The World That Was - Ancient Akkadian Mersu

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 for decorating. Put your ground-up pistachio portions aside for later.

2 - Prepare the Dates
Now, take your dates and check if they've been pitted correctly! If they're pit-free, mash these into a paste using a mortar and pestle, or wooden spoon in a bowl. Toss your mashed dates into a large, clean bowl, and get ready to mix it up!

3 - Combine Everything
Toss a cup of your ground-up pistachios into the bowl with your dates, and mix everything together. This is a little difficult using a spoon or spatula, so I'd recommend using your hands to knead everything together! Knead everything until if comes together, and most of the pistachio mix is incorporated into the date mash.

4 - Decorate and Plate Up
Pour your other cup of ground pistachios onto a plate or tray next to your bowl. Take about a tablespoon's worth of the date and nut mix into your hands and form it into a ball! Cup and roll your hands to smooth it off. Then, roll the mersu around on the plate of pistachios to decorate this!
This step is optional, and you could just as easily have used all your pistachios in step 3, but I find that this makes the mersu look a little nicer and more presentable!

This recipe is fast, simple, and fun to make! The idea of this recipe is somewhat continued in Iraqi cuisine today, with nut-stuffed dates still being prepared and eaten daily! If you'd like to recreate this at home, I'd highly recommend it as an easy way to look back at the food of the past!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The World That Was - Sumerian Date-Filled Pastries (qullupu)

Image
 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'm making some date-filled cookies described as being votive religious offerings to the Sumerian deity Inanna (also known as Ishtar - to the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians). It's unknown exactly how these cookies were prepared, being only described as "date-filled parcels of dough" - so I've reconstructed this based on modern Iraqi culinary traditions. In any case, let's now take a look, at the World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients (for approx. 8 qullupu ) 1 cup/150g dates, pitted honey water 1 cup white flour 1 tsp salt 2 tsp cardamom powder 2 tsp ground cumin 100g butter, melted milk sesame seeds (for decoration) Method 1 - Make the dough To begin with, we need to make a dough. Pour a cup of flour into a large mixing bowl, along with a pinch of salt, a few tablespoons of ground cumin, and a few tablespoons of cardamom powder - you can buy this pre-ground, or you can tak
Read more

The World That Was - Palace Cakes from Ur

Image
 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be recreating a sweet treat recorded on some cuneiform tablets excavated from the site of the palace complex at Ur in modern-day Iraq. This is one of the few recipes from Sumerian cuisine where we have some measures for the ingredients! In this case, the sila is quoted, but a single sila is believed to be about 3 cup's worth of an ingredient, and the original palace cakes seem to have been made using several sila of flour alone! These cakes were possibly eaten by the rich and elite in Sumerian society, or perhaps used for large-scale gatherings. But today, I'll be scaling back the ingredients to suit a modern kitchen (and budget). So now, let's take a look at The World That Was! Ingredients 2 cups dates, roughly chopped 1/2 cup raisins/sultanas 180g / 1+1/2  cups flour (wheat, wholegrain, or barley) 500ml / 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup cottage cheese 1 cup butter (room temperature) 2 eggs (room temperature) Directions: 1 - C
Read more

The World That Was - 11th Century Honey Cakes from Byzantium

Image
Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be taking a look at a medieval Byzantine honey cake - which itself is based on an earlier Greek iron-age cake, amphiphon. This is going to be a light, fluffy cake with a rich, honey flavour! In any case, let's now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! If you like what you see, consider supporting me over on Patreon! Ingredients 1 cup flour 3/4 cup butter 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup walnuts salt orange rind 1 - Cream the Sugar and Butter To begin with, toss about 3/4 of a cup of room-temperature butter into a mixing bowl. Into this, place about 3/4 of a cup of sugar. Mix everything together using a wooden spoon, smearing the butter into the sugar along the side of the bowl. Do this until it takes on a rich, creamy texture. At this stage, beat three eggs into the mixture, taking care to mix them all thoroughly before progressing! 2 - Add Dry Ingredients Next, toss in about a cup's worth of
Read more