The Clay Tablet Recipes

Today, a few cuneiform tablets are the principal source of Mesopotamian recipes: the Yale Babylonian recipe tablets, which predate Ashurbanipal's imaginary banquet by a little more than 1000 years. Tablet YBC 4644 has 25 recipes and two others, YBC 8958 and YBC 4648, contain 10 more. They were composed in the middle of the Old Babylonian period, about 1700 BCE. They are written in an obscure colloquial Akkadian language making it difficult to translate.

In addition to these sources, scholars generally acknowledge that there is an earlier recipe, from Mari, Syria (1800-1750 BCE) for a confection known as mersu, and another from the 5th or 4th centuries B.C.E probably from Uruk, also in Syria, for what has been interpreted as "court bouillon."

Mari, Syria: Mersu

Uruk, Syria: "Court Bouillon"

The necessary amount of roasted ferul [?: nuhurtu]
The necessary amount of roasted watercress [?: sahlu]
The necessary amount of roasted dodder [?: kasû]
The necessary amount of roasted cumin [?: kamû]
6 liters of water you boil for a long time with (raw) dodder
You add a few (literally: "15") grams of cucumber [?].
(Cook until) reduced to 1 liter,
Strain.
Then slaughter (the animal that will be added)
And toss it in (to cook).

The Yale Babylonian Collection

Translation are from The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia by Jean Bottéro.

See http://sumerianshakespeare.com/ for artifacts

YBC 4644 from the Old Babylonian Period, ca. 1750 BC

This tablet includes 25 recipes for stews, 21 are meat stews and 4 are vegetable stews. The recipes list the ingredients and the order in which they should be added, but does not give measures or cooking time - they were clearly meant only for experienced chefs. All are made with water and some kind of enriching fat, and all simmer for a long time in a covered pot. Recipes specify certain kinds of meat--lamb, mutton, squab, a bird called tarru - and show refinement in the seasoning. Birds are simmered in giblet gravy enriched with milk. Dried herbs are added at the beginning of the cooking time, fresh leafy herbs added toward the end. Frequently mentioned seasonings included onions, garlic and leeks, while stews were often thickened with grains, milk, beer or animal blood.

The fat referred to in many of the recipes may be the fat from a special broad-tailed sheep that remained popular in the Near East until recent times. A Sumerian proberb stated: "Meat with fat is too good! Meat with suet is too good! What shall we give to the slave-girl to eat? Let her eat the ham of the pig!"

Different terms can be used to refer to resulting dish: broths, stews, or sauces. All that is know for sure is that the recipes involve liquid. If a broth, the solids would be strained out and served as a first course. The cooked meat solids could be served as a second course. If a stew, all ingredients would be included in the dish. If a sauce, the resulting dish would be served as a garnish for meat.

Rather than savory and sweet as we may differentiate recipes, the recipes differentiate “meat” (ša šīri) from “green” (warqu) or “meatless” (nu.uzu) dishes and implicitly distinguish “local” from “foreign” cuisine.

All the stews are cooked by simmering for a long time. The meat recipes use a variety of meats, cuts, cooking methods, and garnishes. The latter would suggest that some of the stews were seasonal dishes. The most common aromatics come from the Allium family—mainly onion, garlic, and leek—and all are native to the region. Leek and garlic are often added twice, first during cooking and then as a purée immediately before serving the dish. Presumably this was done to add the same “hotness” to the dish that later cuisines obtained from the use of black or red pepper. There is also a common set of seasonings used in all recipes, such as cumin, coriander (fresh and dry), samīdu (perhaps Persian shallots), and šuhutinnū (probably kurrat). The Elamite stew adds dill to the broth. This sets it apart from the other recipes and marks a difference from Iraqi culinary tradition maintained to this day. Dill is ubiquitous in the Persian kitchen but is rarely used west of Iran.

#1: Meat Broth. Meat is used. Prepare water; add fat [break in tablet], mashed leek and garlic, and a corresponding amount of raw šuhutinnû.

Laura Kelley note : Suhutinnu = A root vegetable. Probably a carrot, possibly a parsnip. Sahutinnu in Assyrian. In the Babylonian tablets translated by Bottero, it is always used “raw”. Ref 1 states that it is an alliaceous plant, but there is no evidence to support that it is anything other than a root vegetable. Tablets simply report that they are “dug up”. (Laura Kelley)

#2: Assyrian Style. Meat is used. Prepare water; add fat [break in tablet], garlic, and zurumu with . . . blood (?), and (mashed) leek and garlic. It is ready to serve.

