The Oldest Written Recipes are for Lamb Stew and Onion Soup

Amusing little video from the Yale and Harvard ancient studies departments showing the recreation of three recipes from a Babylonian text dating to around 1750 BC. Above, a lamb-milk-grain concoction.

This one is largely beets, flavored with lamb.

And this one is vegetarian. The name, "the unwinding," is a mystery, but one of the cooks suggests it comes from letting little grain cakes dissolve in the broth. Another suggests it just means food for relaxing.

The recipes do not give quantities or clear directions, so there is a lot of guesswork involved. But still impressive that the oldest known written recipes can even be approximated in a modern kitchen.