Bammy

Ingredients

Bammy

• 1 kgbitter or sweet cassava, peeled and finely grated
• 1½ tsp salt

To soak and fry

• 400 mlcoconut milk
• ½ tspsalt
• 4 tbspcoconut or vegetable oil

To serve

• fried fish, ackee and saltfish, or escovitch

Directions

1. Peel the cassava, removing the pink underskin entirely, and cut out the woody core. Grate it finely.
2. Wrap the grated cassava in a clean cloth or muslin and wring it out hard over a bowl, squeezing out as much liquid as you possibly can. This step is not optional and it is not only about texture: bitter cassava contains cyanogenic compounds that are carried off in that liquid, and it must be discarded, never used.
3. Fluff the pressed cassava with your fingers and mix in the salt. It should be a damp crumb, not a dough.
4. Heat a heavy frying pan over medium heat, without oil. Press a handful of the crumb into a 12 cm round about 1 cm thick inside a ring or with your hands, pressing firmly so it holds.
5. Cook 5–6 minutes a side. It will knit together as the starch cooks and can be turned once the underside is set and speckled. Do not press it flat while cooking.
6. Repeat with the rest. Cool the cooked bammies slightly.
7. Warm the coconut milk with the salt and soak each bammy in it for 3–5 minutes, turning once. They drink it up and go tender.
8. Fry the soaked bammies in the oil for 2 minutes a side until golden at the edges. Serve hot with fried fish.

Technique

• Always discard the pressed liquid and never use the raw grated cassava in anything uncooked. Cassava must be processed and cooked.
• The soak in coconut milk is what turns a dry, dense disc into something worth eating. Skipping it gives the reputation bammy sometimes has.
• Press the round firmly. Loosely packed bammy crumbles when turned.

Substitutions

• Ready-made bammies are sold frozen across Jamaica and abroad, and only need the soak and fry.
• Sweet cassava is easier to source and needs the same pressing.

Variations

• Small bammies, sold as a snack with escovitch fish.
• A version soaked in salted water rather than coconut milk, plainer and more everyday.

History

A flatbread made from grated cassava, its water pressed out before the remaining pulp is formed into a round cake and traditionally fried or baked, developed by the Taíno people, the Indigenous inhabitants of Jamaica before Spanish and later British colonization, who cultivated cassava and developed the specific technique for processing it into bread well before European contact in the late 1400s and 1500s. Cassava requires careful processing to remove naturally occurring toxic compounds before it is safe to eat, and the specific grating, pressing and cooking method used to make bammy reflects Indigenous Taíno food-safety knowledge developed and refined over generations. It remains one of the few Jamaican foods with a clearly documented pre-colonial Indigenous origin, predating the island’s Spanish and British colonial periods entirely.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bammy?

Bammy is a bread & pastry from Jamaica: cassava flatbread soaked in coconut milk, then fried. A flatbread made from grated cassava, its water pressed out before the remaining pulp is formed into a round cake and traditionally fried or baked, developed by the Taíno people, the Indigenous inhabitants of Jamaica before Spanish and later British colonization, who cultivated cassava and developed the specific technique for processing it into bread well before European contact in the late 1400s and 1500s. Cassava requires careful processing to remove naturally occurring toxic compounds before it is safe to eat, and the specific grating, pressing and cooking method used to make bammy reflects Indigenous Taíno food-safety knowledge developed and refined over generations. It remains one of the few Jamaican foods with a clearly documented pre-colonial Indigenous origin, predating the island’s Spanish and British colonial periods entirely.

How long does Bammy take to make?

Bammy takes 40 min of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 bammies. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Bammy?

Yes, within limits. Ready-made bammies are sold frozen across Jamaica and abroad, and only need the soak and fry. Sweet cassava is easier to source and needs the same pressing.

What is the most important thing to get right in Bammy?

Wrap the grated cassava in a clean cloth or muslin and wring it out hard over a bowl, squeezing out as much liquid as you possibly can. This step is not optional and it is not only about texture: bitter cassava contains cyanogenic compounds that are carried off in that liquid, and it must be discarded, never used.