Dive Into The World's Oldest Cookbook And Enjoy 4,000-Year-Old Recipes In Your Own Home

History buffs and foodies, unite. A Yale and Harvard research team has worked to translate ancient cooking instructions from pieces of stone known as the "Yale Culinary Tablets." The stone slabs are engraved with ancient Mesopotamian recipes. 

With these instructions being unearthed, home chefs around the world are taking to their own kitchens to recreate ancient meals. That being said, the recipes left behind by home cooks of millennia past are a bit questionable, at least by today's standards. None of the recipes seem to be too complicated, and most are simply general guidelines and suggestions for how to throw together time-tested combinations. 

A lamb and milk stew called puhādi is one of the once-commonly-made dishes described on the tablets. The straightforward instructions read (via BBC), "Meat is used. You prepare water. You add fine-grained salt, dried barley cakes, onion, Persian shallot, and milk. You crush and add leek and garlic." The soup was eaten with barley cakes, similar to a biscuit or bread that might be used to soak up soup today. Versions of the stew are still enjoyed in present-day Iraq. While this version of lamb might be a bit different than the roasted style many savor today, it's comforting to know that people have been gathering around similar cuisines for thousands of years.

Ancient Mesopotamians (today, the area once known as Mesopotamia includes regions of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) seemed to cook on the fly, relying on tasting and making the most of the ingredients they had on hand. Dill, coriander, parsley, saffron, leeks, and garlic were popular flavorings. 

Most of the recipes engraved onto the tablets involve meat, including a chicken pot pie-esque dish. The instructions require intricate folding of layers of dough and chicken, and it's topped with a crust that reveals a chicken-stew-like substance inside (savory pies have long been a favorite of many cultures). Researchers have stated that they see many similarities between the ancient tablets and popular recipes in the Middle Eastern region today. Spices go far beyond salt and black pepper, and meals are left to simmer for hours, rather than relying on quick-prep methods. Ancient Mesopotamian recipes aren't the only ones that have been unearthed recently. You can enjoy a taste of ancient Rome by trying garum, a fish sauce mentioned in countless ancient Roman documents.