The word “tapioca” brings to mind the old-fashioned pudding spooned up by generations of American children. Legend has it that the creamy dessert was invented in a home kitchen. In order to make ends meet, Boston housewife Susan Stavers took in boarders. Among them was an ill sailor who was given cassava roots during his journeys at sea and brought them to the boardinghouse. To comfort her boarder, Stavers made a sweet tapioca pudding, taking the sailor’s suggestion of cutting up the roots and putting them through a coffee grinder to create a smoother texture.

Newspaper publisher John Whitman heard of the recipe, bought the rights to the process, and founded the Minute Tapioca Company in 1989. In addition to puddings, home cooks have used tapioca to thicken pie fillings, soups, stews, and liquids. Recently, clever chefs are finding tasty new ways to incorporate the humble ingredient into contemporary preparations.

As Susan Stavers discovered, tapioca is derived from the cassava plant—also known as yuca and manioc in other parts of the world. It’s native to South America and the West Indies, but is now cultivated in Asia as well. The root of the sweet cassava plant can be eaten without a problem. But the bitter cassava plant, which is processed into tapioca, contains traces of cyanide. The Mayan Indians figured out how to extract this poison and use it in their weapons, leaving the uncontaminated roots safe to eat. And centuries later, resourceful minds found other non-edible uses for the plant, including the manufacture of textiles, laundry starch, toothpaste, and paper.

Modern processing of cassava, which involves thorough washing and drying, produces tapioca that’s completely poison-free and entirely edible. In processing, heat ruptures the starch grains, converting them to small, irregular masses that are often baked for longer storage.

Commercial tapioca is available in several forms—granules, flakes, pellets, and flour.

Pearl tapioca is the pellet form. It is the most widely available variety. It’s made by forcing the moist starch through sieves, and can be extruded into several sizes. The larger the pearls, the longer they take to cook. The regular and instant forms are most commonly used to make puddings; the bigger pearls may be used to add a chewy texture to starchy side dishes, vegetables, soups, desserts, and even beverages.

Flake tapioca results from the further baking of the processed cassava starch grains. The baked product is then formed into small flakes or granules to use in breads and baked goods.

Tapioca flour (also called cassava flour) is most frequently used as a thickener for sauces, soups, fruit fillings, and glazes—just as cornstarch or arrowroot would be used.

Restaurant kitchens still use tapioca mainly as a dessert ingredient. But some chefs are venturing into other menu categories, taking advantage of the product’s appealing round shape and chewy texture to enhance other preparations. Savory “oysters and pearls” (oysters paired with tapioca, caviar, and creamy shallot sauce) and Thai coconut soup with pearly tapioca are just two recent sightings.

Depending on the recipe and the size of the pearls, tapioca may have to be soaked before using. Cooking time can range anywhere from 5 min. for instant to 11⁄2 hr., or until almost transl­u­cent. Upon standing, the pearls will turn almost completely translucent.
Regular and instant tapioca is available in foodservice packages. Purveyors of specialty and ethnic food products are more likely to have the larger pearls and the flour or starch.

A little bubbly
Bubble tea is a foamy blend of green or black tea, milk, and tapioca pearls shaken with ice. The refreshing beverage originated in Taiwan in 1985, but thanks to a Hong Kong-based company, has now traveled to America and captured the fancy of hip beverage quaffers on these shores.

Black tapioca pearls—a blend of tapioca starch, brown sugar, and caramel—are most commonly used as the “bubbles” in bubble tea. The chewy tapioca pearls coming up the straw may be a bit of a surprise for first-time sippers, but the texture adds an interesting “bite” to the drink.