{"id":95057,"date":"2025-08-22T02:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=95057"},"modified":"2025-04-08T17:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T21:02:14","slug":"historys-oldest-dessert-4000-year-old-mersu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2025\/08\/22\/historys-oldest-dessert-4000-year-old-mersu\/","title":{"rendered":"History&#8217;s Oldest Dessert &#8211; 4,000 Year Old <em>Mersu<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H_cMYBCGKjc?si=wPSDbXK4s3Sc70ag\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Tasting History with Max Miller<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 18 Mar 2025<\/p>\n<p>Short pastry filled with pistachios and dates<\/p>\n<p><em>City\/Region<\/em>: Mari, Mesopotamia<br \/>\n<em>Time Period<\/em>: c. 1800 B.C.E.<\/p>\n<p>In the ancient ruined Mesopotamian city of Mari, a clay tablet receipt from 4,000 years ago was found that mentioned dates and pistachios for making <em>mersu<\/em> for the king. We don&#8217;t know exactly what <em>mersu<\/em> was or if there were other ingredients in it, but I think there was more to it than just dates and pistachios. The king employed eight specialists who made <em>mersu<\/em>, so my guess is that it was at least as complicated as this pastry, possibly much more so.<\/p>\n<p>The flavor combination in this interpretation is wonderful. The pastry is a little crumbly, and the filling is chewy, rich, and quite sweet, with the added texture of the nuts. <\/p>\n<p>I made my pastry dough unsweetened and I really liked the contrast between the unsweetened dough and the very sweet filling, but you can add some date syrup or honey to your dough if you&#8217;d like.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>1 <strong>gur<\/strong> of dates<br \/>\nAnd 10 <strong>sila<\/strong> of pistachios<br \/>\nFor making <strong>mersu<\/strong><br \/>\nMeal of the king<br \/>\n\u2014 Receipt from Mari, c. 1800 BCE<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ingredients<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><em>Dough<\/em><br \/>\n1 1\/2 teaspoons ground coriander seed<br \/>\n2 1\/2 cups (300 g) emmer flour, or bread flour<br \/>\n2\/3 cup (150 g) ghee or clarified butter that&#8217;s been allowed to solidify<br \/>\n1\/2 cup (170 g) date syrup or honey, optional*<\/p>\n<p><em>Filling<\/em><br \/>\n1\/2 cup (75 g) shelled pistachios<br \/>\n1 cup (150 g) pitted dates<\/p>\n<p><em>Decoration<\/em><br \/>\nWhole pistachios, optional<\/p>\n<p>*The filling is quite sweet, so whether or not the dough is sweetened is up to you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instructions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>For the dough: In a large bowl, whisk the ground coriander seed and flour together until combined.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>Mix in the date syrup or honey if you&#8217;re using it. If the dough isn&#8217;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.<\/li>\n<li>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&#8217;s no need to grind it down into a powder.<\/li>\n<li>Mash the dates in a mortar or grind them up in a food processor until you get a paste.<\/li>\n<li>Combine the crushed pistachios and date paste in a bowl and mash them together until the mixture is fairly uniform. It&#8217;s messy, but I found my hands worked well for this step as well.<\/li>\n<li>To assemble: Preheat the oven to 350\u00b0F (175\u00b0C).<\/li>\n<li>Divide the filling into 18 pieces and roll them into balls or form them into patties.<\/li>\n<li>Divide the rested dough into 18 pieces. Flatten the pieces out into rough circles. It might be a little crumbly, but that&#8217;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.<\/li>\n<li>Flatten the formed <em>mersu<\/em> into hockey puck-like rounds. Place the <em>mersu<\/em> about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you&#8217;d like, you can decorate them by gently pressing a few whole pistachios into the tops.<\/li>\n<li>Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until they&#8217;re lightly browned on top.<\/li>\n<li>Let them cool completely before serving them forth.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tasting History with Max Miller Published 18 Mar 2025 Short pastry filled with pistachios and dates City\/Region: Mari, Mesopotamia Time Period: c. 1800 B.C.E. In the ancient ruined Mesopotamian city of Mari, a clay tablet receipt from 4,000 years ago was found that mentioned dates and pistachios for making mersu for the king. We don&#8217;t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,7,370],"tags":[1276,1337,1388,1442],"class_list":["post-95057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-history","category-middle-east","tag-cooking","tag-mesopotamia","tag-recipes","tag-tastinghistory"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-oJb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95058,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95057\/revisions\/95058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}