The World That Was

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, Ill be showing you how to make a simple yet tasty Bronze-Age snack - the Akkadian mersu! This dish has only two ingredients - dates and nuts - which were listed on the clay tablet found in Mari in the 1940s. The methodology is pretty basic, but that's to be expected from something like this! You can follow along with my Youtube video above! In any case, lets take a look at The World That Was! Ingredients: 250g / 2 cups dates, pitted (or figs, or raisins) 250g / 2 cups pistachios (or walnuts, or almonds) Directions: 1 - Prepare the Nuts First, you'll need to shell your nuts of choice (if they need shelling at all!), so do this and place the shelled nuts into a mortar and pestle. Grind these into a fairly uniform powder. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can easily grind these up by putting the nuts into a ziplock bag, and crushing it with a rolling pin! Divide your mix in half, keeping 1 cup for combining, and 1 cup fo...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be showing you how to brew like a Bronze-Age Sumerian! By following the Hymn to Ninkasi (the ancient Sumerian god of beer and brewing), we'll be able to follow in their footsteps. Needless to say, this recipe is for an alcoholic beverage, so I hope that only people who are legally allowed to drink would actually try this! Sumerian Beer is very different to modern beer. It has the same taste as modern beer, but more smoky, has no carbonation, and expires very quickly! The recipe takes about a week to do, but has a lot of downtime - often you'd spend less than ten minutes a day on it. In any case, lets take a look at The World That Was. Ingredients: 2.5-3L water 120g / 1.5 cups barley flour 60g / 0.5 cups wheat berries (or dried wheat, if that is all you can get) 1 cup dates, chopped Special Kitchenware: a large pot or demijohn Method: Day 1: Soak the Wheat - Put your wheat berries into a bowl of water overnight, or up to 1...

Hello and welcome to the first official World That Was recipe! Today, we'll be looking at a bronze-age Sumerian recipe, found on a tablet from the Yale Cuneiform Collection. This piece was photographed and translated by Klaus Wagensonner, the translation of this you can see below! (Image courtesy of laphamsquarterly.org) This is one of a few recipes taken from Yale University's cuneiform tablets, and is a sample from a collection of Babylonian recipes. Its name is pašrūtum (pronounced "pashrutum"), and simply translates to "Unwinding". Of the collection, this is one of only a few vegetarian examples of Mesopotamian cooking. However, since Mesopotamia was a relatively well-watered region of the world in antiquity, this is potentially not indicative of Babylonian tastes. Vegetables and fruits would have made up the bulk of people's diets back then, as it was easy to come by, sustainable, and filling. In any case, let's take a look at The World That Was...

Welcome to The World That Was! This is a blog that's going to be a collection of recipes and dishes from the Bronze Age, to the Renaissance, and beyond! This will be paired with my YouTube channel of the same name, where you'll be able to see the process in which I make these dishes, and follow along with me if you so choose! Citations and sources for the original recipes will be included as I post them, so you can double-check the origins! If you have any questions or thoughts, please don't hesitate to get in contact. I'm always open for discussion, and would love alternative points of view for my recipes!