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Traditionally starch was made from arrowroot or sago palm. However, cassava is a cheaper raw material and has tended to replace these starches. The juice obtained from grated cassava contains a certain amount of starch which settles out after standing for a few hours. The liquid can be decanted off and the starch recovered. The most common use of starch is to add to puddings or mix with fruit. Cassava starch can be stored as needed. It is baked into cakes in the Caribbean, Pacific Islands and Jamaica. Cassava starch can be further processed into tapioca. The wet starch is heated in a pan, stirring continuously until the grains burst and gelatinise into globules. In West Africa, cassava starch is traditionally processed and dried, then rehydrated later to make a porridge.
Gari is a creamy-white granular flour with a slightly fermented flavour and sour taste. It is produced from cassava tubers and eaten as a main meal with soup or a stew.
When stored properly, gari has a shelf life of six months or more.
It is necessary to detoxify the cassava by breaking down the compounds that contain cyanide and then removing the cyanide gas.
Fermentation of the tubers breaks down the cyanide containing compounds and also gives the gari the distinctive sour flavour.
