Ancient Babylonian Lamb Stew

When most people think of Babylon they think the Code of Hammurabi, the Great Ishtar Gate, or the Hanging Gardens, but me, well I think of fat-tailed sheep, and today I'll be making a broth of lamb that originally in 1740 BC may have included some fat-tailed sheep. So thank you to Crowd Cow for sponsoring this video as we travel back 4,000 years to dine as Babylonians, this time on Tasting History. This recipe comes from the Yale Babylonian tablets and is usually translated as broth of lamb, though what we end up with is more of a stew than a broth but close enough. Broth of lamb. Meat is used. You prepare water. You add fat. You add fine-grained salt, risnatu, onion, Persian shallot, and milk. You crush leek and garlic. Vague but succinct which is the exact opposite of me as I am specific yet long-winded. Also thank you to Gojko Varyamovic, a seriologist at Harvard University for helping me with this video. His translations and insight into everything Babylon are invaluable. Now what's interesting is that Gojko is on the cutting edge of translating this language, and you'd kind of think that a topic like Babylon would be rather set in stone or wedged in clay, but it's not. The understanding of the language and the culture is constantly evolving and there's still some debate about certain words, and one of those words is risnatu. Undoubtedly this is some sort of grain, probably barley, and a liquid that are put together to form cakes but everything beyond that is kind of conjecture. What was the liquid? Should they be flavored? And how are they used in this recipe? Everything's a bit unknown and so like so many ancient recipes we're just going to have to be okay with knowing that whatever we do we're almost undoubtedly wrong. That said I made several versions, some that were more bread like, some that I used full groats which were very, very crumbly and didn't really, really work for this, and then the one that I'm going to do today is somewhere in between but again who knows. So for this recipe what you'll need is one cup or 140 grams of barley flour, one third cup or 75 milliliters of water, a quarter cup or 60 milliliters of olive oil or melted ghee, a half teaspoon of salt. So that is for the risnatu. For the rest of the broth you'll need one quart or one liter of hot water, a half cup or 100 grams of fat. Now the word used here specifically refers to animal fat and it was probably the fat from a fat tail sheep. Unfortunately in the U.S. it's very hard to get a hold of that fat and if you can it's usually really, really expensive. We found it but if you had to have it shipped in and you couldn't order any less than 100 pounds that was not going to happen. So you can use any rendered sheep fat or tallow or lard. They're going to work as well and they would have had them. Two teaspoons of sea salt, one onion diced, a quarter cup or 50 grams of chopped Persian shallot. So here's one that is also really hard to find and you're going to be hard pressed to find a real substitute. It kind of tastes like a mild radish and nothing like a shallot, and then it leaves this garlic aftertaste like minutes and minutes after you eat it. It's very odd and very good but you can find dried Persian shallot online. That's what I'm using so just take a handful, put it into water for about an hour and you will have enough for your quarter cup. Two cups or 475 milliliters sheep milk. You can also use cow or goat. A half cup of chopped leek, four to five cloves of garlic, and one pound or 450 grams of lamb cut into large bite-sized pieces. You can use any cut you want but I am using lamb shank that came from our sponsor Crowd Cow. Crowd Cow is a marketplace for high quality meat and seafood. Grass-fed, pasture-raised, or wild-caught their selection is top-notch and is wonderfully varied from turkey and pork chops to wagyu beef to harder to find meats like venison and boar. What I love is the connection that you get with the farm where the meat comes from. The award-winning lamb I'm using today comes from Cedar Park Grazing in Riddle, Oregon, and last night I made pan-seared scallops which came from Bristol Seafood, a family-owned and operated company from Portland, Maine. They were soft and buttery and paired very well with my pasta alfredo. The diet starts tomorrow I promise. And with the craziness of the holidays coming up Crowd Cow is a wonderfully convenient way to get all of your holiday meat. Everything is vacuum sealed, frozen at peak freshness and then sustainably shipped to your door. Become a member for free and save 5% off of everything you add to your box, and for a limited time they are offering new members $100 worth of free meat plus free shipping when you sign up and order using my link in the description below. Now back to the lamb. Actually we have to make our risotto