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As far as current knowledge indicates, Sumer is the first culture and civilization to abandon a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in favor of agriculture. As such, it is no surprise that the oldest known culinary recipes come from ancient Mesopotamia. These oldest recipes can be found on a series of 4 Sumerian clay tablets in the Yale Babylonian Collection.
There is a lot that is not known about Sumerian cuisine because there are very few surviving tablets which discuss culinary information and very few culinary relics. Some passages on the relevant surviving cuneiform tablets could also not be translated.
Dinner was the most important meal of the day, with lunch and breakfast being minor meals. It is not clear if the concept of dessert existed in ancient Sumer. There seems to have been no essential distinction between sweet and savory dishes, and no conventions about the order in which to eat them.
Texts often reflect a close concern for the form and appearance of food, and elaborate utensils and molds found in excavations show great attention to its visual display. As in many other traditions, presentation took precedence over order, with many dishes served together and continuously during a seating. A cuneiform text has been found that constitutes a menu combining authentic dishes and obviously disgusting dishes. Its thought that someone made this to create a comical mockery of the presentation and preparation of food. [1]
Many of the Old World's core food plants and animals were domesticated in the region of Upper Mesopotamia in what is today Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Sumerians did not know of rice, chicken or horses -those had not been introduced to the area yet- or of any New World plants like potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, corn, eggplants, squashes, vanilla, avocado, blueberries, and many more. Their diet was primarily made up of cereals and legumes. Common dishes known from ancient Mesopotamia include breads, cakes, pies, porridges, soups, stews, and roasts. A larger proportion of the food than is the case today was probably eaten raw. [2]
The standard grain was barley, but wheat and emmer were also cultived and used to a smaller extent. They created a variety of breads, usually from barley and water with no leavening agents. The breads were likely rather coarse, plain and tasteless foods. [2]
Sumerians’ livestock were domesticated sheep, goats, oxen, and pigs. They also farmed ducks, geese and fish (in “fish ponds”). They ate eggs, which archaeologist believe may have come from the farmed geese and/or ducks. Sumerians frequently hunted game. They hunted wood-pigeons, duck, pigeon and other wild birds that could not be identified. They also fished both saltwater and freshwater fish, but archaeologists are not sure which kinds of fish. Sumerians were disgusted by donkey meat in a similar fashion to how people of western nations are disgusted by dog meat. [2]
The arid landscapes now seen in Syria and Iraq were much more fertile in Ancient Sumer, so the Sumerians could grow a variety of vegetables. The most common were: chickpeas, lentils, onions, leeks, shallots, and garlic. Lettuce and cucumbers were also grown. In terms of fruits, what was grown were apples, pears, grapes, figs, plums or medlar fruit (arccheaologists are unsure between the two), pistachios, pomegranates, and a few other unidentified fruits. Dates were cultived but not to eat - they were gifts for the gods. [2]
Oils and fats used by the Sumerians were : sesame oil, mutton fat, lard, fish oil and "noble fat". Sometimes the oil was seasoned or flavoured to hide the rancid taste that the fat would quickly acquired in the heat of the Fertile Crescent. [2]
Water was the normal drink, but beer made from barley was also drunk, as well as milk from cows, goats or ewes. Barley-beers that were light or dark, sweet or bitter, and fresh or old, are attested to. Wine was cultived but was not an everyday drink. [2]
A variety of cheeses were produced: white cheese (on the royal table), “fresh” cheese, a cheese that was richer than the others, crude flavored cheese, sweetened cheese and sharp cheese. [2]
Soups were very common fare and had a starch or flour base of chickpeas, lentils, barley flour or emmer flour. They were rarely similar to western vegetable-based soups and may have resembled bulgur or kishk. Certain soups contained mutton fat, oil, honey or meat juice. The soups were likely thick and nourishing. [2]
Some Sumerians texts cite the use of salt, cilantro, dill, naga (commonly used by the poor), gazi (a very piquant spice used on meats and reserved for the well-to-do), black and white cumin, “the mountain plant”, watercress, and several others spices that were not translated. To sweeten foods, Sumerians used fruit juices, mostly from grapes or dates. Honey was only used by the wealthy. “Date-honey” was a syrup made from dates – it is not actual honey. [2]
All surviving Sumerian recipes can be found on a series of 4 clay tablets in the Yale Babylonian Collection. 3 of the 4 tablets are from the Old Babylonian period, the fourth is from the Neo-Babylonian period more than a thousand-year later. All tablets were written by different hands and are damaged. The most complete of the tablets contains 25 recipes: 21 meat dishes, three vegetable-meat dishes, and one vegetarian dish. Most Sumerian recipes suffer from “grandmother's instructions syndrome”, where only a list of ingredients and vague instructions are provided - no quantities or times. [3] [4]
Taverns existed in Ancient Sumer. In 2023, the remains of a 4700 year old Sumerian tavern was discovered in southern Iraq, complete with storage vessels still containing food, a primitive refrigiration system, an oven, benches and more than 100 serving bowls. [8]
It seems only men were professional cooks. There were no women in the royal kitchens. It is likely, though, that the women of peasant households did the cooking.
Comparing the Babylonian recipes to what we know of medieval cuisine and present-day culinary practices suggests that the stews represent an early stage of a long tradition that is still dominant in Iraqi cuisine. Today's staple of the region is stew, aromatic and flavorful, cooked with different cuts of lamb, often slightly thickened, enhanced with rendered sheep's tail fat, and flavored with a combination of spices and herbs and members of the Allium family, such as onion, garlic, and leek. These seem to be direct descendants of the Babylonian versions found on the culinary tablet with stew recipes. [9]
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