The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— Food and drink in Babylonia —
Tablet A (no. 25) contains 25 concise recipes for broth, summarised at the end as
21 meat broths (mê sˇīrim) and four vegetable (warqum) (Bottéro 1995: 57). For the
meat broths the recipe titles are: meat broth; Assyrian; red broth; clear broth; venison
broth; gazelle broth; kid broth; bitter (?); broth with crumbs (?); zamzaganu; dodder
(?) (kasû-plant) broth; lamb broth; ram (?) broth; bidsˇud (?) broth; spleen broth;
Elamite broth; amursānu-pigeon broth; thigh broth; h ˘ alazzu-plant broth; salt broth;
and francolin (?) (tarru) broth. The vegetable ones are called tuh ˘ ’u-beet (?); kanasˇûplant;
h ˘ irs.u-plant; and cultivated turnip. However, the first three of these also contain
meat. Typically the cooking medium is water (mû) with added animal fat, probably
sheep fat, (lipûm) in a pot. The tannur oven is mentioned several times. As an example,
the eleventh recipe reads:
mê kasî sˇīrum ul izzaz sˇītum mê tukān lipi’am tanaddi
kasû kīma marāqi sˇusikillu samīdu kisibirru kamūnu karsˇum h ˘ azannum
diqāra ina tinūri kīma h ˘ apê meh ˘ rum naglabi
Dodder (?) (kasû-plant) broth. Fresh meat is not used, but salted meat. You
set up water; you put in animal fat;
crushed dodder (?); onion; samīdu-plant; coriander; cumin; leek; garlic.
The pot covers (?) the tannur: ready to eat [literally ‘before the knife’].
(Bottéro 1995: 42–44; Bottéro 2004: 27;
translation author’s own)
Tablet B (no. 26) contains seven complex, detailed recipes for cooking birds,
involving a wide range of ingredients and cooking techniques. For example, the
elaborate first recipe for a dish of small birds (is.s.ūrū s.eh ˘ rūtum) in a case of dough
(līsˇum) can be summarised (Bottéro 1995: 58–73; Bottéro 2004: 29–30):
1 Birds in broth: Precook the butchered and washed birds, their gizzards (sˇisūrrum)
and entrails (esrū) in a cauldron (ruqqum). Wash, wipe and sprinkle with salt
(t.ābtum). Bring to the boil in a pot (diqāru) of water and milk (sˇizbum) with
animal fat (lipûm), pieces of wood (is.s.ū) and rue (?) (sibburatum). Add onion
(sˇusikillu), samīdu-plant, leek (karsˇum), garlic (h ˘ azannum) and water. After cooking,
add mashed leek, garlic and edible crocus bulb (?) (andah ˘ sˇu).
2 Dough: Soak washed, fine-grade flour (saskûm) in milk. Knead with fish-sauce
(siqqum) and add samīdu-plant, leek, garlic, milk and pot fat (sˇamnum sˇa diqāri).
Use half the dough to bake sebetu-breads in the tannur. Let the other half rise
and line a shallow dish (mākaltum) sprinkled with nīnû-plant (?) to make a crust
to cover the birds. Knead more fine-grade flour soaked in milk and add oil (?),
leek, garlic and samīdu-plant. Using this dough as a base for the cooked birds,
line another shallow dish letting the dough protrude above the rim. Bake the
base and crust on two supports on top of the tannur. Remove the crust from the
shallow dish and rub it with oil (sˇamnum).
3 Presentation: Lay the birds on the base and scatter them with the entrails, gizzards
and sebetu-breads, setting aside the broth and pot fat. Cover with the crust. Serve
at table immediately.
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