National Dish Guyana: Pepperpot (Recipe)
In this article
Pepperpot is preserved by cassareep, a black syrup boiled down from bitter cassava juice, which has antibacterial properties. A pot kept going and reboiled daily will last for weeks without refrigeration. Guyanese families make it at Christmas and eat it for days.
About Pepperpot
Pepperpot is Guyana’s national dish and it is Amerindian in origin, one of the few dishes in the Americas that survived colonisation more or less intact. Beef, cassareep, cinnamon, clove and hot pepper simmer for hours until the meat is dark and the sauce is almost black.
Cassareep is what makes it. Without it you have a spiced beef stew.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 500g beef, cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons cassareep
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Water
Shopping for the ingredients
Cassareep is sold in Caribbean grocers and online, in bottles, thick and black. There is no substitute: molasses is sometimes suggested and gives entirely the wrong result. Use tough cuts, oxtail and cow heel included, which is what Guyanese cooks reach for.
Preparing the dish
Cut the meat large, since it shrinks over three hours. A wiri wiri pepper is the Guyanese chilli, small, round and fierce; a scotch bonnet substitutes. Traditionally the pot is not stirred with a spoon that has touched anything else, because contamination is what would spoil a pot meant to keep.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a large pot, brown the beef on all sides.
- Add the onion, garlic and chilli, and sauté until softened.
- Stir in the cinnamon stick, cloves and brown sugar, and let them caramelise briefly.
- Top up the pot with water until the meat is just covered.
- Stir in the cassareep, season with salt and pepper, and simmer gently over low heat until the meat is tender, about 2–3 hours.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
Pepperpot is naturally gluten-free and dairy-free. Cassareep is cassava juice and sugar. Only the bread served alongside needs substituting.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
Pepperpot is a meat preservation dish and does not translate. What does work is jackfruit or mushrooms in the same cassareep, cinnamon and clove base, and it is worth doing for the flavour even though it is not pepperpot. Metemgee, the coconut and ground provision dish, is the established alternative.
More tips and tricks
Cook it long, at least three hours, and preferably make it a day ahead. Pepperpot genuinely improves for two or three days, reheated each morning, which is the whole point of the tradition. Do not let it boil hard. And taste before adding sugar, since cassareep is already sweet.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Oxtail, cow heel and pork trotter are the traditional cuts and give a much better texture than lean beef. Wild meat pepperpot uses game. Orange peel in the pot is common.
Ingredient substitutions
Any tough cut works. Wiri wiri, scotch bonnet or habanero all serve. There is no substitute for cassareep and it is worth ordering.
Drink pairing ideas
Ginger beer, homemade and fierce, is the Christmas pairing. Guyanese rum, of which El Dorado is the famous one, afterwards. Sorrel drink is the other festive option.
Serving and presentation ideas
Serve it with plait bread or cassava bread to mop the sauce. At Christmas it sits on the stove and people help themselves through the morning. Reheat it to a boil each day if you are keeping it.
A bit of history
Pepperpot is Amerindian, from the Arawak and Carib peoples, and cassareep is a genuinely ancient preservation technology: bitter cassava is toxic raw, and boiling the juice both detoxifies it and produces the syrup. That the dish survived and became national says something about the depth of indigenous influence on Guyanese cuisine.
More recipe ideas
Summary: Pepperpot
Pepperpot is beef stewed for hours in cassareep with cinnamon, clove and hot pepper. Get real cassareep, use tough cuts, cook it long, and reheat it daily for several days.
