Bappir was a
Sumerian twice-baked
barley bread
Barley bread is a type of bread made from barley flour derived from the grain of the barley plant. In the British Isles it is a bread which dates back to the Iron Age. Today, barley flour is commonly blended (in a smaller proportion) with wheat fl ...
that was primarily used in ancient
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
n
beer brewing
Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer ...
. Historical research done at Anchor Brewing Co. in 1989 (documented in
Charlie Papazian
Charles N. Papazian (born January 23 ca. 1949) is an American nuclear engineer, brewer and author. He founded the Association of Brewers and the Great American Beer Festival, and wrote ''The Complete Joy of Home Brewing'' (1984). He is the longtim ...
's ''Home Brewer's Companion'' ()) reconstructed a bread made from
malted
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...
and barley flour with
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
, spices
and water and baked until hard enough to store for long periods of time; the finished product was probably crumbled and mixed with water, malt and either
date
Date or dates may refer to:
*Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'')
Social activity
*Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner
** Group dating
*Play date, a ...
s or honey and allowed to
ferment
Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...
for a few days, producing a somewhat sweet brew. It seems to have been drank flat without bottling or conditioning with a straw in the manner that
yerba mate
Yerba mate or yerba-maté (''Ilex paraguariensis''; from Spanish ; pt, erva-mate, or ; gn, ka'a, ) is a plant species of the holly genus '' Ilex'' native to South America. It was named by the French botanist Augustin Saint-Hilaire. The lea ...
is drank now.
It is thought that bappir was seldom baked with the intent of being eaten; its storage qualities made it a good candidate for an emergency ration in times of scarcity, but its primary use seems to have been beer-making.
A modern interpretation of Sumerian bappir bread was brewed and bottled in 2016 by Anchorbrew.
See also
*
Ninkasi
Ninkasi was the Mesopotamian goddess of beer and brewing. It is possible that in the first millennium BCE she was known under the variant name Kurunnītu, derived from a term referring to a type of high quality beer. She was associated with both ...
, the Sumerian goddess of beer
*
Biscotti, a similarly twice-baked modern bread that is often eaten as a sweet course with wine or coffee
References
Breads
Brewing ingredients
Twice-baked goods
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