Cassava

Manihot utilissima, also called manioc, mandioca, yucca or yuca, is a tropical vegetable with a long tuberous root at least 2 inches in diameter and from 8 to 10 inches long. It is covered with a brown bark-like rather hairy skin, and the flesh is white and very hard. It can be cooked and eaten as a starchy vegetable. Cassava meal or flour for making bread or cakes, is obtained by washing, peeling and grating cassava, pressing out the juice, and drying the meal. It can be bought ready made as cassava or manioc meal. Tapioca and cassareep are both made from cassava. There are two varieties of the plant, bitter and sweet. Bitter cassava is poisonous until cooked. In the French islands cassava meal is often called farine, a shortened form of fanne de manioc.