Note. Zurumu = Small intestine or lining thereof. Surumu as small intestine in Akkadian see Hussey [J. Cuneiform Studies Vol. 2, No. 1 (1948), pp. 21-32)]. Moran specifies that Surumu is Akkadian for "lining" of part of the digestive tract (see Moran JCS Vol. 21, Special Volume Honoring Professor Albrecht Goetze (1967). Used like intestines and lining of digestive organs are used today: ubiquitously in soups and stews, stir fries etc. for flavor and texture. Tripe or Chit'lins. Bottero stated that he didn't have enough information to even venture a guess. (Laura Kelley)

#3: Red Broth (?). Fresh meat is not used. Prepare water; add fat [ ], salt, [as desired, cake crumbs (?)], intestines or stomach; onion, samidu; cumin; coriander; and mashed leek and garlic [ ]. Soak the meat in the reserved blood, and assemble all the ingredients in a pot.

Note: Samidu = Semolina. Assyrian samidu, Syrian semida "fine meal", Greek semidalis "the finest flour". A fine flour called semida in the Talmud (Pesachim 74b, Shabbat 110b, Moed Katan 28a). Semida is the Targum Yonatan translation for solet – also meaning "fine flour". Probably used in broths, soups and stews to thicken the liquid (much as corn starch is commonly used today), or could be used to denote a form of couscous or other form of small dumpling. (Laura Kelley)
Note: According to http://quizlet.com/, Samidu = onion family plant and sasku/sasqu = flour

From Bottero: Red Stew You do not need meat. Prepare the water. Throw in fat. Pluck, tripe, and belly, salt, hulled malt, onions, samidu, cumin, coriander, leeks, and surummu, crushed together. Before placing on the fire (in the pot) the meat should be marinated in the blood which has been saved (from the animal butchered for this dish).
This is not only a complicated recipe, but the laconic tone of the text is striking. It is only concerned with the essential ingredients and never specifies quantities or cooking time. These are left to the discretion of the cook, who, we may assume, knew his business.

#4: Clear Broth (?). Meat is used. Prepare water; add fat [ ], milk (?); cypress (?) as desired, and mashed leek and garlic. It is ready to serve.

#5: Venison Broth. Other meat is not used. Prepare water; add fat some crushed dodder, salt to taste, cake crumbs (?) [ ]; onion, samidu; cumin (?); coriander (?); leek; garlic and zurumu [ ]. Soak the meat in the reserved blood, assemble all the ingredients in a pot.

Note: Samidu = Semolina. See note #3 above. Or Samidu = onion family plant
Note. Zurumu = Small intestine or lining thereof. See note #2 above.

#6 Gazelle Broth. Other meat is not used. Prepare water; add fat [ ]; salt to taste; onion, samidu, leek and garlic [ ].

Note: Samidu = Semolina. See note #3 above. Or Samidu = onion family plant

#7: Kid Broth. Singe the head, legs and tail. Other meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; onion, samidu; leek and garlic, bound with (?) blood [ ], mashed (?) kisimmu. Then a corresponding amount of raw šuhutinnû.

Note: Samidu = Semolina. See note #3 above. Or Samidu = onion family plant
Note: Suhutinnu = A root vegetable. Probably a carrot, possibly a parsnip. See note #1 above.

Note: Kisimmu = Sour Cream or Yogurt. Undefined in OCM. Called a sort of cheese in TCM. Clearly defined as a sour milk product in multiple sources in reference 1. Unclear whether it would have been moist like yogurt, drained like Afghan chaka or fully dried like dry kishk. If I had to pick one of the three, I would choose to drain it like chaka becasue of its use in modern regional cuisines in that form. (Laura Kelley)

FMM: I found kisimmu translated as sour milk.

#8: Bitter Broth (?). Meat is used. Prepare water; add fat [ ]; milk; cypress [ ]; onion, samidu; leek, garlic, and zurumu. Bring to a boil, remove the cooked meat; and stir leeks, garlic, šuhutinnû, and mint into the broth in the pot; then add (?) zurumu.

Note: Samidu = Semolina. See note #3 above. Or Samidu = onion family plant
Note. Zurumu = Small intestine or lining thereof. See note #2 above.
Note: Suhutinnu = A root vegetable. Probably a carrot, possibly a parsnip. See note #1 above.

#9: Broth with Crumbs (?). Meat is used [there is probably an error by the copier here, who writes "meat is not used"]. Prepare water; add fat, šuhutinnû; coriander; salt to taste; leek and garlic. Crush and sift spiced grain cakes, sprinkle into the pot before removing from the fire.

