Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

La Cazuela is the common name given to a variety of dishes, coming mainly from South America. It gets its name from the clay mold in which the dish is cooked. This vessel of prehistoric origins was shallow.

In Puerto Rico what is known as Cazuela is a traditional Puerto Rican dessert. Cazuela is prepared in Puerto Rico with a base of yellow sweet potato (camote), Caribbean pumpkin, coconut milk, raisins, a touch of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. This recipe does not contain gluten since originally the Taíno Indians did not have wheat. It also does not contain dairy. In the past it was traditionally cooked on a wood stove on a banana leaf, which gave it an earthy and very original flavor.

There are other Puerto Rican versions of Cazuela where sweet banana, butter, bread, wheat flour or rice flour and a little sweet wine are added. We can even find versions with taro or cassava, baking powder and lard. However, all versions, including the original, do not have a crust. 

History 

The history of Cazuela combines indigenous (Taíno), African and Spanish influences to create a unique flavor. The first recorded pumpkin casserole recipe dates back to the 19th century. However, the first recipes for pumpkin pie date back to 1570, less than 100 years after pumpkins first traveled from America to Europe. 

Some stories about pumpkin pie cite English or French sources for early recipes. However, Bartolomeo Scappi, an Italian chef, published the first recipes for pumpkin pie, crustless pumpkin pie, and pumpkin and onion pie in 1570. Although Scappi did not publish the pumpkin casserole recipe, it is not very different from the crustless pumpkin pie recipe. The essential elements are the same, including the main spices: ginger and cinnamon.

Contemporary Recipe

This dessert as we know it today originated in the town of Loíza. Although it is also said that it was created by Puerto Rican women, residents in the center of the island at the beginning of the 19th century. The first casserole recipe itself appears in the cooking manual Home Making from 1914. From that time on, you would rarely find a Puerto Rican cookbook without a recipe for Cazuela.

Spices, sugar cane, eggs and dairy products did not reach America until the late 15th and early 16th centuries, during the first wave of European colonization. Which explains the new versions of Cazuela in Puerto Rico.

En la actualidad es más conveniente cocinar Cazuela en un molde poco profundo y apto para horno. También podemos hornear y servir Cazuela en porciones individuales envueltas en hojas de plátano. Es un postre tradicional que acompañaba las mesas puertorriqueñas en las fiestas navideñas. 

This dessert that emulates the cross between pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie, but without the crust, may be your favorite fall dessert. Here is a video with the recipe for this delicacy with yellow sweet potato and wheat flour and this other video using white sweet potato and rice flour.

Foto: Pinterest

Carmen M. Pérez Velázquez