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nuncheonMy son, let me give you instructions, may you take my instructions!
Why not start my journey through historic cooking at the very beginning, in what is arguably the first civilisation's food and drink. In the Yale Babylonian Collection are three cuneiform tablets dating from around 1600 BCE which contain about 40 recipes.
Imagine - someone wrote these down almost 4000 years ago. It's staggering.
Assyrologist Jean Bottéro's book "The Oldest Cuisine in the World" first sets the scene, giving a brief introduction on the history of the region and peoples of Mesopotamia. Secondary and primary sources follow. There are chapters on food preparation and equipment, drinks, and court and religious life as relates to food, all of it fascinating.
I'm currently only on page 27, where the primary sources are listed, and I already want to try two recipes. There is a meat broth/stew with asafoetida, watercress, wild liquorice, cumin, and cucumber which sounds intriguing.
A post about Mesopotamian cuisine would not be complete without giving a link to an invaluable website: Some Mesopotamian Ingredients Revealed by Laura Kelley. Where Bottéro is not sure about a translation, Kelley supplies through research and knowledge of current foods of the region.
A thought on ingredients. Onions, leeks, garlic etc. These are obviously not today's varieties; will they give a similar taste nonetheless? Even meats will be different. If a recipe calls for wild liquorice, is a substitution of today's liquorice and / or aniseed allowed? I will cook and find out as much as I can.
Why not start my journey through historic cooking at the very beginning, in what is arguably the first civilisation's food and drink. In the Yale Babylonian Collection are three cuneiform tablets dating from around 1600 BCE which contain about 40 recipes.
Imagine - someone wrote these down almost 4000 years ago. It's staggering.
Assyrologist Jean Bottéro's book "The Oldest Cuisine in the World" first sets the scene, giving a brief introduction on the history of the region and peoples of Mesopotamia. Secondary and primary sources follow. There are chapters on food preparation and equipment, drinks, and court and religious life as relates to food, all of it fascinating.
I'm currently only on page 27, where the primary sources are listed, and I already want to try two recipes. There is a meat broth/stew with asafoetida, watercress, wild liquorice, cumin, and cucumber which sounds intriguing.
A post about Mesopotamian cuisine would not be complete without giving a link to an invaluable website: Some Mesopotamian Ingredients Revealed by Laura Kelley. Where Bottéro is not sure about a translation, Kelley supplies through research and knowledge of current foods of the region.
A thought on ingredients. Onions, leeks, garlic etc. These are obviously not today's varieties; will they give a similar taste nonetheless? Even meats will be different. If a recipe calls for wild liquorice, is a substitution of today's liquorice and / or aniseed allowed? I will cook and find out as much as I can.