Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (2024)

Ever wanted a taste of life in an ancient civilization?

The oldest cookbook ever found was made sometime around 1600 BC in the ancient city of Babylon. It’s a set of cracked tablets engraved by an early civilization’s version of a master chef.

There are parts missing, there are words we can’t translate, and the writers didn’t bother to write down any quantities or cooking times. Still, it’s our best chance to get an idea of what it might have been like to sit down for a meal 3,600 years ago.

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (1)

Cooks at work in the royal kitchens. Relief from Ashurbanipal's palace at Nineveh 7th century BC. (Yale University Library)

The Challenges Of Recreating an Accurate Recipe

Ancient cooking, like ancient history, isn’t an exact science. There are bits and pieces we know for sure, and wide berths we have to fill in with our best guesses.

  • Gazelle Stewed in Broth and Garlic: Would You Try These 3,700-Year-Old Recipes for the Babylonian Elite?
  • 1,000-year-old Middle Eastern recipe book claims to have the ultimate hangover cure
  • Clay Tablet Reveals Ancient Babylonians Used Calculus to Track Jupiter 1,500 Years before Europeans

There are certain challenges in recreating a recipe that’s 3,600 years old. Whole parts of some of the recipes have been chipped off the tablets and lost to time, and what we can read is desperately lacking in measurements and cooking times.

Then there are the words. The recipes were written in an ancient form of Akkadian, a language that we don’t fully understand. There are a handful of words that come up time and time again that nobody is completely certain they can translate.

YBC 4644 from the Old Babylonian Period, ca. 1750 BC. (Yale University Library)

Take the word “Suhutinnu”, for example. It comes up in almost every Babylonian recipe, but we aren’t completely sure we know what it means. We know that it’s a root vegetable and that it’s usually served raw, but whether it’s a turnip or a carrot or something else is anyone’s guess.

Cooking in Ancient Babylon

The Babylonians, it’s believed, were among the first people to turn boiling meat into an art form. It was a hallmark of their cooking style: nearly every recipe started with them stuffing glob after glob of fat into a vat of boiling water.

To the Babylonians, this was such a common way of cooking that they didn’t bother to write down how to do it – and that’s one of the big challenges of recreating their meals. We’re not a hundred percent sure how much water and fat they used. Was this all supposed to come out as a sauce or a soup?

It’s a challenge anyone trying to tackle these dishes will have to figure out for themselves. Nobody knows what the proportions for these recipes are or how long anything’s supposed to be cooked.

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (2)

Servants back from a royal hunt bearing a hare and small birds. Relief from Ashurbanipal’s palace at Nineveh, 7th century BC. (Yale University Library)

The Babylonian Recipes

In this article, we’ve reprinted three recipes from ancient Babylon, both as they appeared on the original tablets and rewritten in the style of a modern recipe.

We’ll leave it to you, however, to experiment with the proportions and the cooking times. Nobody knows for sure how the Babylonians did it – but most likely the cooks just prepared the recipe however it tasted best to them.

Babylonian Lamb with Licorice and Juniper Berries

“Leg of mutton, but no other meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; dodder [wild licorice] as desired; salt to taste; cypress [juniper berries]; onion; samidu [semolina]; cumin; coriander; leek and garlic, mashed with kisimmu [sour cream or yogurt]. It is ready to serve.”

Ingredients:

  • Leg of mutton
  • Water
  • Fat
  • Wild licorice
  • Salt
  • Juniper Berries
  • Onion (sliced)
  • Semolina
  • Cumin
  • Coriander
  • Leek and garlic (mashed)
  • Sour Cream

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (3)

Example of a lamb stew with vegetables. (Jo del Corro/CC BY 2.0)

Instructions:

Combine wild licorice, cumin, coriander, leek, garlic, and salt in a shallow bowl. Set aside.

Remove any gristle from the sheep fat.

Begin boiling a pot of water over an open flame. While the water is still heating up, add several globs of fat to the water and stir until mixed.

Add the mixture of wild licorice, cumin, coriander, leek, garlic, and salt to the water and bring to a boil.

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (4)

Wild licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota), flower stalk and leaf stem. (Dcrjsr/CC BY 4.0) This is one of the ingredients in the Babylonian lamb stew recipe.

Add the mutton.

When the meat is cooked all the way through, remove the pot from the heat. Mix sour cream into the broth and serve.

