The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia [Hardcover]

Jean Bottero (Author), Teresa Lavender Fagan (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2004

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.

(20040801)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[These recipes] shed light on aspects of social life related to food preparation and eating at the time. Here we are given intriguing, sometimes alluring quotes, on processes of preparation and what the Mesopotamians ate. Often the author has to patch and bridge from the fragmentary bits; what certain items and methods might have been, but he does this with the support of his considerable scholarship, and with a flare that suggests that M. Bottéro must be an accomplished cook himself. These rare recipes carefully reconstructed and sometimes deduced can seem surprisingly modern, yet this book is ever fascinating. . . . It makes one yearn to know more about these ancient sophisticates, as revealed in the swirling robes and haughty profiles of reliefs in the British Museum and in Berlin. Economically illustrated, with neat chapter headings, it is elegantly presented. The engaging chapters go from the practical to the mythical. Truly a wonderful read.”

(History Today )

“An enticing new book of Ancient Mesopotamian recipes.”

(Times )

From the Inside Flap

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 millenniums 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. As Bottéro concludes, although the ingredients may have differed, food was prepared in a manner astoundingly similar to how we do it today. Such 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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (April 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226067351
• ISBN-13: 978-0226067353
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #858,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Culinary historians, take note!, August 3, 2008

By 

Jacqualyn Saunders "alkudsi" (Carrollton, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful piece of scholarship, with a practical purpose. To my knowledge, this is a group of some of the earliest recipes ever translated. I have Apicius, and have done some of the recipes in it, but this takes culinary history back at least 1000 years earlier, and shows some fascinating parallels with both Middle Eastern/Persian cooking and Chinese. My only regrets or complaints are that we still do not know the translation behind some of the ingredients, which makes it difficult to actually try them, and that the clay tablets were damaged in places, which makes the list of ingredients incomplete in places. But the avenue of research is fascinating, and holds some real interesting keys to later cooking styles.

A must-have if culinary history interests you!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great book with some printing mistakes, October 10, 2009

By 

Paolo Benassi "Food scholar" (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia (Hardcover)

The Oldest Cuisine in the World is a fascinating book, presenting the interconnections between food and history in an amazing and clear style.

The book is beautifully printed, but unfortunately it appears that certain information have been omitted, and it is not clear if by mistake or for some other reasons.

For example at page 90 the ideogram for beer is supposed to be indicated on the second line; in fact the text states "highly evocative of the brewery!" and then leaves a space before the next sentence which I suppose should show the ideogram.

Again at page 129 in note 80 the ideograms for mouth and water are shown, but the sentence states "which through progressive stylization became.... (empty space).

I am now researching the original French edition of the book to find out the answer to this puzzle, as the U.S. printer (University of Chicago Press) did not reply to my question.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly paper, August 7, 2010

By 

Maria C. S. Guimaraes "macguima" (Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia (Hardcover)

A scholarly research paper by a well known scientist on Assyrian history. Very curious and enlightining to find out what an ancient civilization ate and drank. Don't go looking for yummy treats however. Taste buds evolved hugely in 4,500 years.