first. So mix the barley flour and salt in a bowl and then add the water and the oil and mix. Once you have a ragged dough form it into little cakes and set them on a baking sheet into the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit or 220 Celsius for about 25 minutes. Then turn off the oven but leave them in there to dry. We want to get them nice and dry, not as dry as hardtack but dry enough that they'll easily crumble and that is what you're going to do next. You want to grind some up into almost like a flour and then also leave a few larger pieces that we can use as croutons later on. Then for the stew take your onion and saute it in a pan with just a little oil for about 7 minutes or until they're translucent. While they cook take a large pot and melt a little bit of the fat in it and then add the lamb and sprinkle a bit of salt in and sear the lamb on all sides until it begins to brown. Then pour the hot water over the meat and add the rest of the salt and the rest of the fat. Bring it to a boil and then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Then take the sauteed onion and add that to the pot, and the Persian shallot, the milk, and most of the risotto crumbs. You're serving just a few of the bigger pieces for later. Then let that simmer for about 20 minutes. While it simmers put the garlic in a mortar and grind it into a paste and then add the leek and mash them together. Then add that to the simmering stew. This is also the time that if you wanted a little bit more brothier add a little bit more milk. You can also determine if you want to leave the top on or off depending on how thick you want it. If you leave it off it's going to get thicker. Either way let it simmer for another 20 to 30 minutes or until the lamb is nice and tender. Now I love a stew like this because you can take all of these different ingredients that have very specific flavors and they get together and make new flavors. As Kevin said about his chili, Everybody is going to get to know each other in the pot. But as it turns out in ancient Mesopotamia not all of our ingredients got along so well. I feel like sheep get a bad rap being portrayed as witless and easily led astray both today with the modern portmanteau sheeple and in the ancient world. Israel is a scattered sheep. The lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria hath devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. Poor Israel but also poor sheep, but it is this meek demeanor and tendency to follow a herd that allowed sheep to become one of the first domesticated animals. Other than dogs who were domesticated long before, sheep and goats were some of the first animal companions for humans, and as a wonderful source of milk, meat, skins, and later wool, sheep became a contributing factor that led people to be able to settle into civilization. The first people who settled what would become Sumer were likely sheep hoarders and herders. Sheep herders. Sheep hoarders, that's a very, very different thing. Sheep herders and they had over 200 words for the animal. Some of those words referred to a specific type of sheep with a rather rotund tail today called a fat tail sheep. These sheep obviously provided milk, and wool, and meat, but their tail provided a buttery soft fat that was very popular in cooking in the Middle and Near East for a very long time. The earliest depictions of fat tail sheep are from 5,000 years ago during the Uruk period, and the prize for the best description of a fat tail sheep goes to the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus who wrote, They have long tails no less than four and a half feet long, which if they were allowed to trail on the ground would be bruised and develop sores. As it is, the shepherds have enough skill in carpentry to make little carts for their sheep's tail. The carts are placed under the tails, each sheep having one to himself, and the tails are then tied down upon them. Though most fat tail sheep did not have such a girthy tail as Herodotus described, and could carry their own fat tail without the help of carpentry. Now these and other sheep were prized in Sumer and ancient Babylon, often being used as currency and appearing in many, many of their dishes. Though their relationship with grain, another one of our ingredients today, started out a little bit rocky. That is according to the Sumerian creation myth written on clay tablets in the 3rd millennium BC. See in the beginning of the world people on earth had no bread, no meat, and no clothes, and they went around naked grazing on grass, and drinking water from ditches. But the Anunna or great gods sat on the holy mound where heaven and earth met, and had massive feasts. Well one day for one of the banquets they decide to create sheep and grain, and after trying them they realized meh, didn't really like