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Mesopotamia: Salted Broth
Jan. 25th, 2022 08:55 pmFrom Tablet A of Old Babylonian culinary recipes:
Salted Broth
Leg of mutton, but no other meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; wild liquorice as desired; salt to taste; juniper; onion; semolina; cumin; coriander; leek and garlic, mashed with kisimmu. It is ready to serve.
"Kisimmu" is variously translated as fresh cheese, sour milk, or yoghurt. As an aside, especially with texts this old (and probably with younger texts as well), you can't rely on one translation, something which I noticed when I tried to find out what Bottéro meant with an ingredient he translated as "cypress". Turns out it's more likely juniper, which makes a lot more sense. Mashed leek and garlic appears in every recipe I've read so far and seems to be a staple seasoning.
Ingredients and substitutions - Now that's not very authentic is it
No, but I was hungry and used what I had. Mutton became beef. Wild liquorice became aniseed as it has a similar flavour profile. Coriander was the powdered version where fresh was probably used. I sweated off the onion with the aniseed and juniper before adding the meat, frying that off before adding water. My fat was ghee. I used one leek which I cooked in the broth, and mashed spring onions and garlic with the only soft cheese I could get which was mozzarella (I know - I'll have to visit the local Turkish shop to see if I can get some kishk or similar). Put some semolina in to bind, then added the mashed spring onion-garlic-cheese mix.
The result is a very flavourful and unusual broth / stew. The aniseed, spring onions and cheese gave it a pleasant freshness, while the garlic gives heat (didn't even miss pepper, and I love pepper). Beef worked well, but I can see mutton giving more meaty flavour, and it would also lend itself to longer cooking. Sour milk cheese or yoghurt would definitely be better than mozzarella as the stew could use some sourness.
I'm going to try and source ingredients more "authentic" than the ones I used here, but for a first taste of a dish inspired by Mesopotamian recipes, not bad at all.
Salted Broth
Leg of mutton, but no other meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; wild liquorice as desired; salt to taste; juniper; onion; semolina; cumin; coriander; leek and garlic, mashed with kisimmu. It is ready to serve.
"Kisimmu" is variously translated as fresh cheese, sour milk, or yoghurt. As an aside, especially with texts this old (and probably with younger texts as well), you can't rely on one translation, something which I noticed when I tried to find out what Bottéro meant with an ingredient he translated as "cypress". Turns out it's more likely juniper, which makes a lot more sense. Mashed leek and garlic appears in every recipe I've read so far and seems to be a staple seasoning.
Ingredients and substitutions - Now that's not very authentic is it
No, but I was hungry and used what I had. Mutton became beef. Wild liquorice became aniseed as it has a similar flavour profile. Coriander was the powdered version where fresh was probably used. I sweated off the onion with the aniseed and juniper before adding the meat, frying that off before adding water. My fat was ghee. I used one leek which I cooked in the broth, and mashed spring onions and garlic with the only soft cheese I could get which was mozzarella (I know - I'll have to visit the local Turkish shop to see if I can get some kishk or similar). Put some semolina in to bind, then added the mashed spring onion-garlic-cheese mix.
The result is a very flavourful and unusual broth / stew. The aniseed, spring onions and cheese gave it a pleasant freshness, while the garlic gives heat (didn't even miss pepper, and I love pepper). Beef worked well, but I can see mutton giving more meaty flavour, and it would also lend itself to longer cooking. Sour milk cheese or yoghurt would definitely be better than mozzarella as the stew could use some sourness.
I'm going to try and source ingredients more "authentic" than the ones I used here, but for a first taste of a dish inspired by Mesopotamian recipes, not bad at all.