#10: Zamzaganu. Scatter cut-up pieces of meat in a kettle and cook. Clean some bâru and add to the kettle. Before removing the kettle from the fire, strain the cooking liquid and stir in mashed leek and garlic, and a corresponding amount of raw šuhutinnû.

#11: Dodder Broth [kasû-plant]. Not fresh meat but rather "salted" meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; some crushed dodder; onion, samidu; coriander; cumin; leak and garlic. With the pot resting on the heat [the pot covers (?) the tannur], the broth is ready to serve [literally before the knife]. Note tannur is the tannur oven still used in Asian cooking.

#12: Lamb Broth. Other meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; salt, to taste; cake crumbs; onion, samidu. Also add some milk, and some mashed [ ].

#13: Ram Broth. Other meat is not used. Prepare water; add fat; some [ ]; dodder as desired; salt to taste; onion, samidu [ ]; coriander; leek and garlic. Put the pot on the stove and, after removing it, mash in kisimmu. It is ready to serve.

#14: Bidsŭd (?) Broth. Other meat is not used. Prepare water; add fat. [ ] dill; crushed dodder; onion, samidu; cumin [ ]; leek and garlic, bound with blood. It is ready to serve.

#15: Spleen Broth. Other fresh meat is not used. Prepare water; add fat [ ] Scatter pieces of "salted" stomach and spleen in the cooking vessel and add milk to it; Some crushed dodder; cake crumbs, (?), salt to taste; onion, samidu [ ]; bit of roasted qaiiâtu-dough šuhutinnû; high quality mint; mashed leek and onion, bound (?) with blood, It is ready to serve.

#16: Elamite Broth. Meat is used. Prepare water; add fat, dill; šuhutinnû; coriander; leek and garlic, bound (?) with blood; a corresponding amount of kisimmu; and more garlic. The (original) name of this dish is zukanda.

Note: Kisimmu = Sour Cream or Yogurt. Undefined in OCM. Called a sort of cheese in TCM. Clearly defined as a sour milk product in multiple sources in reference 1. Unclear whether it would have been moist like yogurt, drained like Afghan chaka or fully dried like dry kishk. If I had to pick one of the three, I would choose to drain it like chaka becasue of its use in modern regional cuisines in that form. (Laura Kelley)

FMM: I found kisimmu translated as sour milk.

#17: Amursânu-pigeon Broth. Split the pigeon in two; (other) meat is also used. Prepare water; add fat; salt, to taste, breadcrumbs, (?); onion, samidu; leek and garlic. (Before using), soak these herbs in milk. It is ready to serve.

Note: Samidu = Semolina. See note #3 above. Or Samidu = onion family plant

#18: Leg of Mutton Broth (?). With fresh meat from the leg of mutton. Other meat is also used. Prepare water; add fat; salt, to taste; onion, samidu; leek and garlic, mashed with kisimmu.

#19: Halazzu in Broth. Meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; salt, to taste; onion, samidu; leek and garlic, mashed with kisimmu, Crush the corolla (?) of some of the cultivated plant called halazzu, Assemble all the ingredients in a pot.

Note: Kisimmu = Sour Cream or Yogurt. Undefined in OCM. Called a sort of cheese in TCM. Clearly defined as a sour milk product in multiple sources in reference 1. Unclear whether it would have been moist like yogurt, drained like Afghan chaka or fully dried like dry kishk. If I had to pick one of the three, I would choose to drain it like chaka becasue of its use in modern regional cuisines in that form. (Laura Kelley)

FMM: I also found kisimmu translated as sour milk.

#20: Salted Broth. Leg of mutton (?), but no (other) meat is used. Prepare water; add fat; dodder as desired; salt to taste; cypress; onion, samidu; cumin; coriander; leek and garlic, mashed with kisimmu. It is ready to serve.

#21: Francolin Broth. Fresh leg of mutton is also used (?). Prepare water; add fat. Trim the francolins, add salt, to taste; cake crumbs (?); onion, samidu, leek and garlic mashed with milk (?). Once the francolins have been cut up, put them into the broth in the pot, but they should first be cooked in a kettle [ ]. Them return them to the pot. It is ready to serve.

#22: Tah'u Beet Broth. Lamb meat is used (?). Prepare water; add fat. Peel the vegetables. Add salt; beer; onion; arugula; coriander, samidu, cumin, and the beets. Assemble all the ingredients in the cooking vessel and add mashed leeks and garlic. Sprinkle the cooked mixture with coriander, and šuhutinnû.

