The World That Was - Bronze Age Egyptian omelette "eggah"

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!

Today, I'll be making an Egyptian dish that dates to the pre-Dynastic period (the bronze age) - a simple herb and egg omelette that's still eaten today: "eggah" (in modern Egyptian Arabic). The first records of this dish come from early Arab writers, discussing a much older dish!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! 

Ingredients

6 eggs

1 onion

fresh parsley or cilantro

ground cumin

ground coriander

salt

pepper

olive oil

Method

1 - Chop and cook onion

To begin with, chop a single onion in half, and peel off it's outer skin. Then slice and dice the onion into small pieces, making sure they're all the same size.

Then, pour some olive oil into a pot, and place it over a medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, toss your onion into it and let it sauté away while you mince your parsley. Or coriander, if it doesn't taste like soap to you.

When your onion is soft and translucent and fragrant, toss in your parsley. Let everything sauté away over medium-high heat until the parsley wilts slightly. Leave it aside to cool a bit while you deal with your eggs.

2 - Mix Ingredients

Crack six eggs into a bowl while your onions are cooling. In antiquity, Egyptians would have had access to wildfowl and dove eggs - which you could easily substitute here, but chicken eggs work just as well. In any case, toss in a tablespoon or two of ground cumin and ground coriander. On top of this, add a tablespoon of flour to help thicken things up. Whisk all this together, so it's well combined.

When the onion and parsley mix is cool, toss them into your egg mixture, and whisk them to combine.

3 - Prepare Baking Dish and Bake

Pour a bit of olive oil into a baking tin, and spread it around. Next, pour in your egg mixture. It should settle evenly.

Place this tin into the centre of an oven preheated to about 180C/356F and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven.

It should be done when the top has puffed up and turned a lovely golden brown.

Take the dish out of the oven and let it cool for a few minutes. The top of this will collapse and deflate, but don't worry, this is what's meant to happen!

Cut it into slices, and serve up warm!

The finished dish is very light and fluffy, with a slight sweetness thanks to the onions. Modern eggah has tomatoes and peppers included in the recipe - but neither of these were available to the region until the Columbian Exchange of the 15th century onwards.

However, early Arabic records about the dining habits of pre-Islamic Egyptian populations references a dish of baked eggs and herbs - which effectively suggests a pre-existing dish like this that was eventually adapted into the eggah we know today!

This simple recipe was likely eaten by poorer members of the population, given how few ingredients are needed to make this - being eggs and onions in its most basic form - and would have provided a large amount of calories for early societies!