4000-Year-Old Babylonian Recipes

The professor cooked some of the oldest recipes existing from a Mesopotamian tablet and his thread went viral

Bill’s Babylonian dining consisted of 4 intricate dishes and a loaf of bread

Bill heard about the recipes from Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid, who’s “a real expert on Mesopotamian culture.” He bought the book about the Yale Collection and thought “it would be fun to try and cook them.“

This was about an hour of planning and a couple of hours cooking,” said Bill. But in no way did he expect so many to take interest in his peculiar Twitter thread. “Currently, 3.7 million people have seen this,” the professor said in disbelief.

Simply delicious lamb stew with a sharp edge

Bill also said the instructions were “astonishingly terse” and “perplexing.” That’s why he sometimes had to make guesses, like “I didn’t fry the onion and garlic that was sprinkled on top as it wasn’t in the recipe.” He also “added the sourdough breadcrumbs and then baked it so it was like a crumble, but perhaps I should have used it as a sauce thickener.”

Show-stealer Tuh’u packed with flavor

Having said that, the recipes were surprisingly easy to cook. “You probably wouldn’t consider them odd if served to you.” The professor said they all had lots of leek, onions, garlic, and coriander, which he enjoyed.

Bill’s favorite one was a lamb stew with barley cakes made by his daughter Tessa. “I sprinkled a couple of cakes in and they made a lovely thick stew.” I mean, who’d ever need a restaurant when you’ve got these?

Laden with bread crumbs, the “Unwinding” looks cool but lacked some character

This modern version of Elamite broth has no sheep’s blood in it

Apparently, there’s a whole book dedicated to Babylonian cuisine