Sumerian Street Food: The Oldest Carryout on Earth

Ancient Sumeria was home to some of the oldest human cities on record. They hold claim to the oldest written word and oldest code of laws. The also established a major agricultural network which fed one of the fist true urban populations. Sumerian city dwellers usually lacked the space or facilities to cook in their own homes, and so relied on food stalls which lined the city's street for their daily meals. Here is my attempt to recreate a Sumerian take-out dinner.

The raw ingredients: Sesame seeds, parsley, chickpeas, barley flour, lamb, coriander, hyssop, leeks, onion, garlic, cucumber, mustard greens, dates, goat milk, sheep's fat, and ale.

The first step is to flavor our fat. The fat of the sheep's tail was the most common cooking medium, predating olive oil. In its absence, pig's fat or sesame oil would have also been used. Sheep's fat was by far the favorite and lent its flavor to almost every dish. Here we fry our spices.

Toss in the onion and garlic.

When near finished add the hyssop. Hyssop is an aromatic and so cannot withstand extensive cooking. It lends a pleasant flowery aroma and taste. Strain this fat out and reserve it.

Now let's make our bread. Risen bread was still some years off, so the Sumerians would have dined on flat breads not unlike pancakes. The principal grains were barley and millet, which thrived before wheat began its meteoric rise. Here we have 2 cups barley flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup fat.

Toss in a handful of sesame seeds

Add water until you have a workable dough. It shouldn't be loose, but you don't want any dry spots either. Let it set while you slaughter a sheep.

Mutton was by far the most popular meat in ancient Sumeria. Chickens had not yet arrived from India and cows were far too valuable as draft animals.

Season your meat with fat, cumin, coriander, and onions. Let that all sink in for a while.

Now lets start our vegetable stew. By and large the mainstay of the common Sumerian was a rich stew of beans and vegetables. Here we are adding leeks, garlic, and mustard greens to fat.

Let everything cook down.

Add in your chick peas (a calorie source second only to bread in ancient Sumeria).

Dump in a good dose of ale. The Sumerians weren't the first to invent fermentation, but the were certainly the first to implement it on a massive scale. Beer, unlike fetid irrigation water, is fairly sterile. As much as 40% of the grain grown in Sumeria wasn't eaten but rather drunk. Sumeria is home to the first beer purity laws, which read similar to Germany's modern incarnation.

While that all stews, prepare a towering inferno,

Once that is complete let everything settle down until you have glowing coals.

Now is a great time to get your bread ready.

Roll the barley into flat cakes, about 6" across. The dough will be brittle because it lacks gluten.

Make as many as you can.  Dust with flour.

Toss your lamb on the flame.

In the meantime place your barley cakes on a well greased griddle. The oven was still many years away, so baking was done on flat surfaces.

Flip them after about a minute.

The one on the bottom left didn't fare so well...

Once your lamb is good and charred take it off and let it set. Chop it up into bite sized portions.

Here are our finished barley cakes.

Here are our final results. Notice that everything is bite sized. In the era before forks, everything was a finger food.

The final menu:
Lamb,
Barley bread,
Vegetable stew,
Ale,
Raw onion and cucumber,
Fresh dates,
A nice swig of goat milk for dessert