MERSU (MESOPOTAMIAN COOKIES, 1800 BC)
It's been a while since I've made an ancient Mesopotamian recipe, so I thought I would try to make this Tasting History version of Mersu, which is often called history's oldest known dessert. This version of Mersu is, in fact, only one interpretation of what Mersu could be. Because the clay tablet (from about 1800 BC) found in the ancient ruined Mesoptamian city of Mari (in modern-day Syria) did not share a full recipe, but just a short shopping list for making Mersu for the king, we don't know the exact methods for making this or how many extra ingredients were added on top of the dates and pistachios mentioned. In many other online recipes for Mersu, cooks have made versions of Mersu with only dates and pistachios rolled into balls to make sweets. Max is of the opinion, however (and I, too), that for such a shopping list, there would surely be other ingredients involved. Other sources from the time describe the king as having 8 mersu chefs, so it does sound like they might be more complex to make than previously thought. There are also inscriptions from the time implying there may be flour and liquid involved in making Mersu, and hence, this interpretation of making Mersu is more complex, but still uses basic ingredients available at the time. I was very curious to make these, wondering if they would come out sweet, plain, chewy, or crunchy. What was served to the Mesopotamian kings? Let's find out! See Max’s video on how to make this dish here or see the ingredients and process at the end of this post, sourced from his website.
My experience making it:
I decided to halve the recipe for this one, since I am not the biggest fan of dates, and I was also worried these Mersu would come out a little plain due to the basic ingredients. I was planning to bring these to a picnic with friends, if they tasted nice enough. Instead of emmer flour, I used all-purpose flour, and I did opt to use honey in the dough. Since I couldn't find un-shelled, un-roasted, un-salted pistachios, I just used shelled, roasted, salted pistachios - a bit more work, but hopefully it wouldn't change the flavour too much.
To start off, I measured out the ingredients for the dough. I added the flour to a large bowl and whisked in the ground coriander seed. The ghee I had was on the top shelf of the fridge, and as a result was very solid, perhaps approaching frozen! Due to this, when I added it to the flour, it took quite a long time to work in with my hands. Max says the dough should take about five minutes to 'come together' if using emmer flour or less than that if using bread flour. Mine, unfortunately, never quite came together. It stuck more together at some points, but there was always some soft flour at the bottom that just would not integrate. After eight minutes or so, I decided to add in the honey to see if that would help everything stick together. It did at first, but then crumbles began falling off, and it was clear there was still not enough liquid in the mixture. So, I added some water little by little, and ended up using much more than Max recommends. Regardless, adding the water really did fix the problem, and the dough was super cooperative going forward! Forming the dough into a ball, I left it in the large bowl and covered it with some cling wrap to sit for an hour. I was on a bit of a time crunch, so unfortunately, I couldn't let it sit for longer.
I had intended to use the hour the dough was sitting to quickly prepare the filling and then relax for a bit, but the filling actually took me longer to make than I expected, and by the time I had finished making it, I only had about ten minutes to relax before assembling the Mersu! I began by de-shelling the pistachios and crushing them with a mortar and pestle. Next, I de-pitted and chopped the dates into small pieces, by which I hoped it would make it easier to crush and turn them into a paste. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, I crushed the dates with my pestle and added the pistachios, continuing to use the pestle to mix them into the date paste. This part was easier than expected, and the mixture became fairly uniform fairly quickly. I pre-heated the oven, then got to work forming the filling of the Mersu. I divided the filling mixture into nine equal pieces, then rolled each one into a ball and pressed lightly to turn them into thick discs. With ten minutes to spare before it was time to assemble the Mersu, I did the dishes and chilled out for my few precious minutes of rest. Next, I removed the dough ball from it's cling wrap shelter and divided it into 9 equal parts, rolling them with my hands into balls. At the start, I flattened the dough ball with my hand alone, and couldn't get it very thin. So, I tried rolling them out with a rolling pin, and that worked much better. For each Mersu, I rolled out the dough ball, placed the filling disc inside, then gently wrapped the dough over the disc until well covered, removing any excess dough to make sure my Mersu wouldn't have thick dough where it had overlapped. I barely had any pistachios left, so I just pressed one into the top of each Mersu. I wish I had had more so I could create a cute design! I placed all of the Mersu on one baking sheet with some space between them and baked for 15 minutes. I checked them at this point, poking them with my finger to find that the dough was not cooked through yet, so I decided to leave them in for another three minutes. When I checked them again, they were finally hardened a bit, but they were not yet browning, so I left them in another couple minutes. Then, they were ready! So overall, about 20 minutes in the oven. I let them cool for 20 minutes, then placed them on a plate. They looked quite nice, I thought: they had browned well, the dough cooked in place and looked, for the most part, uniform, and the pistachios on top looked pretty cute. Before packing them up into a container to bring to the picnic, I tried a fresh one - for quality control, of course!
