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Fermentation Atlas

Roots and tubers from Caribbean

Cassava bread (casabe) - boundary entrycasabe

Bitter cassava is grated and squeezed in a woven press to force out its poisonous juice, then the dry meal is sifted and baked on a hot griddle into a large, hard round. Most cassava bread is not fermented; it is in the atlas as a contrast to gari, attiéké and farinha.

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Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional process with no fixed amounts. The bread is cassava meal alone, baked in a layer about 5 mm thick.
Cassava roots · Usually the bitter kind, so the bread keeps longer; sweet cassava is sometimes used[unesco2024]
Nothing else in the plain bread · Savoury and sweet versions differ by country[unesco2024]
Starter: none in most methods
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What changes: Starting material: cassava roots, peeled, washed and grated

Step 1 of 5
Peel, wash and grate the roots
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: wet grated cassava.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Cassava bread is a boundary entry. Its cyanide comes out by grating, pressing and heat, not by fermentation, and no step is left to sour. Gari and attiéké, by contrast, are grated cassava soured for hours to days before they are cooked.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Farinha de mandioca (Brazil)The pressed meal is mixed with a little pulp that has fermented for three days, then stirred on a pan for 3 to 4 hours into loose roasted grains instead of a bread.
  • Bammy (Jamaica)Thick discs, often soaked in coconut milk and fried.
  • Beiju (Brazil)A pancake made from cassava starch or meal.

Safety

Bitter cassava is poisonous raw. Grating, squeezing out the juice and thorough baking are the steps that make it safe, and the juice that is squeezed out is poisonous too.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Cassava bread is an Indigenous staple of the Caribbean and northern South America. UNESCO inscribed the knowledge and practices of making and eating it, shared by Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela, on its Representative List in 2024.

  1. [unesco2024] UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Traditional knowledge and practices for the making and consumption of cassava bread (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela), element 02118gov
  2. [fao-grace1977] Grace M.R. 1977, Cassava processing, FAO Plant Production and Protection Series No. 3, FAO Rome, chapter 6 (farinha and cassava bread, couac)gov
  3. [infante2013] Infante R. B., García O. O., Rivera C. 2013, Characterization of dietary fiber and pectin of cassava bread obtained from different regions of Venezuela, Revista Chilena de Nutrición 40(2):169–173paper