on tin or wooden graters : the raspings are then placed in
the long plaited basket, which is hung to a tree, and drawn
down by means of a weight attached to a pole at the bottom.
Sometimes, as represented at the Exhibition, a woman sits
on the pole to drag the basket out to its full extent, thus
squeezing all the juice from the rasped root, which, when
sufficiently squeezed, is emptied out on raw hides and dried
in the sun. It is then baked on smooth plates made of clay.
The coarse flour is spread out quite dry on the hot plates,
and made into very thin, flat, round cakes by the women,
who turn it very dexterously by means of two pieces of split
cane. When baked it will keep any length of time. The
starch precipitated from the poisonous juice of the manioc
forms that excellent and nutritious food known as tapioca,
and the dried root itself is also eaten, and is very excellent
food, so that in nothing is the old adage that ' one man's
meat is another man's poison' better exemplified than in
this plant Jatropha manihot^ for whilst it supplies good and
wholesome food for thousands, the extracted juice is so
poisonous that it was used by the Indians to poison their
enemies the Spaniards, and it is said to cause death in a few
minutes. Nevertheless, not only is the prepared root eaten
with impunity and used in making several fermented liquors,
but the leaves also are boiled and eaten.
Cassava or manioc, prepared in the same way — that is, by
extracting the poisonous juice — is used as food not only in
the West Indies, but in West Africa, Madagascar, and many
of the South Sea Islands, but it is being gradually superseded
by maize and wheat, although it seems a pity that it should
46 OUR VIANDS
be thus superseded, for we are told that an acre planted with
Jatropha manihot will yield nourishment to more people
than six acres planted with wheat.
Our viands
1893Page 19
Presented as published in 1893. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
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Those who visited the West Indian court of the Colonial
and Indian Exhibition — and especially that part devoted to
British Guiana — must have noticed a number of flat white
cakes hung up in nets and labelled Cassava Bread^ but the
greater number of those who saw probably went away as wise
as before. They might also have seen, in this same court,
glass jars rilled with a white substance, cut in thin slices, and
labelled sweet and bitter cassava, and, at the entrance, they
might probably have been attracted by the figure of an
Indian woman, with a child on her back, sitting on a piece
of wood attached to a very curiously-shaped long basket, but,
unless they had lived in the West Indies, it would never have
occurred to them to connect this basket and the woman with
bread-making in any form ; yet this basket forms an important
adjunct to the art of bread-making in the West Indies, for
the cassava is the root of a plant known as Jatropha manihot,
or, shortly, manioc, which when fresh is a deadly poison, but
44
VARIOUS BREAD-STUFFS 45
when properly prepared is an excellent and very nourishing
food. The mode of preparation is to take the root and rasp
it on tin or wooden graters : the raspings are then placed in
the long plaited basket, which is hung to a tree, and drawn
down by means of a weight attached to a pole at the bottom.
Sometimes, as represented at the Exhibition, a woman sits
on the pole to drag the basket out to its full extent, thus
squeezing all the juice from the rasped root, which, when
sufficiently squeezed, is emptied out on raw hides and dried
in the sun. It is then baked on smooth plates made of clay.
The coarse flour is spread out quite dry on the hot plates,
and made into very thin, flat, round cakes by the women,
who turn it very dexterously by means of two pieces of split
cane. When baked it will keep any length of time. The
starch precipitated from the poisonous juice of the manioc
forms that excellent and nutritious food known as tapioca,
and the dried root itself is also eaten, and is very excellent
food, so that in nothing is the old adage that ' one man's
meat is another man's poison' better exemplified than in
this plant Jatropha manihot^ for whilst it supplies good and
wholesome food for thousands, the extracted juice is so
poisonous that it was used by the Indians to poison their
enemies the Spaniards, and it is said to cause death in a few
minutes. Nevertheless, not only is the prepared root eaten
with impunity and used in making several fermented liquors,
but the leaves also are boiled and eaten.
Cassava or manioc, prepared in the same way — that is, by
extracting the poisonous juice — is used as food not only in
the West Indies, but in West Africa, Madagascar, and many
of the South Sea Islands, but it is being gradually superseded
by maize and wheat, although it seems a pity that it should
46 OUR VIANDS
be thus superseded, for we are told that an acre planted with
Jatropha manihot will yield nourishment to more people
than six acres planted with wheat.