The World That Was

 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 making another Mesopotamian dish. This time, an ancient Elamite recipe, preserved in the Yale Cuneiform collection. This is actually recorded in Sumerian cuneiform, describing a "foreign dish". It is fairly similar to my pašrūtum stew from a few weeks ago, but has some regional variations, which is indicative of a cross-cultural exchange of cuisine in the Bronze Age. You can follow along with my YouTube video, above! In any case, let's take a look at the World That Was. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil 250g leeks, chopped 1 onion, chopped 1 shallot, minced 1/2 cup dill, minced 1 cup water 1/2 cup sour milk 1 tablespoon cumin Directions: 1 - Chop your Leeks Start by heating some olive oil in a pot. Pour your oil into a pot and put it onto medium-high heat. While this is heating up, go chop your leeks.Chop your leek into bite-sized rings, about the width of one of your fingers. Try and make these all the same s...

 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...

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!