ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN COOKOFF CHALLENGE

..was browsing the BAR (Biblical Archaeology Review) Magazine website( www.bib-arch.org/bar/) and noticed in the "brand New" section onthe right hand side of the main page an article entitled: "Ancient Mesopotamian Cookoff Challenge Underway--August 19, 2011...lick on that headline and you get toan article thattels how LAURA KELLEY,author of THE SILK ROAD GOURMET,has challengerd other chefsto create dishes inspired from lists of ingredients for dishes thatwere found on ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets...some of the dishes specified are Meat with Wild Licorice,Lamb withBarley and Mint,and MERSU an ancient dish filled with dates and pistachios...the tab lets list ingredients for these dishes but not exact recipies and proportions..So it isuptoeach chef sub mitting recipies for the challenge to come up wuith their own inspired creations for these dishes and filling in the details and cokong directions..
The challenge fgoes from August 1-Sept. 30th ..The article has a link to Kelley's website where there are posted recipies sub mitted for the challenge.

The ones posted already look yummy...Go take a look...

What a fun read, great photos and the recipes sound intriguing. I never gave a thought to ancient cooking in the sense of doing it in my kitchen. Nor did I know there is a whole community out there who studies it. Apparently neither did the chef who mentioned the fact. Wow, this would be a great conversation starter during our next night out with some non foodie friends who already think I am way over the top because I ask questions of the wait staff, such as..."did you source your sweet basil locally?" I get a kick out of doing things like that!

[Jenise]

THANK YOU so much for posting this, Michael. Love this kind of challenge--I've printed out the Yale Tablet recipes and will devise a contribution real soon. Hope others do as well.

I did not read the recipes thoroughly but I would guess that the ancients did not have a large supply of splendid loins and roasts. I'd guess that a lot of their recipes would be meat pies (think kibbeh or bric), chopped/formed (think falafel), or just stews. The person who stuffed dates with everything was a good guesser, in my opinion.

[Jenise]

I did not read the recipes thoroughly but I would guess that the ancients did not have a large supply of splendid loins and roasts. I'd guess that a lot of their recipes would be meat pies (think kibbeh or bric), chopped/formed (think falafel), or just stews. The person who stuffed dates with everything was a good guesser, in my opinion.

Some of the ingredients are quite surprising. Like tulip bulbs. I may have to go dig one up. Arugula surprised me too, for being so ancient.

Like tulip bulbs. I may have to go dig one up. .

Take care. I remember reading of starving Dutch people dying from eating tulip bulbs in WWII.

A quick google is inconclusive, seemingly toxic when raw but some sites say OK cooked, but there is a 2009 report of a tulip bulb getting mixed in with onions used for making soup

A dozen primary school pupils needed hospital treatment after eating a daffodil bulb in a cookery class, a Suffolk council has said.

The children, from Gorseland Primary School in Martlesham Heath, fell ill after mistakenly adding the bulb to a soup on Friday.

Daffodil bulbs are poisonous and can be fatal if eaten in large quantities. source http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/8031344.stm

[Jenise]

Like tulip bulbs. I may have to go dig one up. .

Take care. I remember reading of starving Dutch people dying from eating tulip bulbs in WWII.

Ai yi yi! Good find, Peter, thanks.

[Jenise]

Take care. I remember reading of starving Dutch people dying from eating tulip bulbs in WWII.

Pete, I spent last Saturday with an elderly storyteller of the nearby Lummi Nation (native Americans). She was bemoaning all the wild foods she grew up on that they no longer have, and I asked if there was any movement similar to that in white America to find and bring back those heirloom foods. She said yes, nd among the things she mentioned was something "kind of like a tulip" called, and I'm going to spell this phonetically as I'm unfamiliar with it, a 'cam-us'. She said there were various species of it but she was pretty sure "the one with the blue flowers" was the one that was excellent eating where some of the others are unpleasant if not downright toxic. She hasn't seen them growing hereabouts in years, but they're a delicacy of sorts they bring back when anyone in the tribe travels to Yakima in Eastern Washington, where they're grown as a crop, at a certain time of year.

So, not that she's an expert, but it sheds some light on the some are/some aren't thing at least as it exists in my neck of the woods. Which is not Mesopotamia, but probably a similar condition the world over. Like mushrooms.