PIERRE JEAN FRANÇOIS TURPIN (FRENCH, 1775 - 1840). The Cassava.

PIERRE JEAN FRANÇOIS TURPIN (FRENCH, 1775–1840)
“Jatropa Manihot The Cassava or Cassadar” [Manihot esculenta]
Preparatory drawing for F.R. Tussac, Flore des Antilles, ou histoire générale botanique, rurale et economique des végétaux indigènes des Antilles.
Paris: chez l’auteur, F. Schoell et Hautel, 1808–1827. Vol. 3, Pl. 1a
Watercolor and pencil on paper
Paper size:
Manihot esculenta, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca, is native to the northern part of South America and some Caribbean islands. Cassava is extensively cultivated for its edible starchy tuberous root. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are processed to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed, and industrial purposes.

The generic name Manihot and the common name “manioc” both derive from the Guarani (Tupi) name mandioca or manioca for the plant. The specific name esculenta is Latin for “edible.” The common name “cassava” is a 16th-century word from the French or Portuguese cassava, in turn from Taíno caçabi. The common name “yuca” or “yucca” is most likely also from Taíno, via Spanish yuca or juca.

Tussac wrote of this plant:

“In the Antilles, two species or rather two varieties of manihot are known, the bitter manihot and the sweet; only the first is widely cultivated, the bulbs of which contain a milky substance which constitutes a violent poison almost always fatal when it is not promptly remedied… Manihot or cassava bulbs are used in several food, pharmaceutical, and economic preparations… bulbs are carried under a shed where two buckets are placed, one of which filled with water is used to wash the bulbs, to detach the little earth which adheres to them; this water is drained, and substitutes new water to wash these same bulbs a second time, after having raked the skin with a knife intended for this use. On the second tub, where there is also water, is set obliquely a strong sheet metal grater (which is called grage in the Antilles), on which the bulbs are grated; bags of coarse cloth are filled with this grater, which are pressed; the juice which flows from them is carefully collected (I will describe its use later); when it is judged that the starch is sufficiently pressed, and that no more juice flows from it, the bags are emptied, and the material, which does not look much like white sawdust, is spread on tables or tablecloths exposed to the sun, to remove any remaining damp parts, which alone are poisonous. When the drying is judged to be as perfect as it can be, the cassava is made; for this purpose, round iron plates are used, five to six lines thick, eighteen to twenty inches in diameter, polished on their upper surface, and raised about eight to ten inches on an iron tripod; a fire is put underneath, and when it is judged that they are sufficiently hot, which experience shows, their entire surface is covered with about two fingers of thickness of manihot starch; it is spread uniformly with a wooden spatula; the little humidity still present is sufficient for all the parts to adhere to each other, and form a kind of large pancake, about a line and a half thick; care is taken, during cooking, to turn the cassava over so that it browns equally on both sides; the necessary degree of cooking can be judged by the reddish color of the two surfaces…

There are several ways of eating cassava; crunch it completely dry, more commonly they moisten it with a little water, which makes it swell, soften it, and make it easier to chew; Creole ladies soak it in broth, and eat it as bread, with the various dishes served on their tables, especially with fish: there is a way of preparing cassava that is trivially called langou; it is first soaked in cold water, then thrown into boiling water, in which it is stirred vigorously, which reduces it to a mush; in this way, it is said to be very healthy and easy to digest; by adding sugar syrup to this mush, it takes the trivial name of matete, a very sought-after dish for Creole ladies. Another very delicate preparation, it is said, consists of making, with manihot flour, very thin pancakes, in which a little butter is added, and which are cooked in the oven on banana leaves… [it can also be prepared] with cassava, grated potatoes and thick syrup of sugar which they ferment together in water, a winey drink strong enough to intoxicate, but which only keeps for a few days; they call it mabi…

The preparation Manihot is used for many economic purposes: one can make very light and very delicate bread, by mixing this flour in equal parts with wheat flour; one makes very good pastries: the creams and porridges that one makes with this flour, by adding a little sugar and orange blossom, are very delicate dishes that one serves on the best tables: in times of war one uses this starch as a powder; some people claim that it makes hair fall out; one also uses it to thicken sauces in the kitchens. One can also make glue from it…

An important preparation of manihot is that which is known under the trivial names of couac, manihot flour, tapioca, which currently replaces in Europe (and with success) salep and sago; This preparation is nothing other than the same grating of the manihot bulbs, which are pressed as to make cassava, and which are roasted to a certain degree; for this purpose we have a kind of flat-bottomed boiler, established on a masonry stove, with its mouth outside; it is urgent, while the madeira is heating, to stir it constantly, to prevent the coloring between the parts, and so that the cooking is uniform. By the smell and the slightly reddish color, we know that the operation is finished; then we remove this flour, we spread it on tables to cool it; then we put it in paper bags or in small baskets. This preparation has the great advantage of being able to be carried on a journey; It is claimed that ten pounds are sufficient for the food of a traveler for fifteen days: it is enough to moisten it with a little water, but much more advantageously with broth. We currently know from experience, in France, that we can make a very pleasant and very healthy soup, and that modern doctors frequently give it to their patients, under the name of tapioca…

It would be desirable that we give much more extension to the cultivation of manihot in our colonies, and that we accustom our sailors to this food, which has the double advantage of being at least as healthy as biscuits, and of never spoiling, by keeping it in a place sheltered from humidity; this would be of an inestimable advantage for long-distance voyages.”

Appeared in F.R. Tussac, Flore des Antilles, ou histoire générale botanique, rurale et economique des végétaux indigènes des Antilles. Paris: chez l’auteur, F. Schoell et Hautel, 1808–1827.
A partial study for Vol. 3, Pl. 1a