Pepperpot recipe

Tough cuts of meat stewed for hours in cassareep, the reduced juice of bitter cassava, which both flavours the pot and preserves it for days.

2 days and 3 hoursmedium11 ingredients

Ingredients

• 250 ml cassareep
• 1000 g beef
• 500 g oxtail
• 2 stick cinnamon stick
• 6 cloves
• 4 wiri wiri pepper
• 1 orange peel
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 bunch thyme
• 4 clove garlic
• 2 tsp salt

How to make Pepperpot

1. Get real cassareep from a Caribbean grocer. It is boiled-down bitter cassava juice, black and bittersweet; browning sauce, molasses or burnt sugar give the colour and none of the flavour or the keeping power, and the dish stops being pepperpot.
2. Wash 1 kg of stewing beef and 500 g of oxtail in water with lime or vinegar, then drain well.
3. Put the meat in a heavy pot with 250 ml of cassareep, 2 cinnamon sticks, 6 cloves, 4 whole wiri wiri peppers, a strip of orange peel, a bunch of thyme, 4 garlic cloves and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
4. Add just enough water to cover, bring to a boil, then drop to a bare simmer.
5. Cook uncovered 2.5 to 3 hours, skimming, until the oxtail falls off the bone and the liquid has thickened to a dark syrupy gravy that coats the meat.
6. Season with salt only at the end; the cassareep concentrates as it reduces and salting early makes it harsh.
7. Cool completely and leave the pot at room temperature. Bring it back to a full boil once a day: the cassareep preserves the meat, and the flavour only peaks after two or three days.
8. Reheat and serve on Christmas morning with plait bread to mop the gravy.

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