We’ve all grown accustomed to precise measurements and detailed instructions in our modern cookbooks, but what did cooking look like in ancient times? A fascinating discovery has just revealed the world’s oldest known recipe—and it’s much different from anything we might prepare today.
Ancient Recipes: A Lost Art
While the mass production of cookbooks, recipe blogs, and cooking tutorials is a relatively modern invention, our ancient ancestors also had a rich culinary tradition. Archaeologists have uncovered traces of foods that resemble our modern favorites—like charred porridge in Stone Age pots and "beer bread" in ancient Egypt. But when it comes to recipes, things were much more vague.
The Oldest Known Recipe
The oldest known recipe comes from one of the world’s earliest civilizations: ancient Babylon. These recipes, written on clay tablets, don’t resemble the detailed instructions we use today. Instead of precise measurements, they contain broad instructions and ingredients that we can only partially reconstruct.
A Modern Take on Ancient Dishes
Farrell Monaco, an expert on ancient Roman breads at the University of Leicester, explains that "recipes," as we know them, only became common in the last few centuries. In ancient times, food instructions lacked the precision we now expect, making it difficult for modern researchers to understand exactly what ancient people ate.
In the 1980s, archaeologist Jean Bottéro identified the Babylonian tablets as recipes, but he considered the food described to be inedible. Only recently have these recipes been revisited. GojkoBarjamovic, a Yale scholar, worked with a team from Harvard to translate and reconstruct these ancient dishes, despite many of the tablets being damaged.
The result? Broths, pies filled with songbirds, green wheat, 25 types of stews (both vegetarian and meat-based), and even a small cooked mammal. These recipes surprisingly resemble modern Iraqi dishes, featuring ingredients like lamb and cilantro.
A Peek Into Ancient Kitchens
These Babylonian tablets now hold the title of the oldest known recipes, providing us with a glimpse into the culinary world of ancient Mesopotamia. However, no other recipes from that era have been discovered, making this find all the more significant.
The next time you follow a recipe, take a moment to appreciate how far we've come in the art of cooking and measurement. Who knows what other culinary secrets might be waiting to be uncovered?
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