u/SandakinTheTriplet

It saddens me that a previous post about this tablet got so much traction with an AI image of a "cuneiform" tablet. Hopefully this post is allowed to stand.

This tablet was highlighted on the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative by Klaus Wagensonner, and I've copied his write-up here: 

>This tablet is one of three Old Babylonian manuscripts housed in the Yale Babylonian Collection that are inscribed with the world’s earliest cooking recipes. The tablet presented here includes twenty-five recipes for stews or broths, each very short. The stews are based on water and fat, sometimes enriched with beer, milk, or blood for thickening and taste. In most cases, meat is added, as well as vegetables—onion, garlic, and leek—and condiments such as cumin, coriander, and (in the case of an “Elamite” stew) dill. The stews were simmered for an extended time before they were served. Here is the translation of one of the recipes: Wild-pigeon broth: You split up the wild pigeon; (other) meat is (also) used. You prepare water. You add fat. Fine-grained salt, dried barley cakes, onion, Persian shallot, leek, and garlic: you soak (these) herbs of yours in milk, and (the dish) is ready to serve. The tablet ends with a subscript summarizing the dishes previously described as “twenty-one meat stews and four vegetable-based (dishes).” 

Below is a translation of one of the meat stews and one of the vegetable dishes from this tablet you can follow, along with a video from the Yale interdisciplinary team cooking them: https://babylonian-collection.yale.edu/about/babylonian-cooking

Babylonian lamb stew with beets

Recipes are for 2 full portions or 15 bite-size servings

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of diced leg of mutton or lamb
• 1/2 cup of rendered sheep fat
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of beer
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 cup of chopped arugula
• 1 cup of Persian shallots or spring onions
• 1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 pound of fresh red beets, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup of chopped leek
• 2 cloves of garlic

For the garnish:

• 2 teaspoons of dry coriander seed
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped kurrat or ramps/wild leek

Instructions:

1. Heat the fat in a pot wide enough for the diced lamb to spread in one layer.
2. Add lamb and sear on high heat until all moisture evaporates.
3. Fold in the onion, and keep cooking until it is almost transparent.
4. Fold in red beet, arugula, cilantro, Persian shallots and cumin. Keep on folding until the moisture evaporates and ingredients emit a pleasant aroma.
5. Pour in the beer. Add water. Give the pot a light stir. Bring the pot to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and add leek and garlic that you crush in a mortar.
7. Let the stew simmer until the sauce thickens after about an hour.
8. Chop kurrat and fresh cilantro and pound it into a paste using a mortar.
9. Ladle the stew into plates and sprinkle with dry coriander seed and the kurrat and cilantro paste. The dish can be served with steamed bulgur and naan-bread.

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“Unwinding”, which makes a loaf of sourdough bread and broth

Recipes are for 2 full portions or 15 bite-size servings

Ingredients:

• 14 ounces barley seeds
• ¾ cup warm water
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ ounce kurrāth or spring onion
• ¼ ounce cilantro
• 2 cloves of garlic 
• 3½ ounces leeks 
• 2 tablespoons oil of untoasted sesame 
• 6 ¼ cups water
• ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

**For making the sourdough bread (**bappiru ‘beer-bread’):

1. Wash the seeds and soak them in water overnight. Dry them, toast them lightly, and then grind them into flour.
2. Make the flour into dough by adding warm water. Let it ferment slowly for about 12 hours in the refrigerator.  
3. Shape dough into clumps, sprinkle them with salt, and bake them in a medium-hot oven (375ºF) for about 20 minutes, or until they are done. Let the bread cool completely and then coarsely crush it.

   

For making the broth:

1. Chop kurrāth or spring onion and cilantro, and set aside. 
2. Pound the garlic and leeks together into paste using a mortar.
3. Heat the sesame oil in a pot and add the mashed garlic and leeks, stirring constantly, until they start to produce a pleasant aroma, a few minutes.
4. Add water and salt, stir the pot, and let it simmer gently for about an hour. About 15 minutes before the pot is done, stir in the set-aside chopped leeks and cilantro.   
5. Just before removing the pot from the fire, scatter the crushed bread all over the stew, give it a gentle stir, and then serve it.

 

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Sources

Yale University Library*: https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-BC-018709

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI)**: https://cdli.earth/artifacts/291955

Tablet translation by Bottéro, Jean (1987). "The Culinary Tablets at Yale". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 107 (1): 11–19. doi:10.2307/602948. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 602948.

Additional Resources

1. Another great write up of this tablet's translations from Klaus Wagensonner on CDLI: https://cdli.earth/cdli-tablet/725
2. Max Miller on Tasting History making the "Babylonian lamb stew with beets": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IYYhoO-hiY
3. Additional reading from the Chapter 9 "Food in Ancient Mesopotamia. Cooking the Yale Babylonian Culinary Recipes." in "Ancient Mesopotamia Speaks" by G. Barjamovic, P.J. Gonzalez, C. Graham, A.W. Lassen, N. Nasrallah, P. Sörensen Pp. 108-125 https://www.academia.edu/40639453/_2019d_G_Barjamovic_P_J_Gonzalez_C_Graham_A_W_Lassen_N_Nasrallah_P_S%C3%B6rensen_Food_in_Ancient_Mesopotamia_Cooking_the_Yale_Babylonian_Culinary_Recipes_Pp_108_125_in_Ancient_Mesopotamia_Speaks_ed_A_Lassen_E_Frahm_and_K_Wagensonner_New_Haven_CT_Yale_Peabody
4. The oldest version of this post I could find on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/377f3w/babylonian_clay_tablet_written_in_akkadian/

*You will likely get a pop up about the collections data portal being redesigned, but if you click "continue to portal" it will still take you to the correct page. Also, the tablet's current museum ID number is YPM BC 018709. The original ID was YBC 04644. Both IDs will get you the tablet in a search.

**A note on the Cuneiform Digital Library: the server is... slow. If the page isn't responding please give it 10-20 seconds.