Pepperpot

Ingredients

Meat

• 1.5 kgbeef, a mix of chuck, shin and oxtail, in large pieces
• 500 gcow heel or trotter, cleaned and cut
• 500 gpork shoulder, cubed, optional
• Juice of 2 limes and 2 tbsp coarse salt, for washing

Pot

• 300 mlcassareep, the thick black boiled cassava syrup
• 2cinnamon sticks
• 6whole cloves
• 4–6wiri wiri peppers, left whole
• 2wide strips of orange peel
• 1onion, sliced
• 6garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 sprigsfresh thyme
• 3 tbspbrown sugar
• 2 tspsalt
• 1.2 litreswater

To serve

• Plait bread or dense white homemade bread
• Butter

Directions

1. Wash all the meat with lime juice and coarse salt, rinse thoroughly and drain. Guyanese cooks never skip this, and it matters more with heavy cuts.
2. Put the cow heel or trotter into a large heavy pot with the water and simmer 1 hour on its own; it takes far longer than the rest and it is what gives the pot its body.
3. Add the beef and pork, the onion, garlic, thyme, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel, and top up with just enough water to barely cover.
4. Bring to a boil, skim the scum carefully off the surface, then lower to a bare simmer.
5. Stir in the cassareep and the brown sugar. The pot will turn glossy black almost immediately; that colour is the point of the dish.
6. Drop in the whole wiri wiri peppers, unbroken, and simmer uncovered for 2 to 2.5 hours.
7. Stir only occasionally and gently. The meat should be falling apart but still in recognisable pieces, and the sauce should reduce to a thick, syrupy, mahogany-black gravy that clings to a spoon.
8. Taste in the last half hour and balance: pepperpot should be savoury, faintly bitter from the cassareep, sweet from the sugar and warm with clove and cinnamon, all at once.
9. Take it off the heat and let it stand overnight if you can. It is genuinely better on the second and third day, as the cassareep keeps working into the meat.
10. Reheat to a full boil before serving, and serve hot in bowls on Christmas morning with plait bread and butter for mopping.

Technique

• Pepperpot is Amerindian in origin and is Guyana’s national dish, eaten above all on Christmas morning. The pot is traditionally kept going for days, topped up with fresh meat and cassareep and reboiled each morning.
• Cassareep is the juice of bitter cassava boiled down with spices until black and syrupy. Boiling destroys the cyanogenic compounds in the raw juice, which is why only properly made cassareep is safe; never use raw bitter cassava liquid.
• The cassareep is also the preservative. It is antibacterial enough that a covered pepperpot pot kept at room temperature and boiled daily survives for a week or more, which is how it was done before refrigeration.
• Do not add oil. Pepperpot is not fried or browned first: everything goes into the pot raw and the fat comes from the meat itself.
• Never let the peppers burst. Wiri wiri gives aroma while whole and brutal heat when broken.

Substitutions

• No cassareep: there is no real substitute, and without it the dish is not pepperpot. It is sold by Guyanese and Caribbean grocers online; the nearest approximation is molasses cooked with a little tamarind and clove, which gets the colour but not the bitterness.
• No wiri wiri: use scotch bonnet, whole, at half the quantity.
• No cow heel: a piece of oxtail or a split trotter gives the same gelatinous body.

Variations

• Christmas beef and pork pepperpot with plait bread, the classic.
• Mutton or lamb pepperpot, made in some households.
• Chicken pepperpot, a quicker weekday version that keeps far less well.

History

Amerindian stew preserved by casareep, the boiled-down juice of bitter cassava; Guyana’s Christmas centrepiece, reheated for days without spoiling.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pepperpot?

Pepperpot is a soup & stew from Guyana: beef simmered in bittersweet cassareep with cinnamon; Christmas morning with bread. Amerindian stew preserved by casareep, the boiled-down juice of bitter cassava; Guyana’s Christmas centrepiece, reheated for days without spoiling.

How long does Pepperpot take to make?

Pepperpot takes 40 min of preparation and 3 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 8 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Pepperpot?

Yes, within limits. No cassareep: there is no real substitute, and without it the dish is not pepperpot. It is sold by Guyanese and Caribbean grocers online; the nearest approximation is molasses cooked with a little tamarind and clove, which gets the colour but not the bitterness. No wiri wiri: use scotch bonnet, whole, at half the quantity. No cow heel: a piece of oxtail or a split trotter gives the same gelatinous body.

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

Wash all the meat with lime juice and coarse salt, rinse thoroughly and drain. Guyanese cooks never skip this, and it matters more with heavy cuts.