The World That Was

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! It's been a whole year since I started this channel, and seeing it grow to the size it is today is amazing - I never figured it'd get this popular! So to celebrate, I decided to take a look at some roast duck - based on some Sumerian cuneiform fragments. In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients 2kg duck ground cumin ground coriander salt pepper 1 leek, chopped 1 onion, minced 2 cloves garlic 750ml water (or stock) butter Method 1 - Prepare the Duck To begin making this roast duck, we need to prepare our duck. I'm using a whole bird here, but you could just as easily cook this in pieces - it's up to you! Start by scoring the breast with a knife a few times, to increase the seasoning surface area. The original fragment claims to be dealing with an unnamed bird, so I opted for duck - as wildfowl would have been a staple for Mesopotamia. But chicken or squab ...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! This week, I'm recreating some Akkadian bread, as seen in some cuneiform inscriptions, as well as visual representations in carved panels in Akkadian palaces. The original bread has a striking similarity to modern Iraqi samoon - from it's shape to it's description in Akkadian! In any case, let's now take a look at the world that was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients 1 cup wholemeal flour 2 cups plain flour salt water active dry yeast (or 1/3 cup sourdough starter) milk sesame seeds Method 1 - Preparing the Dough and letting it Rest To begin with, we need to make a starter. The easiest way to do this today is to use some dry active yeast, opening a sachet, and placing it in a bowl with a bit of warm water. But if you have some sourdough starter, you can use 1/3rd of a cup of that instead! But keep in mind that the sourdough starter will affect how hydrated your dough is later on. Pour in 1 cup of wholemeal fl...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was This week, I'm recreating some Akkadian Kukku - or "butter-cakes" - which would have been offered to deities, much like the qullupu I made a while ago, which were used in the worship of Inanna! However this dish seems to have been eaten by Akkadian rulers, rather than offered to deities. In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients 1 cup flour 1/2 cup hazelnuts 1/2 cup walnuts 1/3 cup honey 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup raisins (or sultanas) 1 egg dates (for decoration) Method 1 - Grind the Nuts To begin with, we need to crush our hazelnuts and walnuts in a mortar and pestle until they take on a sandy consistency. I left a few chunks in my batch - as you can see here - but I cannot recommend you do this, as it makes it rather difficult to take out of your baking tin later on! So, do as I say, not as I do in this case. In any case, hazelnuts and walnuts would have been ...

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! This week, I'll be making a spinach and herb soup from Achaemenid Persia! Although spinach was not explicitly recorded in this period - it's not unlikely that green leaves like these were used in dishes, simply going by the name "greens" in modern translations. In any case, let's now take a look at the World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients (for about four small bowls of soup) 100g spinach leaves 1 onion 2 cloves garlic 200g chickpeas, drained 200g kidney beans, drained 1 cup parsley, minced 1 cup coriander, minced (or use another cup of parsley) turmeric ground coriander ground cumin salt pepper oil Method 1 - Prepare Onion and Chickpeas To begin with, we need to chop and mince our onion. Then, go pour some olive oil into a pot, and place it over a medium high heat. When the oil is shimmering, toss your onion into the pot and let it cook away for about 5 minutes - or until it becomes soft a...

 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...

Hello and welcome to the World That Was! Today, I'll be making some simple grilled fish with dill - from Elamite cuisine. Much like my Elamite stew from a few months ago, this dish is recorded very fragmentarily - and is described incredibly literally. So, this is my reconstruction of how this dish may have been prepared in antiquity. In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 2 fillets of fish (whitefish, or catfish works best here) handful of fresh dill sprigs olive oil salt pepper Method 1 - Season the fish To begin with, we need to prep our fish. I used haddock here - but whitefish in general works well (whitefish here referring to the colour of the meat itself). Catfish would have likely been eaten in antiquity - as they were a common fish in the Tigris-Euphrates river system. Next, sprinkle some salt and pepper over each fillet. Flip them over, and season the other side. Cumin may have been used to seaso...

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I’ll be taking a look at a recipe from the Yale Cuneiform Collection, a recipe that was possibly intended for the poorer members of Babylonian society, or indeed something that was eaten during times of famine or war - a turnip and onion stew! Turnips do not appear to be eaten frequently in Babylonian cuisine, and seemingly were seen as a "last resort" to them. In any case, let's take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 1 turnip (shredded) 1 onion (thinly sliced) 1/2 cup rocket/arugula (minced) 1/4 cup parsley/cilantro (minced) 500ml / 2 cups water (or stock) 1 tbsp ground coriander coriander seeds (for decoration) 1 tbsp olive oil (or butter) Method 1 - Prepare the Pot Pour about a tablespoon's amount of olive oil or butter into a pot, and put this over a medium-high heat until it starts to shimmer. 2 - Chop Onion Thinly slice an onion - or dice it into small pieces. I...

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be making another Sumerian Stew - this time, a lamb and beet stew called tuh’u (pronounced “tuh-i”). This is a luxury dish, given that meat was a rarity in the cuisine of ancient Mesopotamia - as well as in antiquity in general!  The original recipe comes from one of the cuneiform tablets in the Yale Cuneiform collection - and a translation can be seen below, courtesy of Klaus Wagensonner. As usual, you can follow along with this recipe using my video above! In any case, let’s take a look at The World That Was! Ingredients: 250g lamb meat (any cut of meat will do) 1 tbsp olive oil (or melted butter) 240ml or 1 cup beer (wheat or barley beer would be best) 120ml or 1/2 cup water 1 onion, chopped 1 cup rocket leaves, chopped (also known as arugula) 1 cup minced cilantro or parsely 1 shallot, chopped 400g beetroot, skinned and diced 1 leek, chopped 2 cloves of garlic 1 tsp cumin Method: 1 - Prepare the Pot Much like other Sume...

 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...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be recreating a staple from ancient Akkadian cuisine - the simple "sasqu" dish! This is recorded on the same tablets recovered from Syria - specifically the temple at Mari - and discusses barley flour being used for a celebratory variant of a breakfast dish! This recipe is suitable for breakfasts, and I'll be showing you how to recreate this yourselves! In any case, let's take a look at The World That Was! Ingredients: 450ml / 2 cups Milk (cow, goat, sheep, or oat) or water 260g / 2 cups Barley Flour 1 cup dates (optional) 1/2 cup pistachios (optional) Directions: 1 - Make the Date Syrup To sweeten the mix, you’ll need to first make a basic syrup using chopped dates and water! Start by roughly chopping them to make sure they’re pitted, and then put these dates into a pot of water over medium-high heat. Bring this to a rolling boil, and then turn it down to a simmer. Leave this to reduce for about 10 minutes, whi...

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...