Cassareep is what makes pepperpot truly special. It comes from the Amerindian peoples of Guyana — the Arawak and other Indigenous groups — who discovered that cassava juice, when cooked down, becomes a natural preservative. In the days before fridges, pepperpot could be kept for weeks or even months by bringing it to the boil every day. The cassareep also gives the stew its distinctive deep, dark colour and bittersweet flavour.
The basic recipe has chunks of meat (often chicken, beef or pork) cooked slowly with cassareep, cinnamon, cloves, hot pepper and a little sugar. The result is a thick, intense stew with a flavour that is sweet, spicy and savoury all at once. It smells extraordinary — deep and spiced and warming. It is always eaten with fresh homemade bread or plain boiled rice.
In Guyana, Christmas morning is not complete without pepperpot. Families gather from early in the morning, the pot is brought to a simmer, and everyone helps themselves before the day gets started. Friends and neighbours bring pots of their own pepperpot to share. The smells drifting from kitchen windows on Christmas morning in Georgetown are famous throughout the country.
Because pepperpot comes from Indigenous Amerindian cooking traditions, it is one of the few national dishes in the world where the original recipe belongs entirely to the people who were in a country first. Guyanese people are very proud of this — pepperpot is a dish that genuinely tells Guyana's story.