#23: Kanašû Broth. Leg of mutton (?) is used. Prepare water; add fat; [ ]; samidu; coriander; cumin, and kanasû. Assemble all the ingredients in the cooking vessel, and sprinkle with crushed garlic. Then blend into the pot šuhutinnû and mint [ ].

#24: Hiršu Broth. Leg of mutton (?) and "salted" meat are used. Prepare water; add fat; [ ] onion; arugula, the best chopped coriander, and hiršu [ ]. Assemble all the ingredients in the pot, and sprinkle leeks and coriander on top. It is ready to serve.

#25: Garden Turnips Broth. Meat is not used. Prepare water; add fat [ ]; onion; arugula; coriander and cake crumbs (?), bound with blood; add mashed leeks and garlic [ ] (?).

Note: There are two accepted meanings for laptu – either turnip as Bottero chose or roasted barley – depending upon the context. Laura Kelley from www.silkroadgourmet.com made this recipe as "Roasted Barley and Herb Pilaf."

Line 74 of tablet: "21 meat broths"

Line 75 of tablet: "4 vegetable broths" [The last four are vegetable broths. Tah'u Beet Broth, Kanašû Broth, Hiršu Broth, Garden Turnips Broth - although 3 contain meat]

YBC 8958 Old Babylonian Period, ca. 1750 BC.

This tablet has seven recipes which are very detailed. The text is broken in several places and the name of the second recipe is missing, but it is a dish with small birds, maybe partridges.

#1: To prepare a [break in tablet] of [break in tablet] or "small birds," you remove the head, necks and legs; you open their bellies, and remove gizzards and pluck. Then you split and peal the membrane from the gizzards. You then wash the birds and chop the pluck. In a clean kettle, you place the birds, gizzards and entrails. After heating it, you remove the meat, and wash the contents well in cold water [ ].

In a clean pot, you add water and milk, and put it on the stove. [N.B. this last passage was smudged by the distracted copyist.]

You carefully wipe the birds, gizzards, and entrails and sprinkle with salt, and put everything in the pot. You add a piece of fat, from which the gristle has been removed. You also add pieces of "(aromatic) wood," as desired, and stripped rue leaves.

When it comes to a boil, you add a little onion, samidu, leek and garlic, mashed with onion. You also add a small quantity of cold water. Meanwhile, you wash some sasku-flour; soak it in milk, and once it is wet, knead it with siqqu-brine, and, being careful that it remains pliant, add samidu, leek, garlic, milk, and pot juices. While kneading it, you must watch it carefully. You divide the dough into two equal parts. You let one half rise and keep in a pot; from the other half bake shaped sebetu-rolls of 2? grams [.07 ounce] each in the oven, and remove when done.

You knead more sasku-flour soaked and saturated with milk, and add some oil (?), leek, garlic, and samidu. Then you take a platter that can hold the cooked birds, and line it with the dough, allowing some (of it) to overlap (the rim) by a few centimeters [literally: four fingers].

You then take the large container (in which half of the previous dough was reserved), set that dough onto another platter and line it with the dough. You choose the platter so that it covers the space taken up by the birds. You sprinkle the dish with mint, then, to make a "lid," you cover it with the dough that you reserved in the large container. You then remove the top cover from the stove, and replace it by two (baking sheets?), on which you place the two dishes covered with their pastry dough. When it has all been cooked, you remove from the serving dish only the piece of pastry that will serve as a "cover," and rub it with oil. While waiting for the meal, you keep [a distraction by the copyist, who wrote: "you do not keep . . ."] this piece in its dish. When the birds and the broth are cooked, you chop and mash leek, garlic, and andahšu together and add them to the mixture.

Just before serving, you take the platter prepared with a lining of crust and place the cooked birds on it carefully; you scatter over it the pluck and the cut-up gizzards that were being cooked in the pot, as well as the (little) sebetu rolls that were being baked in the oven.

You set aside the fatty broth in which the meat was cooked in the pot. You cover the serving dish with its (pastry) "lid" and bring it to the table.

#2: To prepare amursânu-pigeon in broth, after slaughtering the pigeon, you heat some water and pluck the bird. Once plucked [here the instructor begins to alternate between "I" and "you," sometimes teaching what he knows to the student, and sometimes presenting himself to him as a model to follow], you wash it with cold water. I skin its neck, and you cut out the ribs, I open its underbelly and remove the gizzards and the pluck; I wash the body and you soak it in cold water. Then I split and peel the the membrane from the gizzards; I slit and chop the intestines.

