The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia

by Jean Bottéro, Teresa Lavender Fagan (Translation)

In this intriguing blend of the commonplace and the ancient, Jean Bottéro presents the first extensive look at the delectable secrets of Mesopotamia. Bottéro’s broad perspective takes us inside the religious rites, everyday rituals, attitudes and taboos, and even the detailed preparation techniques involving food and drink in Mesopotamian high culture during the second and third millennia BCE, as the Mesopotamians recorded them.  Offering everything from translated recipes for pigeon and gazelle stews, the contents of medicinal teas and broths, and the origins of ingredients native to the region, this book reveals the cuisine of one of history’s most fascinating societies. Links to the modern world, along with incredible recreations of a rich, ancient culture through its cuisine, make Bottéro’s guide an entertaining and mesmerizing read.

Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction, Food History, Cooking, Cookbooks, France

152 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2004

About the author

Jean Bottéro (30 August 1914 – 15 December 2007) was a French historian born in Vallauris. He was a major Assyriologist and a renowned expert on the Ancient Near East.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bot...
http://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/ar...

Reviews

[Matthew Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite what other reviews said, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It WAS a little academic, but the author clearly explains that, as well as the purpose of the book, in the first few pages.
Due to the nature of the subject, it was fairly dry in certain areas, but that is to be expected. It is non-fiction after all. Overall, I didn't find it dense, but extremely interesting and well-written.

I give this a 4.5. Definitely worth a read if you're interested in the topic.

[Hearth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too bad more scholars don't write about food and other everyday topics. I loved this book. I have written more about it on my blog. http://hearthmoonblog.com/cuisine-of-...

[Eli Hinze · Rating 5 out of 5]

At long last, we have insight into Mesopotamian culinary traditions and preparation methods!
This book covers everything from the cooking tools used, haute cuisine vs. simpler cuisine vs. sustenance, food for the gods and for the dead, the different people involved in the cooking process, how they kept their records, how they cooked their food, some influential myths surrounding food, how soldiers ate, and so on. (Some of these cooking methods are still used in the region and surrounding areas today.) A rich source of information for my upcoming books! 👀

[Maria Monserrat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un 7!

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun. The odd work written by a scholar for a popular audience that seems to both further the state of understanding of its subject and remain accessible. Cooking in Akkad doesn't sound like it was awesome, but I was surprised by how similar many techniques were to present practices.

[Basel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first human who decided to season his/her food, to make it taste better, was one of the inventors of civilization and culture. Feeding is one thing, but when the human species starting cooking its food while flavoring with whatever spices and herbs they had, eating stopped being just a method of nourishment. It became something much more. The Oldest Cuisine in The World is a lovely book by the renowned French historian and assyriologist Jean Bottéro in which he takes us on a journey to the culinary world of ancient Mesopotamia. He starts by providing us with a complete translation of the Yale culinary tablets, which are 3 Akkadian and Sumerian tablets from about 4000 years ago. They contain detailed descriptions of various Mesopotamian cooking recipes with the ingredients, making them effectively the oldest cooking book in the world (that we know of) and a value insight into ancient Mesopotamia! Then takes us on a lovely trip the role of food and drink in the different Mesopotamian cultures, from the mundane, to the royal, and finally to the sacred.

The human species has been feeding itself for millennia, and that does not mean the Mesopotamians are the only people to see food as a delicacy rather than just substance. However, these documents, and the many other mentions of food and cookery discovered in Mesopotamia, are indeed the oldest historical documents we know of about food, and such documents are very scarce. Knowing say, Bottéro chose to write this book to the common reader and not to make it very academic. It is not meant to be seen as a very detailed investigation in everything food and drink, but to try, the best way he can, letting us join a people who lived million from us. So it is a great reading not only if you love food (the recipes are very interesting), but also if you want to know more about human history.

[Elham Lemeur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book absolutely fascinating and so well written.
The book is full of ancient words that require intense concentration.
The descriptions of Mesopotamian cooking recipes are remarkably detailed. Every time I proudly thought I had memorized an ancient word, well in the following paragraph, a sign or a dot had changed it-making me doubt. No-no-no, we do not improvise as an Akkadian or Babylonian linguistic specialist by reading someone else's life work!

I read this book because I was researching the culinary world of ancient Mesopotamia while writing my own novel.
This book is a true study - that's heavy duty! Although It comes in a small, thin and compact format - with only 192 pages.
The history and mythology of Mesopotamia alternate with culinary recipes that follow one another. As an anecdote, I tried in my own kitchen the famous spicy pastry called «Mersu», mentioned at the P43-I’m not kidding.
What passion in this work! Jean Bottéro would have deserved to live this ancient era-which he cherished no doubt.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting of early Mesopotamian cooking, based on three cuneiform tablets dating back to 1600 BCE. some fascinating information about the kind of foods people ate, how food was used for rituals and daily living, and partial recipes with some unknown ingredients that can't be translated. A great look at a neglected field of archeology.

[NİLGÜN BOZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dünyanın en eski mutfak kültürü olan Mezopotamya'da Sümerler, Akadlar ve bir cok kültüre ait olan eski yazıtlarda ortaya çıkarılan belgelere dayanarak ortaya konmuş bir çalışmanın ürünü. Benim gibi tarih ve mitolojiye bayılanlar için harika bir kitaptı.

[Javier Pavía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro responde a una pregunta que seguro que os hacéis a diario: ¿qué comían los sumerios? Pese a la premisa, es muy ameno de leer, no entra en detalles sobre la civilización y su historia y se centra en el tema.

A partir de tres tablillas (o sea, muy poco material) consigue reconstruir una dieta a base de cereales y cerveza, además de carne y especias.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ouvrage truffé d’informations, de textes et d’une large contextualisation culturelle du Manger et du Boire en Mésopotamie. Recherches intéressantes, points de vue toujours riches de l’auteur.

[Miquela · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did enjoy this book, I went into it with false expectations set up by the blurb ("Offering everything from translated recipes for pigeon and gazelle stews, the contents of medicinal teas and broths,..."). It gives the impression that one might be able to try the recipes included within, but unless you have a very active imagination and some powers to see into the past, good luck on that one.

I cannot and do not fault Bottero's scholarship at all. I don't believe that Bottero had a hand in writing the marketing synopsis; if he did, after reading the book to its conclusion, I'm sure the emphasis would have been quite different.

The book was interesting, though, and if I had been reading it for pleasure rather than with specific research questions in mind, I would have enjoyed it more.

[María Luisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro fascinante, no tanto por las recetas que recoge como por lo cercanas que son a nuestra propia tradición culinaria. En "La cocina más antigua del mundo", el autor nos invita a un viaje a la antigua Mesopotamia a través de un conocimiento milenario y universal, como es el de la gastronomía y el amor a la comida. Cuando supe de la existencia de este libro lo busqué hasta dar con él, y no me defraudó.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A French Sumeriologist (?) gets in touch with his inner gourmand to parse the 3 or 4 known cuneiform tablets about fine dining. Yummy for the brain but unfortunately not the tongue. There are no Mesopotamian cafes in Seattle, but how about San Francisco?