Cassava

Manihot esculenta · Tuber

40 pairings

Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also called yuca, manioc or mandioca, is the long, tapering, starchy storage root of a woody tropical shrub — a brown, bark-like skin sheathing dense, chalk-white flesh threaded by a central woody fibre. Bland, faintly sweet and intensely starchy, it is a calorie staple for hundreds of millions of people and the source of tapioca, garri and fufu; it must always be peeled and thoroughly cooked, because raw cassava carries cyanogenic glycosides that release hydrogen cyanide.

Picking a good onedrag

Just dug, chalk-whiteStreaked, soft, souring

Shop firmThe all-rounder: boil for mash, parboil then fry for chips.Buy it

BarkBark whole, wax scuffed and dulled

Cut endsDry, pale, cleanly sealed over

The breakHeavy and hard, break face dryish

Smell at the cutFaint, close to nothing

What to look for, from just dug, chalk-white to streaked, soft, souring.

What one gives you

84%

Usable yield

408 g · skin and rind off

486 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 7× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90–98%

It loses water fast, and a root that dries streaks sooner — which is why shop cassava is waxed. Bag it, or bury it in damp sand.

Airflow

Still, not sealed damp

Cool and still is right, but not damp in a shut bag: Botryodiplodia and Fusarium rots run in under the skin.

It makes ethylene, and it minds it

It gives off ethylene as it sits, and ethylene is what brings the blue-black streaking on — keep it clear of bananas, avocados and ripening fruit.

Preparing