When I am ready to prepare the broth, you place the gizzard and pluck into a kettle, with the [red] intestines, and the head, as well as a piece of mutton, (and you place everything on the fire). After removing the meat from the fire, you wash it well in cold water, and I wipe off the skin. I sprinkle the meat with salt and I assemble all the ingredients in the pot.

I prepare water; I add a piece of fat, after removing the gristle. I pour in vinegar to taste [ ]. You mash together samidu, leek, and garlic with onion; you also add water, if necessary. When these are cooked, mash together some leek, garlic, andahšu and kisimmu; if there is no kisimmu, you mash bâru, and add it.

Note: Kisimmu = Sour Cream or Yogurt. Undefined in OCM. Called a sort of cheese in TCM. Clearly defined as a sour milk product in multiple sources in reference 1. Unclear whether it would have been moist like yogurt, drained like Afghan chaka or fully dried like dry kishk. If I had to pick one of the three, I would choose to drain it like chaka becasue of its use in modern regional cuisines in that form. (Laura Kelley)

FMM: I also found kisimmu translated as sour milk.

After removing the amursânu-pigeon from the pot, you wipe it off. Then you [ ] the stove, and stoke the fire [ ]. I then roast the legs at high heat (?); I wrap them in dough, and I place the amursânu-pigeon filets on [the dish?]. When it is all cooked, I remove the pot from the fire, and before the broth cools, you rub the meat with garlic, add greens and vinegar. The broth may be eaten at a later time. It is ready to serve.

#3: To prepare a bird slaughtered for a timru cermony, once it has been decapitated, you pluck the animal; you wash it in cold water; you slit its throat and take out the ribs. Open its belly carefully, and remove its gizzard and pluck, wash them in cold water, and soak the bird in cold water.

I then split and peel the membrane from the gizzard; I split and chop the pluck; you disjoint legs and wings.

The broth should be prepared the same way as that of the amursânu-pigeon. Meanwhile, you soak sasku-flour in milk, and knead with siqqu-brine, with leek, garlic and cooking juices. I then allow this mixture to rise, I place (what is needed) into a pot; I also put in the gizzard, and the bird resting on its back.

When the bird is cooked, you remove it from the fire.

I then spread the dough kneaded with brine onto a platter big enough to hold the bird, and you place the platter covered with the dough in the oven.

You remove the platter from the fire, and onto the platter you place the cooked bird. You disjoint the thighs [ ] and [ ]; and, using a string, you truss the legs to the sides, and tie the neck to the body, so that [ ] doesn't [ ]; [in a damaged passage there is mention of "roasted barley" qalîtu; then the word "pot" reappears. A dozen lines are lost, or unintelligible].

#4: From the end of column ii to the beginning of iii, over some forty lines, nothing coherant or itelligible can be read. The discernable vocabulary is known: "pot;" "kettle;" various condiments; fat; gristle removed; one "stokes the fire"; "when it is cooked;" "filet" (?) . . . this concerns the preparation of a bird called agarukku to which the following recipe refers.

#5: To prepare kippu birds in broth, the same method as for agarukku-birds. You open the birds (to empty them and carve them), and wash them in cold water; then put them in a kettle. After removing from the fire, you wash them well in cold water; sprinkle them with vinegar, and rub all over with crushed mint and salt, . . . You clean a kettle, place water and mint in it and (the bird itself).

When you have removed everything from the fire, wash (the meat) well in cold water. Then you place everything in a pot. It is ready to serve.

#6: [over only some fifteen lines, there remains only the initial recipe heading:] To prepare kamkam-birds in broth, the same method is used for agarukku-birds. [a few incoherent words].

#7: To prepare a francolin for a . . . You split the bird open, wash it well in cold water, and place it in a kettle. You remove it from the fire, and wash it again in cold water; sprinkle with vinegar; combine mint and salt, and rub bird with mixture thoroughly.

[Variant:] (Or) you scrub a kettle, place beer and fat in it; wash the bird well in cold water, and combine all ingredients (needed) in the kettle. When the kettle is hot, you remove from fire, sprinkle the contents with vinegar, and rub with mint and salt. [Another variant:] (Or yet), you clean a kettle, put clear water and the bird in it, and place on the fire. You remove from the fire, clean the contents well in clear water, when dry, rub well with garlic. [Another variant, for the preparation of the broth] You prepare a kettle; singe the "white" meat of the francolin, clean it well with water, and place it in the kettle. You remove from the fire, wash it well with cold water, and wipe off the "skin." [Another variant:] (Or) wash a piece of beef or mutton. You remove it from fire, wash it well with cold water, and wipe off the "skin."

