1,000-Year-Old Hangover Cure Discovered

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While we’ve tried countless cures for our post-drunk depression, nothing really seems to work THAT well. We’ve tried greasy food, Gatorade, hair of the dog, Alka-Seltzer, smearing your face with dog doo (okay, I made that one up), but I doubt that any of us have ever tried…a thousand-year-old ancient Iraqi stew?!

You read that right, folks. Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq, the compiler of the earliest-known Arabic cookbook, “Kitab al-Ṭabīḫ”, or “The Book of Dishes,” came up with the “ultimate hangover cure” back in the 10th century, according to Iraqi scholar Nawal Nasrallah.

According to Nasrallah, al-Warraq was very specific about his post-drinking advice:

“You need to know that drinking cold water first thing in the morning is recommended only for people suffering from … hangovers,” he wrote. “However, they should avoid drinking it in one big gulp. Rather, they need to have it in several small doses and breathe deeply between one dose and the other.”

First, take deep breaths and sips of cold water, and then follow it up with “kishkiyya,” a meat and chickpea stew, which al-Warraq stated was the best hangover food. Al-Warraq cites an ancient poem for his reasoning:

“The nourishing dish to have when in the gripes of a hangover one craves some food…Having eaten it intoxicated one will be all anew and the hangover will itself renew.”

If you want to make Kishkiyya, here’s the ingredients:

• 3 pounds meat
• 1/2 pound chopped onion
• 4 ounces fresh herbs
• Handful of chickpeas
• 1 piece galangal
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Seasonal green vegetables, like chard
• Kishk (Or substitute plain Greek yogurt)
• Juice of unripe sour grapes (or unsweetened grape juice)
• 6 grams cumin
• 6 grams cassia
• 1 gram cloves
• 1 gram spikenard (or other aromatic root-based oil)

Basically, toss the meat, vegetables, oil and water into the pot. Cook it. Then add the Kishk, the onion, the cloves and the spikenard (whatever that is) into the pot. Cook it. Then when it’s done cooking, let the pot simmer, and enjoy some hangover-killing stew.

I’m sure all of these ingredients are available at your local Iraqi supermarket, or comparable Middle Eastern/ethnic grocery store. I’m not gonna lie, I could go for some Kishkiyya right now.

[via ABC News]

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