Pepperpot

Story

Pepperpot is one of the oldest dishes in the Americas, originating with the Indigenous Arawak people of the Guiana coast who discovered that cassareep, a thick, dark syrup extracted from boiled bitter cassava, could both flavour and preserve meat indefinitely. Cassareep's natural antimicrobial properties meant the pot could be topped up, reheated daily and kept alive for weeks, a quality that made pepperpot essential to households without refrigeration. Dutch and British colonial settlers adopted the dish and it spread across the Anglophone Caribbean, but it remained most deeply rooted in Guyana, where it is the centrepiece of Christmas morning. Families traditionally begin cooking pepperpot days before the 25th, so the flavours of cassareep, cinnamon, clove, wiri wiri pepper and dark sugar can deepen through repeated reheating.

Ingredients

• 900 g beef chuck or shin, cut into 5 cm chunks
• 900 g pork shoulder, cut into 5 cm chunks
• 450 g oxtail or cow heel, cut into pieces
• 225 g salted beef or salt pork (optional but traditional), rinsed and soaked
• 240 ml cassareep
• 300 to 500 ml water
• 30 ml dark brown sugar
• 1 small onion (about 80 g), finely chopped
• 4 to 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 15 g fresh thyme sprigs (about 2 to 3 sprigs)
• 2 to 4 wiri wiri peppers or 1 whole Scotch bonnet, left intact
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 to 6 whole cloves
• 1 strip orange peel, about 5 to 8 cm long
• 5 g fine salt, plus more to taste
• 15 to 30 ml neutral oil, for browning

Method

• 1. If using salted meat, rinse well and parboil for 10 minutes to reduce excess salt. Drain and set aside.
• 2. Combine the fresh beef, pork and oxtail in a large bowl with the garlic, onion, thyme, half the cassareep and the salt. Mix well and marinate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight in the refrigerator.
• 3. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Brown the fresh meats in batches, taking care not to crowd the pot, until lightly coloured on all sides. Remove and set aside.
• 4. Return all the browned meat and any salted meat to the pot. Add the remaining cassareep, brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange peel and whole hot peppers.
• 5. Add enough water to just cover the meat. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a very gentle simmer and cover loosely.
• 6. Cook for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally and adding small amounts of water if the sauce becomes too thick, until all the meat is very tender and the sauce is dark, glossy and slightly thickened.
• 7. Remove the cinnamon sticks, orange peel and thyme stems. Adjust salt and sweetness to taste.
• 8. Leave the pepperpot to rest overnight if possible before serving; the flavour improves dramatically on reheating. Reheat gently before serving with white bread or roti on Christmas morning.

Common questions