Zamzaganu

“Scatter cut-up pieces of meat in a kettle and cook. Clean some baru and add to the kettle. Before removing the kettle from the fire, strain the cooking liquid and stir in mashed leek and garlic and a corresponding amount of raw suhutinnu.”

Ingredients:

  • Partridge Meat (Chopped)
  • Dates
  • Leeks (mashed)
  • Garlic (mashed)
  • Turnips (sliced)
  • Water
  • Sheep fat

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (5)

Hen with Herbs”. Laura Kelley recreates Recipe 2 from Yale tablet 8958. (Laura Kelley) This version was made with pigeon, salt, water, fat, vinegar, semolina, leek, garlic, shallots, tulip bulb, yogurt or sour cream, and “greens.”

Instructions:

Remove any gristle from the sheep fat.

Begin boiling a pot of water over an open flame. While the water is still heating up, add several globs of fat to the water and stir until mixed.

When the water begins to boil, add the partridge meat and the dates.

When the meat is cooked all the way through, strain the fatty water into a bowl and set aside. Place the cooked meat and dates on a plate.

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (6)

Dates. (CC0)

Add the mashed leeks, garlic, and raw turnips to the water. Use the liquid as a sauce, dolloped generously onto the meat, and serve hot.

Zukanda:

“Meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; dill; suhutinnu; coriander; leek and garlic, bound with blood; a corresponding amount of kisimmu [sour cream or yogurt] and more garlic.”

Our Best Guess of Ingredients:

  • Lamb meat
  • Water
  • Fat
  • Dill
  • Turnips
  • Coriander
  • Leeks (mashed)
  • Garlic (mashed)
  • Lamb’s blood
  • Sour Cream
  • Ancient Monastery Recreates Beer Based on Historic Recipe by British Soldiers
  • Alchemical Recipe for a Homunculus: Sperm + Rotting Meat = Mini Artificial Human
  • By the Rivers of Babylon: Life in Ancient Babylon’s Thriving Jewish Community

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (7)

Lamb shanks in a stew. (E4024/CC BY SA 4.0)

Instructions:

In a bowl, mix the mashed leeks and garlic with lamb’s blood.

Remove any gristle from the fat.

Begin boiling a pot of water over an open flame. While the water is still heating up, add several globs of fat to the water and stir until mixed.

When the water comes to a boil, add the lamb meat, carrots, coriander, and the mixture of leeks, garlic, and blood.

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (8)

Garlic – this recipe includes lots of it! (CC0)

Remove from heat when the meat is cooked all the way the through. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with slices of garlic.

Top Image: Example of a lamb stew with vegetables. (Jo del Corro/CC BY 2.0)Hen with Herbs”. Laura Kelley recreates Recipe 2 from Yale tablet 8958. (Laura Kelley) Lamb shanks in a stew. (E4024/CC BY SA 4.0) YBC 4644, a tablet with a Babylonian recipe, ca. 1750 BC. (Yale University Library)

ByMark Oliver

Bottero, Jean. The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia. Trans. Teresa Lavender fa*gan. The University of Chicago Press, 2004. https://books.google.com/books?id=PxnaaTzC8tMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Kelley, Laura. “Some Mesopotamian Ingredients Revealed.” The Silk Road Gourmet. March 16, 2010. Web. https://www.silkroadgourmet.com/some-mesopotamian-ingredients-revealed/

Slotsky, Alice L. “Cuneiform Cuisine: Culinary History Reborn at Brown University. “ SBL Forum. 2007. https://www.sbl-site.org/publications/article.aspx?ArticleId=703

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today (2024)

FAQs

What foods did they eat in Babylon? ›

The Babylonians ate melons, plums, prunes and dates. Barley was their staple crop that they would make flat breads with. The bread would then be eaten with some fruit. For meat they ate pork, poultry, beef, fish and mutton (sheep meat).

What did the Babylonians make? ›

The Babylonian Empire had many inventions in many fields. These included the first written language, advanced geometry and astronomy, innovations in irrigation, and double-levelled walls, which were constructed all around Babylon.

What is the world's oldest recipe? ›

Nettle Pudding

Originating in 6000 BCE, England; it is the oldest dish of the world that's rich in nutrients. Nettle pudding is made with stinging nettles (wild leafy plant), breadcrumbs, suet, onions, and other herbs and spices. This dish is steam cooked until it attains a mousse-like consistency.

