Tiring of festive turkey? Try lamb, Mesopotamian style. Assyrian specialist Jean Bottéro discovered ancient cooking tips when he translated cuneiform from 3500-year-old baked clay tablets found in the cabinets of the Yale Babylonian Collection. In The Oldest Cuisine in the World (Chicago), he introduces us to the tastes and methods of long-dead palace cooks, recapturing the gastronomy, rather than recipes, of a brilliant people.
It is tempting to try out the flavours he evokes. Take a piece of mutton, trim off the fat. Add the meat and fat to a pot of boiling water (the fat enriches the stock).…
