COPPERWhat is the national dish of Guyana?
The national dish of Guyana is pepperpot: beef, oxtail or other tough meat stewed for hours in cassareep, a black syrup boiled down from bitter cassava juice, with cinnamon, cloves and wiri wiri peppers. Of Amerindian origin, it is eaten on Christmas morning with bread. It has no legal status, and some sources also count chicken curry and cook-up rice as national dishes.
What is Guyanese pepperpot?
Pepperpot is a slow-cooked meat stew made black and bittersweet by cassareep. The meat is usually beef and oxtail, sometimes pork or mutton, cooked with cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar, thyme, garlic and whole wiri wiri peppers, a small hot chilli native to Guyana. Scotch bonnet or habanero are the usual substitutes abroad.
The dish comes from Guyana's Amerindian peoples, who made the first version. Like that original, it is cooked in a large pot and eaten over several days.
Guyana's food reflects its Amerindian, African, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese and British communities, and pepperpot is one of its most distinctive preparations. Guyanese cooking is close to that of Trinidad and Tobago and neighbouring Suriname.
Guyana has no law naming a national dish. Pepperpot is the one most often given, but Wikipedia lists it alongside chicken curry and cook-up rice, so it shares the title rather than holding it alone.
What is in pepperpot?
There is no flour or other thickener in it: the gravy comes from cassareep reducing around the meat. Our verified recipe uses:
- 1 kg of stewing beef and 500 g of oxtail
- 250 ml of cassareep
- 2 cinnamon sticks and 6 cloves
- 4 whole wiri wiri peppers
- a strip of orange peel and a bunch of thyme
- 4 garlic cloves and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
- salt, added only at the end
What is cassareep?
Cassareep is made from the juice of bitter cassava, which is poisonous raw: it contains a compound that releases hydrogen cyanide. Boiling drives that off. The juice is reduced by half to the thickness of molasses and flavoured with spices such as cloves, cinnamon and sugar.
Traditionally, cassareep was boiled in a soft pot, the original "pepper pot", which soaked up the flavours and passed them on to anything later cooked in it. Pots kept going this way could last a very long time: Dutch planters in neighbouring Suriname reportedly kept pepperpots in daily use for years.
Most of the cassareep on the market comes from Guyana. It is widely regarded as a preservative for meat, which is why a pepperpot can sit on the stove for days, although laboratory tests on that effect are inconclusive. Browning sauce, molasses or burnt sugar give the colour but none of the flavour, and without cassareep the stew is no longer pepperpot.
How pepperpot is made
In our Guyanese pepperpot recipe, 1 kg of stewing beef and 500 g of oxtail are washed in water with lime or vinegar. They go into a heavy pot with 250 ml of cassareep, 2 cinnamon sticks, 6 cloves, 4 whole wiri wiri peppers, a strip of orange peel, thyme, garlic and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, with just enough water to cover.
It simmers uncovered for 2.5 to 3 hours, until the oxtail falls off the bone and the liquid becomes a dark, syrupy gravy. Salt goes in only at the end, because the cassareep concentrates as it reduces.
Then the pot is left at room temperature and brought back to a full boil once a day. The flavour peaks after two or three days.
Pepperpot at Christmas
Because it takes hours, pepperpot is kept for special occasions, above all Christmas. Many families cook it on Christmas Eve, let it stand overnight and serve it on Christmas morning with homemade plait bread to mop the gravy. It is sometimes eaten on Boxing Day too.
It shares the Guyanese Christmas table with:
- garlic pork
- black cake, made with fruit soaked in rum or wine for weeks
- sponge cake and homemade bread
- ginger beer, the Christmas drink
Other dishes to know from Guyana
Cook-up rice is the Saturday one-pot: rice and black-eyed peas cooked in 800 ml of coconut milk with chicken, salted beef and whole wiri wiri peppers, covered and left unstirred for 25 to 30 minutes. It is one of the most cooked dishes in the country.
Metemgee is cassava, eddoes, sweet potato and plantain simmered in coconut milk until it turns to a thick gravy, with duff dumplings steamed on top and flaked salt fish over the lot.
Pepperpot is not only Guyanese: Barbados cooks its own version with pig trotters. You will find every recipe on our page about the food of Guyana, and the wider continent in our guide to South American food.
The recipes
- Pepperpot🇬🇾 Guyana · 2 days and 3 hours
Cook-up rice🇬🇾 Guyana · 13 hours and 50 minutes
Metemgee🇬🇾 Guyana · 1 hour and 30 minutes
Questions people ask
Is pepperpot officially the national dish of Guyana?
There is no law or decree. Pepperpot is the dish most often named, but chicken curry and cook-up rice are also called national dishes.
Is pepperpot from Guyana or Barbados?
Both cook it. The Guyanese stew comes from Guyana's Amerindian peoples, and most cassareep is still made in Guyana; Barbados has its own version with pig trotters.
Can you make pepperpot without cassareep?
No. Browning sauce, molasses or burnt sugar copy the colour but not the bittersweet flavour or the keeping power, and the dish stops being pepperpot.
Why isn't pepperpot refrigerated?
Traditionally the pot stays on the stove and is brought back to a full boil every day. Cassareep is regarded as a preservative, although laboratory tests on that effect are inconclusive.
What is pepperpot served with?
Bread, ideally homemade plait bread on Christmas morning, or cassava bread.
Keep reading
- Traditional food of Guyana: 12 dishes to know
- What is the national dish of Argentina?
- What is the national dish of Bolivia?
- What is the national dish of Brazil?
- What is the national dish of Chile?
- What is the national dish of Colombia?