Book of Days Tales

On this date in 587 BCE the forces of the Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar II sacked Jerusalem, destroyed Solomon’s Temple and forced the king of Judah and the elite of the country, including priests, scribes, and nobility to travel to Babylon and live in exile there in a period that became known as the Babylonian Captivity. This period is of major importance in the development of Judaism and Jewish law as recounted in many scholarly texts – including my own.

Yale University has a series of clay tablets from the Old Babylonian empire – many hundreds of years before the Exile, that give insight into Babylonian cooking in antiquity.  The recipes tend to be brief and vague.  For example:

Split a pigeon in half—add other meat. Prepare water, add fat and salt to taste; breadcrumbs, onion, samidu, leeks, and garlic (first soak the herbs in milk). When it is cooked, it is ready to serve.

Some of the ingredients are obscure, but the general idea of the recipes seems clear enough.  Here is my interpretation (without exact measurements) of a lamb stew.  Persian shallots are not like ordinary shallots. They are a separate species in the onion family. You can get them dried or frozen online.

Render some lamb fat in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat.  Turn up the heat, add cubed lamb and brown. Add sliced onions, chopped Persian shallots, and chopped spring onions, and cover with half and half beer and water (or sheep’s milk and water).  Season with cilantro leaves and ground cumin. Bring to a simmer.  Place chopped garlic and sliced leeks in a mortar and smash them with a pestle until they are mashed to a paste.  Add the paste to the stew.  Keep simmering until the lamb is tender – 2 hours or more.  Towards the end of the cooking time thicken the broth with breadcrumbs (from barley bread if you can find it).  Serve with flatbread.