What to do with a yucca root?

H

HM

Joined
Dec 11, 1999
Messages
641
Hi All,

When I saw a HUGE yucca root (man arm size) sold in the local food store among vegetables, I question popped up in my mind. Since the only use of it I read was as detergent to clean animal hide, I am wondering if one can eat it and how?

Any clue is appreciated.

HM

 
Hi,
Yucca, also known as cassava or tapioca, has edible leaves and tubers. It is a staple food in some parts of South East Asia, and was the only available food for many people during WWII. The tubers are edible cooked. Arsenic is present in the raw root, so it must be cooked to be edible. It can be sliced like french fries and deep fried, cut up into chunks and boiled in some salted water, and eaten with sugar sprinkled on it. It can also be grated and made into various kinds of cakes and desserts, or made into a ball with coconut sugar in the middle and deep fried. The leaves also contain arsenic, so must be boiled to be edible. The young leaves contain a higher level of it.

These plants are easily planted by cutting the stems into meter long lengths and planting them. Very soon, leaves and roots will sprout from them. Hope this helps.

Pang
 
In our Jungle Living Skills video - we show how the Shapra-Candoshi make beer out of Yucca. They boil it, mash it, and spit chewed pieces of yucca into it - then let it ferment. We called it "spit beer" for obvious reasons.

This "beer" is high in vitamins and other nutrients and is a staple in their diet. I must say it tastes very interesting too. Yeah - maybe I should go get that TB test afterall......

If you're interested in seeing this process and other skills these Peruvian Amazon Indians use - Check out our Woodsmaster Vol 7 - Jungle Living Skills at www.survival.com.

Karen



------------------
Hoods Woods
http://www.survival.com
 
As with most roots, Yucca is delicious if prepared right. Peel and boil until very soft. Then serve with Spanish barbecue sauce (Mojo Criollo) and salt to taste. Very popular in Miami.
 
The common name, yucca (here with a small "y"), is used for many plant species that are usually, but not necessarily, members of the genus "Yucca." Yucca (here with a capital "Y") is also the scientific (Latin) name of the genus of many species in the "Yucca" genus. Roots of Yucca baccata and Yucca glauca (the 2 most common Yuccas in the U.S.) are indeed very high in saponin (a soap compound) and are widely used in shampoo, etc. The roots are too soapy to be edible. But the flowers and fruits of most North American yucca species can be eaten (although sometimes boiling and changing water is needed to remove small levels of saponin). Worldwide, there are "yuccas" both in and out of the "Yucca" genus whose roots are edible. Some of these need special treatment to make them edible as Pang mentioned.

Bottom line: know the exact species you're dealing with and know it's proven uses and methods of preparation (many roots/crowns have to be baked over long periods to render them edible). Regional common names are often deceiving or totally wrong, and just knowing a plant's genus may not be sufficient to determine whether or not it is edible.

I'm not positive, but I believe the "yucca" roots which are widely used in South America for food are not actually from plants in the Yucca genus -- correct me if I'm wrong Karen.

Ask your grocer for any information he/she has -- he may have been selling it for use as soap.
 
North American yucca is not the same as South American yuca (pronounced yooka; note the difference in spelling). Yuca -- also called cassava and manioc -- has the botanical name Manihot esculenta Crantz. Euphorbiaceae.

There are numerous varieties of cultivated yuca, grown throughout the Amazon in slash-and-burn gardens called chacras, which vary in cyanide content. The more cyanogenic yuca is called yuca brava, and the less cyanogenic is called yuca dulce. The tribes that use yuca brava mash the root and soak it in water, and then squeeze the mash in special webbed baskets, called tipi-tipi, to squeeze out the poisonous liquid; they eat the remainder, and many use the strained liquid as a fish poison.

I have often wondered how they figured out how to do that. :)

The edible roots yield farina, tapioca, and starch; you can cook, roast, or fry the roots, make masato out of them, or chop and dry them over slow heat to make dried manioc, the jungle survival food. I spent three days on a raft with Moises Chavez, my survival instructor, eating dried manioc and sugar cane. And drinking masato. :)

 
Thank all of you! Now I can clearly see that my concept about 'the yucca' was more simple than true.
I, kind of, got a good general picture about the N-American Yucca roots being non-edible due to the saponine and very different from the rest of the yuccas in the world which are edible despite their arsenic or cyan content.
More specifically:

Pang:
Is it cooked before deep frying to remove arsenic?

Karen:
Sounds delicious. Now I see why they popped up in local Pathmark.... Do you pour out the liquid with the cyan or stays in?

OldTrapper:
Thanks for the exact details. I found Y. aloifolia (Spanish Bayonet) and Y. fialmentosa (Bear-grass) in my little Peterson Edible Plants field guide.

Walks Slowly:
They probably give the first sip to the guest
smile.gif
What do they do with yuca dulce (any treatment)? Does masato translates 'spit-beer'? If not, what is it?

Thanks again to all of you.
Best,

HM


 
>>>They probably give the first sip to the guest<<<

Actually, there's a bunch of foods people eat that are poisonous unless specially treated -- Japanese blowfish, for example, or some varieties of potato. How did people figure out how to render these foods edible? Why bother, as long as there was other food around? I am constantly amazed at human ingenuity. And, as long as I'm rambling, the next time someone goes on and on about how smart chimpanzees or gorillas are, ask him if he has ever personally tried to knap even the simplest stone tool, and whether a chimp could even begin to do it.

>>>What do they do with yuca dulce any treatment)? Does masato translates 'spit-beer'? If not, what is it?<<<

No treatment for yuca dulce. You can cut it into strips and cook it, roast it, fry it, or turn it into masato, which is spit-beer. Dried manioc can be carried around and will last forever. It tastes like the worst breakfast cereal you ever ate. But it will definitely keep you alive.
 
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