My experience tasting it:
Biting into the Mersu, I was immediately impressed by the texture. I've made many a dough from various time periods, and usually the texture of the baked crust is quite poor, crumbly, and tasteless, especially for the older recipes. In contrast, the Mersu dough had baked into a lovely, shortbread-like texture with some moreish depth from the coriander seed, and it had a very light sweetness to it, undoubtedly from the honey. The real star, however, was the filling! The dates lended a stronger sweetness and an ooey-gooey texture that was given complexity by the crumbly bits of pistachio inside. I figured I may have made a mistake by using roasted, salted pistachios instead of plain ones, but upon tasting, it was very clear it was a good idea. A sweet and salty dessert is absolutely stellar! The Mersu only had a hint of salt, and were sweet on the whole: a good ratio, I think. Overall, I would describe these Mersu to the modern palate as an ancient Fig Newton, except with more Middle Eastern flavours. I brought the Mersu to a picnic with friends, and they were gone within the first ten minutes - I regretted not making the full batch for this recipe! While these are very tasty and did not require too many ingredients, I would only hesitate to make them again due to the work and time it takes to carefully wrap each disc of filling with the dough. While it didn't take too long for me to wrap nine of them, a half-batch of this recipe, I can see how this could be pain-staking and tiring to do an entire batch or a double batch. While no one is quite sure how Mersu actually looked and tasted for lack of evidence, if they were anything like the ones in this interpretation of the recipe, I can see why the Mesopotamian kings needed so many chefs making them. If you end up making this dish, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!
Mersu (Mesopotamian Cookies) original recipe (1800 BC)
Sourced from the list of ingredients from the a clay tablet cuneiform receipt from Mari, Mesopotamia (1800 BC) and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.
1 gur of dates And 10 sila of pistachios For making mersu Meal of the king
Modern Recipe
Based on the list of ingredients from the a clay tablet cuneiform receipt from Mari, Mesopotamia (1800 BC) and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.
Ingredients:
Dough
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
2 1/2 cups (300 g) emmer flour, or bread flour
2/3 cup (150 g) ghee or clarified butter that’s been allowed to solidify
1/2 cup (170 g) date syrup or honey, optional
Filling
1/2 cup (75 g) shelled pistachios
1 cup (150 g) pitted dates
Decoration
Whole pistachios, optional
Method:
For the dough: In a large bowl, whisk the ground coriander seed and flour together until combined.
Add the ghee and and mix until it comes together to form a dough. I used my hands for this. With emmer flour, it took about 5 minutes for it to come together. If you use bread flour, this process will probably be easier.
Mix in the date syrup or honey if you’re using it. If the dough isn’t coming together, you can mix in cold water a teaspoon or so at a time until it does. Cover and set the dough aside to rest while you make the filing.
For the filling: Crush the pistachios in a mortar or a food processor. You want there to be mostly coarse pieces of broken pistachio, there’s no need to grind it down into a powder.
Mash the dates in a mortar or grind them up in a food processor until you get a paste.
Combine the crushed pistachios and date paste in a bowl and mash them together until the mixture is fairly uniform.
To assemble: Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Divide the filling into 18 pieces and roll them into balls or form them into patties.
Divide the rested dough into 18 pieces. Flatten the pieces out into rough circles. It might be a little crumbly, but that’s okay. Place a piece of the filling into the center of each round and wrap the dough around it. You may need to add a bit of dough in patches to cover the filling completely. Try to get the dough as thin as possible while still covering the filling; it will be more pleasant to eat this way.
Flatten the formed mersu into hockey puck-like rounds. Place the mersu about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you’d like, you can decorate them by gently pressing a few whole pistachios into the tops.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until they’re lightly browned on top.
Let them cool completely before serving them forth.