What was important to Babylonians as they tried to make a living? ›

Hammurabi's Code may get all the attention, but barley and wool were the mainstays of Babylonian day-to-day life and commerce.

What did Babylonians eat for dinner? ›

Not unlike today's chefs, the ancient Babylonians favored recipes of stews filled with savory meats, herbaceous herbs, and earthy vegetables.

What did Babylonians eat for lunch? ›

The main dish was often meat, such as lamb or beef, which was cooked on an open fire or in an oven. Vegetables, fruits, and grains were also commonly served, along with a variety of sauces and spices to add flavor. Drinks were an important part of Babylonian meals, and beer was the most common beverage.

What is Babylon called today? ›

Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq about 85 kilometers south of modern day Baghdad.

What is Babylon today? ›

Today, Babylon is located within modern-day Iraq, roughly 50 miles south of Baghdad. The city originally dates to around 2,000 BCE, and over several millennia it has encompassed a blend of artistic, architectural, and cultural achievements under different empires.

What made Babylon rich? ›

Hammurabi turned Babylon into a rich, powerful and influential city. He created one of the world's earliest and most complete written legal codes. Known as the Code of Hammurabi, it helped Babylon surpass other cities in the region. Babylonia, however, was short-lived.

Who is the first recipe? ›

The earliest known written recipes date to 1730 BC and were recorded on cuneiform tablets found in Mesopotamia. Other early written recipes date from approximately 1600 BC and come from an Akkadian tablet from southern Babylonia. There are also works in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depicting the preparation of food.

Who wrote the first recipe? ›

It was captured on clay tablets as part of a hymn to a goddess named Ninkasi, dedicated to beer. The first recorded cookbook that is still in print today is Of Culinary Matters (originally, De Re Coquinaria), written by Apicius, in fourth century AD Rome.

Where was the first recipes? ›

The earliest surviving recipes, which give instructions for a series of meaty stews, are inscribed on cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia. Recipes also survive from ancient Egypt, Greece, China, and Persia. For millennia, however, most people weren't literate and never wrote down cooking instructions.

Why did God destroy Babylon? ›

Babylon symbolizes evil. God destroyed Babylon, a wicked city in the ancient world (see Isaiah 13:19–22; Jeremiah 51:37, 52–58).

Where is Babylon today? ›

Where is Babylon? Babylon, one of the most famous cities from any ancient civilisation, was the capital of Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia. Today, that's about 60 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq.

What city is Babylon today? ›

Babylon, Ancient Middle Eastern city. The city's ruins are located about 55 mi (89 km) south of Baghdad, near the modern city of Al-Ḥillah, Iraq. Babylon was one of the most famous cities in antiquity.

What meats did Babylonians eat? ›

Poultry and Meat Dishes: Babylonians enjoyed a variety of meats including beef, mutton, and pork. Poultry was also a popular choice, especially chicken and pigeon. These meats were often cooked with various herbs and spices and served with bread.

Did Babylonians eat chicken? ›

Chicken as a meat has been depicted in Babylonian carvings from around 600 BC. And it was one of the most common meats available in the Middle Ages.

What vegetables were grown in Babylon? ›

Grains, such as barley and wheat, legumes including lentils and chickpeas, beans, onions, garlic, leeks, melons, eggplants, turnips, lettuce, cucumbers, apples, grapes, plums, figs, pears, dates, pomegranates, apricots, pistachios and a variety of herbs and spices were all grown and eaten by Mesopotamians.

What crops did the Babylonians grow? ›

The main cereal crop cultivated was barley and this was the main crop used for rations and for fodder. Emmer-wheat and bread-wheat were also grown, as were a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, including onions, chickpeas, lentils, dates, figs and pomegranates.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Jamar Nader

Last Updated:

Views: 5914

Rating: 4.4 / 5 (55 voted)

Reviews: 94% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Jamar Nader

Birthday: 1995-02-28

Address: Apt. 536 6162 Reichel Greens, Port Zackaryside, CT 22682-9804

Phone: +9958384818317

Job: IT Representative

Hobby: Scrapbooking, Hiking, Hunting, Kite flying, Blacksmithing, Video gaming, Foraging

Introduction: My name is Jamar Nader, I am a fine, shiny, colorful, bright, nice, perfect, curious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.