Of the bitter cassava mention has already been made as a substance from which the starch and casareep might be prepared.  In this case, however, the woody and cellular tissue, with the small quantity of starch left in it by the ordinary starch process, would form far too poor an article of diet to constitute part of the food of man.  But the roots might be used as a medium from which to prepare cassava meal, casareep, and the very small quantity of starch which is expressed along with the juice, leaving all the rest of the starch to form part of the meal.  It is of such meal that the cassava cakes of the Indians are prepared; and although by no means so nutritive as Indian corn meal[46], there can be little doubt that in the Scotch and Irish markets the cassava meal would obtain a preference; and were it exported in quantity it would probably come into extensive use among all classes.

The process would be as follows:—­After washing in a revolving apparatus, by which means the adherent earth would be got quit of, and almost the whole of the thin dark colored cuticle become detached, the roots could be reduced to pulp in a rasping-mill, without the use of water; the pulp might be compressed in bags by hydraulic pressure, whereby the juice, together with a small portion of the starch, would be expressed.  After allowing the starch to subside, the juice should be concentrated to about the density of 1.4.  The starch would be washed, purified, and dried.  The contents of the bags would then be broken up and dried in the sun or in a current of air, after which the meal would be sifted through a coarse sieve to separate the coarser parts, which, if their amount was considerable, could be ground and added to the rest.  In this state of rough meal it is fit for making the cassava cakes.  If ground to flour it might be used to mix with wheat, rye, or barley flour.

The process is usually conducted as follows:—­The squeezed pulp is broken up, sifted, and exposed to the sun on trays or mats till it is fully more than half dry.  An iron hoop of the size and thickness of the cake to be made is then laid on a griddle or hot plate, and the space within the hoop is filled evenly with the somewhat moist meal, no previous kneading or rolling having been employed.  As soon as the coarse meal coheres, the ring is lifted and the cake is turned and heated on the opposite side.  The heat should not be sufficient to brown the cake.  The cakes are finally dried by exposure to the sun.  From the dry cassava meal cakes may be prepared by sprinkling it with as much cold water as to moisten it to the proper point, and then proceeding as above.  Hot water cannot be employed, neither can kneading, or any considerable degree of compression be used, otherwise the water does not evaporate readily enough; the starch gets too much altered by the heat, and the cake becomes tough.