[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

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Thank you for your reply.

It must be, and I must believe, as you say, "My suspicion is the cassava root can vary in the amount of cyanide it contains." Thank goodness there has never been an event where one drops dead from eating casaba here in Panama.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

To be honest with you,dennisw, I really don’t know if Panama makes or imports yuca flour. I’ve never seen it on the supermarket shelves. I will take a look next time. The yuca frituras (fried yuca dishes) made here are from the freshly boiled yuca. The yuca is then mashed like thick mashed potatoes, stuffed, and fried. But I need to look into this yuca flour thing because of my curiosity.

[CobaltBlue]

According to google, there are two varieties of cassava, the bitter kind, that is poisonous and is used to make tapioca, and the sweet kind, which is not poisonous, and is also known as yuca.