You place all ingredients in a pot, with water, and add a piece of fat with the gristle removed. You carefully measure some vinegar, (which you sprinkle onto it), and add, as desired, pieces of "(aromatic) wood," and stripped rue leaves. When it comes to a boil, you add samidu, leek, and garlic mashed with onion, and put it in the pot. You then place the bird in the pot, and cook.

When the francolin meat is cooked, you crush together leek, garlic and [ ], and kisimmu, and sprinkle mint onto the leg. With these herbs [ ], as the first time [ ] with water [ ].

Note: Kisimmu = Sour Cream or Yogurt. Undefined in OCM. Called a sort of cheese in TCM. Clearly defined as a sour milk product in multiple sources in reference 1. Unclear whether it would have been moist like yogurt, drained like Afghan chaka or fully dried like dry kishk. If I had to pick one of the three, I would choose to drain it like chaka becasue of its use in modern regional cuisines in that form. (Laura Kelley)

FMM: I also found kisimmu translated as sour milk.

[Another alternation of the "I" and "you," from here to the end of the tablet] I then wash some sasku-flour, and I soak it in cold water and knead it with siqqu-brine. I mix [ ] in a mortar, I sift it with sieve, and I separate on one hand the larger particles; on the other, the smaller ones. [Variant:] (Or) I combine in a mortar some [ ], with its ridu and its egasilimmu [ ] like (?) to grind the roasted seeds; I sift them with a sieve, and I separate on one hand the larger particles, on the other, the smaller ones. [Another variant:] (Or) (I take) some coarsely ground sasku-flour, with its ridu and its egasilimmu, which I sift and set aside. [Yet another variant:] (Or) (I take), some light butumtu, or husked lentils, which are milled for me: I sift everything with a sieve, separating the larger and smaller particles.

I cook these porridges slowly, each one in an assallu platter, with beer in which "(aromatic) wood" has been soaked, in order later to add the porridge (to the meat on the dish). [Variant?:] (Or) (?) I knead coarsely ground ziqqu-flour with buttermilk. I "butter" an asallu platter and I cook the dough (thus layered) in it, spread very thin.

When it is cooked, I rub it (with oil?) and set it aside. Then I mix together tiktu-flour with beer in which "(aromatic) wood" have soaked, and I pour everything into an asallu platter. I also add leek, garlic, samidu, honey, clarified butter, and one of the above mentioned porridges, and I put the bird on the same asallu-platter. Before removing from the fire [ ].

At the foot of the column, one finds traces of the first words of, that is, two divine names:

Nisaba [ ]

Haia [ ]

YBC 4648 Old Babylonian Period

3 recipes

#1: To prepare a nin-bird [ ], you split open the bird. detach its [ ] larynx, and [ ], place it in a kettle.

After removing it from the fire, you wash it well in cold water; You sprinkle with clean salt. Then you take a pot, add water; and add a piece of fat with its gristle removed. You also add some vinegar, as required; some crushed "(aromatic) wood," stripped rue leaves. Then you mash together samidu, leek and garlic, with onion.

When it comes to a boil [ ] meat and beer [ ] a lot [ ]. You sprinkle everything with leek, garlic and andahsu. Then you clean sasku-flour [ ] and add to the meat that has been cut up and [ ] pour it into the pot. It is ready to serve.

#2: To prepare (a porridge) of clear butumtu [an unidentified grain], you take either a sabiltu-container or a pot. In addition [ ], you put [ ] cold water in.

Lines 23 - 29 [are lost]

[ ] the pot [ ], will be present [ ] in the water and oil, and, when removed from the fire, [ ], [ ] some oil over the mixture.

As desired, you add tiktu-flour, [ ] in the tiktu-flour of [ ]; as desired, immediately after pouring (the mixture) into the pot, you pour it back into the kettle. And just before serving, you put it back in the pot.

#3: To prepare a [break in tablet], for a tamqîta sacrifice after slaughtering it (the animal) and removing the legs, wash it well in water and assemble (all ingredients) in a pot.

As soon as you have put the cut up pieces of meat into the water, before the cooking juices have cooled ("rested"), you stir in suhutinnu and [ ].

When the cooking juices have clarified, with some suhutinnu, you mix blood and garlic, which you scatter in the pot. Then you add some [ ] into the pot.