What is Cassava
Cassava, cassava and yuca : three names to indicate the same food, consisting of the tuberous roots of the Manihot esculenta Crantz plant; some people use a fourth term, tapioca, however improper because it refers not so much to the tuberized roots, as to a high quality flour that is obtained from them.
Little known in industrialized countries, cassava produces large tuberous roots (weighing 4-8 kg), very rich in starch (30-70%, respectively on fresh and dried weight).
The cassava has an elongated shape and is thinner on one vertex than the other. A brown skin, thicker than that of the potato, covers a hard, light pulp, with a fibrous cord that runs along the center in a longitudinal direction.
Botanical characteristics
The cassava plant is a shrub that, in the wild, reaches 4-5m in height; in cultivations, on the other hand, it does not exceed 2-3m. The leaves are palmate and yellowish in color, as are the clusters of flowers. The fruits are trilocular capsules that contain the seeds.
The yuca amara plant is distinguished from the sweet one by the stem and reddish leaves, while the other is green. Cassava roots are simple and then divide into several branches, similar in shape to fleshy tubercles; those of bitter cassava have a length of 10-15cm and a diameter of 4-10cm (some varieties reach record sizes); on the contrary, those of cassava dolce are smaller. Over time, the surface of the sweet yuca becomes wrinkled, while the other remains smooth.
The chemical content of fresh cassava is 60-70% in water, 20-30% in starch, 1-2% in cellulose, 0.5% in ashes (mineral salts) and 0.6-1.5% in substances protein. The tuberous roots contain laticiferous vessels that carry a poisonous substance (especially the bitter variety) called manihotoxina, a glucoside that releases hydrocyanic acid (0.01-0.24% in the sweet, especially in the peel, and 0.3-0, 4% in bitter, much in the pulp). Not by chance, from the cassava amara are obtained mainly the flours for cooking, while the sweet yuca can be consumed in limited quantities even raw.
Many products are made from cassava, including forage for livestock; some derivatives intended for human consumption are: dried cassava, yuca flour, cassava and tapioca starch.
Distribution and Cultivation
The yuca is native to Central and South America (central-western Brazil). Cassava plantations (especially of the very useful or bitter and dulcis or sweet varieties) are found a little in the whole tropical and sub-tropical zone, but the country that is at the top of the scale is undoubtedly Africa (especially Nigeria ), followed by Asia and finally by Latin America with the Caribbean.
Cassava is therefore widely cultivated especially for the edible tuberous root, which contains high quantities of starch (intended as a mixture of starch, ash, protein and lipid residues). Cassava plays a fundamental role in feeding the populations of Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Paraguay, Guyana, Antilles, North American South, India, New Caledonia, Reunion, Madagasca, Philippines, Java, Eastern and Western Africa.
In rainy regions, tuberous roots are harvested by hand annually; every 2-3 years in dry ones. The average yield of the yuca is around 150-200 quintals per hectare; in Brazil, about 70-100 quintals for sweet and 150-200 for bitter. In Java, 300 quintals are reached.
Gastronomic Use
Cassava can be used in many ways, almost all identical to those of potatoes. Except for the raw consumption (limited to a few sweet varieties and not entirely advisable) they are suitable: boiling, roasting on the stove, cooking in the oven, in the form of puree, cream or velvety and frying.
After the appropriate operations of washing and cooking (or possible soaking with fermentation) - necessary to remove the toxic cyanogenic glycoside (better known as linamaroside ) - the tuberous roots of cassava can be the production base for flour and starch (of the latter, the the most refined and prized is the tapioca ). These are particularly energetic and versatile flours, used in places of origin to make cakes, unleavened bread, biscuits and polenta; in the West, cassava is instead used above all for the formulation of first course soups, as a thickening additive and in diet foods (such as, for example, those for coeliacs).
Flour is also used industrially for the manufacture of glucose, glucose syrups, ethyl alcohol and low quality beer.
The less valuable varieties of yuca are destined to feed livestock.
How to Clean and Cook Cassava
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Cassava flours are often subject to sophistication; of all, the most affected is undoubtedly the tapioca. The latter is frequently mixed with other starch, mainly with potato starch. This offense can be thwarted with the use of the microscope, scanning the starchy grains which, in the potato derivative, are considerably larger and of different shapes.
Nutritional Features
In many developing countries, cassava is the basic food for the less wealthy population; however, its excessive consumption is not without drawbacks. The tuberous root and its derivatives are in fact poor in essential amino acids (1.5-3g of protein over 100 grams, respectively on fresh and dried weight). It therefore appears evident that an almost monothematic diet based on cassava, and at the same time extremely poor in foods of animal origin (such as cereals and legumes), in the long term may lead to aggravating protein deficits, up to the onset of kwashiorkor; not by chance it is said that the Cassava "removes hunger but does not feed".
Among other things, the content of lipids, vitamins and mineral salts is almost irrelevant, except for small concentrations of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) alas, destroyed by cooking.
NB . In addition to the various negative aspects, it is necessary to specify that the yuca DOES NOT CONTAIN GLUTEN!
Europe, for its part, imports significant quantities of cassava each year from the producing countries, then it is mostly used for cattle breeding; it is also used as a thickener and as a functional ingredient in some diet products.
