Casseripe

Casseripe (also spelled cassareep) is a thick, dark liquid made by reducing and adding spices to the liquid produced by harvesting cassava. It is often used as a base for sauces or stews, contributing a bittersweet flavor and brown coloring. Traditionally, it is also used as a preservative and as an antiseptic.

In the video below, produced by Guyana's Department of Public Information, Carla Hopkinson, affectionately referred to as Aunty Carla, a second generation cassava farmer and producer in Guyana, discusses the process of making cassaripe (or cassareep) sauce or syrup from the extracted liquid of the cassava.

In the opening three minutes of the video, Aunty Carla explains the boiling process of making cassaripe as she does so in her own kitchen, followed by an explanation of the appropriate way to store it and the various ways that she uses it in both culinary and medicinal senses. Starting at 3:15, she talks about her own introduction to cassava farming and her philosophy of work within the Caribbean culture and lifestyle, along with recommendations for the future of women in the changing cultural landscape of the 21st century.

At the seventh annual meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference (Liverpool, September, 1870), Professor Attfield, professor of Practical Chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society, presented a paper titled, “Analysis of Bitter Cassava Juice, and Experiments in Elucidation of its Supposed Antiseptic Properties.”

The full findings of his report is below, with commentary and connection to Pepper Pot in the annotations.

The original source of Professor Attfield's article can be found on pages 382-385 of The British Pharmaceutical Conference's 1870 "Year-book of Pharmacy"