Akkadian Recipe
Three surviving cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia constitute the
earliest recorded recipes on Earth. They are quite cryptic, largely because
the ingredients have not all been identifi ed. The following recipe is an
adaptation of the original recipe that fi lls in the procedural details. It gives an
approximation of what cooking would have been like 35 centuries ago. The
meat, which is domestic lamb, probably indicates that this is a dish for the
wealthy—or perhaps intended for a special occasion. Beer was the common
drink of all classes and was used widely in cooking as well. Consider how all
of these ingredients would have been comparatively uncommon before the
advent of agriculture.
Tuh’u Beet Broth
(adapted from Jean Bottéro’s The Oldest Cuisine in the World, p. 28)
Start with one pound of lamb shoulder cut into walnut-sized chunks or lamb
stew meat. Remove any visible fat, and dice fi nely. Fill a medium pot halfway
with water, and add the fat and the lamb. Add a teaspoon of salt; 12 ounces
of beer; a fi nely chopped onion; a handful of arugula, fi nely chopped; ground
coriander seed; and ground cumin. Bring the pot to a boil, and simmer for
about one hour. Add in three peeled and quartered beets. Then, make a paste
of one clove of garlic and the white part of one leek by pounding them in
a mortar or reducing them to a fi ne paste in a food processor. Add to the
pot. Let simmer until the beets are tender, about 30 minutes longer. Sprinkle
the soup with chopped fresh coriander before serving. Notice how all of the
ingredients would have been cultivated, though other dishes that use wild
game and birds were also recorded on these tablets. Also notice how similar
this dish is to Middle Eastern cooking today.