When ancient Egyptians prepared for death, they painted the walls of their tombs with scenes of what they enjoyed most during life, believing that gods would provide an abundant supply of the same in the next life. Rekhmire, a vizier during the New Kingdom, seems to have relished a particular dessert – tiger nut sweets, as the recipe for it was inscribed on the walls of his tomb, ensuring himself pieces of it for eternity.
The main ingredient for this dessert are tiger nuts which, together with honey and fruit, must had been an important sweetener in ancient Egyptian bakery and confectionery. In Dokki Agriculture Museum in Cairo, there are tiger nuts specimens from various periods and the nuts ‘found in tombs of all ages’ are said to have been used both as dessert and boiled in barley drinks to ‘render these a sweet taste’.
The recipe for Rekhmire’s favorite dessert can be read from the representations on the wall of his tomb. Both Manniche and Mehdawy describe very similar processes:
Manniche Mehdawy
Grind the quantity of tiger nuts in a mortar. Grind tiger nuts (2 cups) with wooden pestle.
Sift the flour carefully. Sieve.
To the ground tiger nuts add a bowl of honey Add honey (1cup) to the ground tiger nuts and mix
and mix to a dough. into pliable dough.
Transfer the dough to a shallow metal (?) Put dough in a saucepan. Place on a warm stove
vessel. Place on top of the fire and add a little and add ghee (2tbsp).
fat. (Boil over gentle fire until a firm paste Leave to simmer on low heat until it thickens and
is obtained. It must smell toasted, not burnt). then completely cooks. It is cooked when it starts
emitting a pleasant smell.
(Cool and) shape into tall conical loaves. Leave tray until dessert cools, then shape into
conical loaves. Serve. (Serves 4)
Wilson, on the other hand, provides a different interpretation. She suggests that the dough prepared in the ‘cake room’ could be made by mixing ground tiger nuts with wheat or barley flour, and that the resulting cake was served with a syrup made of dates and honey.
According to her, the ‘flour’ that would have been produced by grinding tiger nuts in the way shown in Rekhmire’s tomb would be coarse even after going through the sieve, similar to roughly ground almonds. As a result, it would be unsuitable for making loaves without the addition of another flour, such as wheat or barley. Moreover, experiments with dough made by mixing ground tiger nuts with other kinds of flour are very telling for this case. Mixing equal quantities of ground tiger nuts and wholemeal semolina with oil and water resulted in cakes that could be shallow fried and had a texture similar to oatcakes or coarse shortbread. The recipe is based on sweetened semolina cakes from Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries where nuts and honey are common ingredients in such confections, which are usually better baked rather than fried.
Mixing equal parts of ground tiger nuts and wholemeal flour, and enriching the dough with melted fat and water, allows for more versatile dough that can be shaped and rolled like a pastry. The results of shallow frying flattened triangles of dough made in this manner were very successful, and the resulting cakes were deep golden brown, specked with darker brown where the dough had bubbled, which seems reminiscent of the yellow loaves with red edges and crinkled outlines shown on the pictures in Rekhmire’s tomb.
Representation on the wall clearly shows production of flour from the ground nuts. Two man then prepare the dough in a large trough set on a tripod; one of them pouring a liquid, while the other one stirs the mixture with a wooden spatula.
According to Wilson, the liquid being poured could either be water, oil, milk, fat, or a combination of any of these. This mixture would result in malleable dough, but kneading is not shown on the wall. It also seems that the loaves were unleavened. Wilson believes the dough was likely left to rest in a warm temperature, as even unleavened dough in such conditions can become more elastic. Alternatively, wheat or barley flour was mixed with ground nuts, which seems necessary in order to produce dough that could be shaped into loaves without cracking or crumbling.
Men are shown shaping the loaves by hand on stone or wooden slabs. The cakes are then cooked over a brick-built brazier, while fat is added to the pan. In the next scene, one man reaches into a jar while the other stirs the contents of the cooking pan. Behind them is a four-handled amphora of honey (fig.1). Wilson suggests that the two cooks here are preparing a syrup or puree of dates and honey, as a pile of dates is shown above them.
In modern Egypt, a pastry called atayef is served in a similar way. The pastries, especially popular on festive occasions, are made into discs of approximately 10cm in diameter, folded in half over a filling of sweetened ground nuts before being fried or baked. When done, atayefs are served saturated with syrup.
In the far left scene of the painting, two men are shown gathering honey, while another man delivers fresh loaves in two baskets or nets suspended from a yoke. Rekhmire oversees the entire operation so that the loaves, as a special offering to the god, are made fresh for each new feast. The god (or his priests) clearly had a sweet tooth or at the minimum a soft spot for Rekmire’s tiger nut-flavored patisserie, sweetened with dates and honey.
Bibliography
B. Brier, H. Hobbs, Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians,Westport,Conn: Greenwood Pub. Group, 2008.
H. Wilson, ‘A Recipe for Offering Loaves?’ in JEA Vol. 74, 1988.
L. Manniche, An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2006.
M. Mehdawy, A. Hussein, The Pharaoh’s Kitchen: Recipes from Ancient Egypt’s Enduring Food Traditions, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2010