them. So they gave them to the gods Enki and Enlil to take down to the humans on earth. Well the humans being used to grass loved them and treated them very, very well, and grain and sheep they made the people wealthy in trade. They fed them, they clothed them with wool. It was really great and Enki and Enlil could not have been happier, but one night at dinner grain and sheep got a little tipsy. They drank sweet wine, they enjoyed sweet beer. When they had drunk they started a quarrel concerning the arable fields, and began a debate in the dining hall. Grain called out to sheep, Sister I am your better, I take precedence over you. Rude and uncalled for. So grain goes on to tout some of her accomplishments, and gives all these mean little put-downs to poor sheep. It was kind of like that insult dinner that Pan and Rufio have in the movie Hook. Well sheep doesn't take this lying down and says, you know that I am the leather that kings emboss their emblems on. I'm also what they use to make slings and quivers for their arrows to keep them safe, and they use my stomach to hold water and my skin to make sandals. A little morbid but there you go. But grain just smiles and says, When the beer dough has been carefully prepared in the oven, and the mash tended in the oven, Ninkasi the goddess of beer mixes them for me while your big billy goats and rams are dispatched for my banquets. Bangarang Rufio, hard to top beer. And I do plan on doing a Sumerian beer episode where I make Sumerian beer, so be on the lookout for that. Anyway sheep takes it in stride and is like, um you forgot meat. I am meat. Everybody loves meat. You just get ground up into flour, and when you fill the trough the baker's assistant mixes you and throws you on the floor, and the baker's girl flattens you out broadly. You are put into the oven. When you are put on the table I am before you. You are behind me. So grain feelings heard even though she started it goes to Enki and Enlil and is like, you have to decide which one of us is better, but before you do I have one more thing to say to sheep. When your meat is taken away by the people in the marketplace, and when your neck is wrapped with your very own leather, one man says to another fill the container with grain for my you. Basically without me they ain't no you. Well Enki says sheep, grain your sisters. You're supposed to get along and we love you both equally. However since you asked, of the two grain shall be the greater. Let sheep fall on her knees before grain. From sunrise to sunset may the name of grain be praised. Terrible parenting. You're never supposed to admit that you like one more than the other even if you do, right mom? And that had to have scarred poor old sheep. That childhood trauma is probably why they are so meek and timid to this day. Though while their demeanor may be subdued their flavor is definitely not as will be shown by our stew. So once the stew is cooked long enough that the meat is nice and tender dish it up and sprinkle on a few of those risnatu croutons, and for added punch you can garnish with a little bit of chopped leek. And here we are Babylonian broth of lamb. I have to say it's not the prettiest dish. It's kind of, it's kind of odd because it's like the milk somewhat separates, but also it's not entirely separated and the you know there's a lot of fat in it. It's not terribly pretty but it smells quite good. Let's give it a try. I'll try to get some of the risnatu croutons. Here we go. Very lamby. So obviously the lamb is nice and tender but still has some chew to it, but the croutons really add something because everything else is quite soft and those croutons add a little bit of crunch, some texture. And I love the Persian shallot. It really adds this, it's almost like if you added spice to it without adding spice. It really kind of creates this sharp zing to the flavor because everything else is rather subdued. Flavorful but subdued. Nothing else really jumps out but the Persian shallot definitely does. Now I do really like it but the one thing I'll say is I'm curious what the what the fat tail sheep fat would have would have been like because it is a little bit greasy and it's supposed to be, but I'm curious what that type of fat would be like rather than what I ended up using, but I think there are so many possibilities with this dish. Different things that you can change, the quantities, how long you cook it, the type of fat that you use, even the type of meat that you use. You don't have to use lamb and I think that it's a really cool, it would be a cool thing to experiment with. So thank you again to Crowd Cow for sponsoring this episode. Link to sign up is in the description and if you crave more Babylonian content I'll put a link right here to the Tuhu episode that I did last year, and I will see you next time on Tasting History.