A History of Egyptian Cookbooks

Cookery books don’t only offer historians information on what people ate, they also offer glimpses into culture, traditions, etiquette, trade relations, politics, and so much more.

The earliest documented collections of cooking recipes come from Mesopotamia and were written in Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets in the 18th c. BCE. Surprisingly, almost no recipes survive from ancient Egypt. The closest thing we have is a set of instructions on how to make a type of cake using tiger nuts from the tomb of Rekhmire at Thebes (Dynasty 18, ca. 1550–1295 BCE).

The largest and most complete recipe book to survive from antiquity is attributed to a 4th-c. CE Roman cook called Caelius Apicius and contains 478 recipes, a few of which come from Egypt. Titled De re coquinaria (On cooking), it does not give any quantities or go into much detail. The recipe for a flamingo dish for instance is limited to, ‘Pluck the flamingo and push it into the oven’!

By the 14th c., Cairo had become the culinary centre of the Arab world. Three cookery books from the period survive but they are the last known books of recipes until 1893, when we find a cookbook compiled by Khedive Ismail’s palace cook. Until then, recipes would be guarded in personal family archives and passed down verbally through the generations before eventually appearing in books available to the public. Here, we present a selection of some of the most influential cookery books in Egyptian history.

Kanz al-Fawa’id fi Tanwi‘ al-Mawa’id (Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table), 14th c., author unknown. A massive compendium of 829 recipes divided into 23 chapters compiled by ‘some wise and knowledgeable people’, it includes beverages, aromatics, food for medicinal use, vegetarian dishes (for the sick), and instructions for pickling everything from vegetables to fruits and even rose petals.

When Ahmed Ibrahim, Khedive Ismail’s palace cook retired, the self-styled ‘food philosopher’ went on to cater for the rich and wealthy who asked him to share his sumptuous recipes from the khedive’s lavish kitchen.  In 1893, he published what would be the first of several editions of Nasihat al-Anam fi Husn al-Ta‘am (Advice for People in the Matter of Good Food). In his introduction he claims that before his time, the profession of cooking was in the hands of incompetent individuals who ‘spoiled food’, a statement that could possibly indicate a rise in the status of professional cooks correlating with the rise of a new elite in Egypt. In his rich compilation of recipes, we get a glimpse into the burgeoning cosmopolitan culture Khedive Ismail (his employer) was nurturing through his plans to modernize Egypt. The book contains traditional Egyptian recipes alongside ones from a wide variety of religious, ethnic and national cuisines, including the very modern recipe for ‘American milk pudding’.

The most iconic Egyptian cookbook of the 20th c. is Uṣul al-ṭahi: al-Naẓari wa-l-‘amali (Fundamentals of Cooking: Theory and Practice) typically referred to as Kitab Abla Nazira  (Abla —or Auntie—Nazira’s book). First published in 1941 by Nazira Nicola (co-authored with Bahiya ‘Uthman in the first edition) as an instruction manual for would-be domestic science teachers, the cookbook eventually became a staple in every newlywed household and a common wedding gift for generations. The book offers practical advice for the modern woman and includes detailed recipes for both Egyptian staples and continental classics as well as background information such as nutritional values  for different foodstuffs.