Ancient Babylonian Leek Broth with Sourdough Crumbs (Pašrūtum)
Reader ratingsA meatless Babylonian broth of leek, garlic, kurrat and cilantro from the Yale culinary tablet of about 1730 BC, finished with dried sourdough pounded, sifted and scattered over the pot.
- Recipe makes
- About 1 liter, 4 small bowls
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The bread must be dry before you start, so dry it a day ahead or use bought dried sourdough. Pounding and sifting take about 10 minutes, the broth about 25.
Leek and herb broth with fine sourdough crumbs scattered over the top.
The story behind the recipe
Leek, garlic and green herbs in a light broth, with fine crumbs of dried sourdough strewn over the top just before it comes off the fire. Pašrūtum is one of only four dishes on the Yale tablet made without meat, and the researchers who cooked from it call it relatively simple.
What fat went in?
The tablet says fat and stops there. Sheep’s tail fat was the usual one in these stews, and sesame oil, which Mesopotamian cooks also had, is the choice here, so the broth goes without meat altogether.
Read more about this recipe
Why sift the bread?
Bread and its flours were finely graded in Mesopotamia: the Yale and Harvard team counts more than three hundred kinds of bread, and flours sorted by how fine they were. Sifting keeps only the fine part of the pounded sourdough, a crumb that can be strewn evenly over the broth, and the tablet times it for the moment the pot leaves the fire.
Making it today
Spring onion greens stand in for kurrat, which the English edition leaves untranslated, and any plain sourdough will do once it is dried hard. On the reverse of the same tablet, Ancient Babylonian Lamb and Beet Stew (Tuh’u) starts the same way with water and fat, then sears its meat. What the tablet left its cooks to work out is the subject of What Did a Babylonian Cook Need to Know?
Recipe makes: About 1 liter, 4 small bowls
Ingredients
For about 1 liter, 4 small bowls. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 1 liter, 4 small bowls.
- Dry plain sourdough bread30 g
- Water960 ml
- Sesame oil30 ml
- Spring onion greens, finely sliced30 g
- Cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped15 g
- Fine salt1/2 tsp
- Leeks, trimmed, washed and thinly sliced300 g
- Garlic, crushed2 cloves
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 30 g dry plain sourdough bread
- 960 ml water
- 30 ml sesame oil
- 30 g spring onion greens, finely sliced
- 15 g cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 300 g leeks, trimmed, washed and thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
Equipment
Mortar and pestle
Fine sieve
Medium saucepan
Wooden spoon
Instructions
Break the sourdough bread into small pieces and pound it in the mortar to a coarse crumb. Shake it through the sieve, pound what stays behind and sieve again. Set the fine crumbs aside.
Bring the water and sesame oil to a simmer in the saucepan.
Add the spring onion greens, cilantro, salt, leeks and garlic. Simmer gently, stirring now and then, until the leeks are soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Taste and add salt if it needs it.
Scatter the sifted crumbs evenly over the surface of the broth, then take the pan off the heat. Ladle into bowls and serve at once.
Nutrition
130calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 1 liter, 4 small bowls
- Servings
- 4
Estimated per bowl (4) from USDA FoodData Central values for leeks, sesame oil, sourdough bread, spring onion, cilantro and garlic.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Our amounts. Keep about 30 g of dry bread to each liter of water; a wider pot needs more crumbs to cover the surface.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Nothing on the tablet is measured. We chose sesame oil for the unnamed fat and spring onion greens for kurrat. The tablet puts water and fat on first and the greens after, so the vegetables are not fried first, although the researchers describe sautéing them in their lecture. To dry fresh sourdough, slice it thin and leave it in a 250°F (120°C) oven for about 40 minutes, until it snaps, then let it cool; do this the day before. Bought dried sourdough or plain rusks can be used instead. Made with oil and plain sourdough, the broth has no animal products. Contains wheat (gluten).
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After YBC 4644, recipe 9 (Yale Babylonian Collection), in the English of the electronic Babylonian Library edition; amounts and method details ours
Recipe details
- Course
- Soup
- Dish family
- Soups & Broths
- Main ingredient
- Vegetables
- Difficulty
- Easy