I think the boiling probably is sufficient, since cooking or fermenting seems to be what traditional cultures do, but I'm no expert and I've never done it. Have you looked in Nourishing Traditions? I can't get at my copy just now but I would be surprised if it didn't say.

Oh, thanks, plllog, for making me realize I wasn't clear in the question. Yes, I know boiling works--it works for lots of other cyaniferous tropical veggies, too, like chaya. The thing with the flour is they aren't boiling it, just grating, squeezing and drying, and that's what I'm wondering about.

People gnaw on peach pits without getting sick but I wouldn't recommend it. :)

Processing is the key. The drying process may be adequate for all I know.

For that matter, merely soaking is supposed to reduce the antinutrients in grains by 80% or something.

Past Nourishing Traditions, I don't know where to find an authoritative source. Maybe the county extension? Do they still have that?

Thanks again. I did search the Nourishing Traditions website but nothing for cassava, yuca, etc. I guess I could try the county extension--it will be interesting to see if they would comment on it.

FWIW, when I was a kid we had a mania for. a while for peeling apple seeds and eating the insides for that almond peach blossom taste.

LOL! Don't apple seeds also have the cyanide compounds? That's what you meant about eating them? I think with most of these things in food whether it's th whatevers in rice, the garlic in oil or the seeds, it's a matter of quantity, healthy bodies and variety. Variety not only gives you a broader group of nutrients, it also thins down the amount of bad crap you get. So if you make a couple pounds of cassava flour and share them around it probably doesn't matter how you do it. If your whole community is dependent on cassava flour and eat as much of it as we as a society eat wheat, it's going to matter a whole lot more to get the processing right.

Good point.

I was thinking about it, and while coontie isn't the same thing at all, it's equally toxic and the local natives showed the early settlers in the southern half of fl how to make really superior arrowroot from that, to the point that coontie and the atala butterfly it hosted went from being nuisances found everywhere to almost extinct, because of the commercial demand for the arrowroot. I think somewhere I have an account of the process, so perhaps she could try that, if she has the patience. IIRC it took about three days of active work, plus steeping and drying time.

Thanks, Olychick. The other sites I've seen don't do the fermentation, which I'm sure does help to reduce the toxins in it. Very helpful site.