The World's Oldest Recipe Is for Beer, Dating to 5,000 Years Ago

The world's oldest written recipe doesn't involve complex cuisine — it's for beer. A Sumerian poem called the 'Hymn to Ninkasi' from approximately 1800 BC (but describing practices dating back to 3100 BC) contains detailed instructions for brewing beer, making it the world's oldest known recipe at approximately 5,000 years old.

Ninkasi was the Sumerian goddess of alcohol, and the hymn served both as a religious text and a practical brewing manual. Archaeologists have found beer residue in ancient Egyptian jars dating to 3400 BC. Ancient Mesopotamian workers building the pyramids were paid partly in beer rations — suggesting alcohol was as much a staple as bread throughout human civilization.