Lamb Stew
The world’s oldest recipe – dated back to 1730 B.C. in the Middle East, is lamb stew. Ancient tablets were discovered in the early 20th century. It took almost 80 years for scholars to decipher correctly, and it turned out that these tablets were actually the world’s oldest known cookbook. That’s right – this recipe is almost 4,000 years old.
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Render the Fat to Start
The original recipe calls for leg of lamb, but I was unable to track one down. Instead, I found a good lamb shoulder. Whichever cut you find, cut off excess areas of fat, and dice them up for rendering. Put them in a heated stock pot, and get that fat to rendering. Nowadays, we trim fat off because we have so much fatty food in or pantries, but 4,000 years ago, you needed every bit of fat you could get just for survival. Besides, it tastes pretty darn good!
While the fat renders, debone the lamb and cut it into diced sized pieces. I like to have a piece of meat in every spoonful!
Seasoning the Lamb
The fat should be rendered and hot before you add the meat. That grease is the base of this stew. In the original recipe, there is nothing about seasoning the meat. I’m going to season the meat with salt and coarse ground pepper. Add the diced meat to the stockpot – you should hear a sizzle.
Brown up the meat and add 1/2 cup of water. Add your beer in and bring to a boil.
The Vegetables and Spices in Lamb Stew
While the stew is boiled, add in the arugula, beets, shallot, garlic, onion, cilantro, and cumin. The area where this recipe came from had very rich agriculture, so there was a large variety of vegetables and spices available for the stew. These were often interchangeable, as well, with people adding things they liked and removing things they don’t like. For example, I’m not a fan of fresh cilantro, so I use dried. You can substitute whatever you want! This is like the world’s oldest burger king, you can have it your way.
Simmer for about 45 minutes and the beets are fork tender but not falling apart.
Tip: Add water if your broth cooks down and is a little dry.
Serve the stew hot with some pita bread. You can garnish with fresh herbs if you’re feeling extra fancy. Just don’t get full on fancy.
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World’s Oldest Recipe, Lamb Stew – Cowboy Kent Rollins
Ingredients
- 1 lb. leg of lamb or lamb shoulder you can use beef
- Salt
- Coarse ground black pepper
- 12 ounces dark beer
- ½ cup water
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 cup chopped arugula
- 1 cup chopped shallots or spring onions
- 1 – 2 cups chopped red beets
- ½ cup chopped leek
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ½ to 1 tablespoon dried cilantro
- ½ tablespoon cumin
Instructions
- Trim the fat from the lamb and cut the fat into small pieces. Place in a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, to render down the fat. Reserve about ½ cup of the grease and discard the cooked fat.
- Cut the lamb into small bite-sized pieces. Season well with the salt and black pepper.
- Heat the reserved lamb grease in a medium stock pot over medium heat. Add the lamb and cook until all sides have browned, about 4 minutes.
- Stir in the beer and water and bring to a low boil. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
- Cover, and simmer for about 45 minutes to an 1 hour, or until lamb is tender. Serve hot.