[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

The author of this article is not familiar with casaba, known as yuca in this country. He says, …”should be cooked properly…” Heck, there is only one way to cook it. It is to boil it whether in soup or plain water (like one boils a potato). If it is cooked in plain water, it is then generally sliced and fried; or it is mashed (after boiling of course), filled with a meat filling (like a taco), and then into the frying pan to deep fry. These children did not get sick from the casaba unless poison was added to it. They got sick from the filling.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I'm really having a problem with this article.

The yuka has a hard skin. What was fun, was taking this hard skin, after peeling way the outer portion of the skin, we, as children, used to take those discarded peelings and cut them into funny teeth and wear them in our mouths. None of us dropped dead from that. We are still around.

[TaxRelief]

The water leaches the poison out and has to be drained off, not boiled down. I imagine someone accidentally let it boil too long and the toxins were reabsorbed.

[dennisw]

The author of this article is not familiar with casaba, known as yuca in this country. He says, …”should be cooked properly…” Heck, there is only one way to cook it. It is to boil it whether in soup or plain water (like one boils a potato). If it is cooked in plain water, it is then generally sliced and fried; or it is mashed (after boiling of course), filled with a meat filling (like a taco), and then into the frying pan to deep fry. These children did not get sick from the casaba unless poison was added to it. They got sick from the filling.

Heh. Am I the only freeper who has eaten cassava cakes? I've even made a few. My suspicion is the cassava root can vary in the amount of cyanide it contains. I've eaten the root many times in Cuban and Latin restaurants. It's prepared as you describe. Cassava is very common in Brazil and Africa

Cassava cakes are a bit different, are made from the processed then dried out cassava toot. It's turned into something akin to wheat flour that can be stored from season to season. It can be transported and sold as a commodity. When it's processed the cyanide compounds are leached out, then the stuff is dried out into a coarse flour. Water is added to make a cake that can be fried on your griddle like a corn cake. You can buy this flour in markets in Africa. The flour I got here (USA) was from Nigeria. The fresh root in the (USA) supermarkets comes from the Caribbean, though I ate some a friend grew in Florida

[cyborg]

I've been eating cassava all my life. Eaten it raw, eaten it as cereal... however if you don't cook the meat for pasteles well you can get sick.

[7.62 x 51mm]

Ricin? Strychnine? Any guesses, G?