By Hana Al-Rubaye ~
In each Iraqi kitchen, there’s a tin holding the secret to Iraqi cuisine as a whole. It’s an old-fashioned-looking thing to see—just brown dusty grime stuck to its container—but when the lid comes off, the whole culinary history pours forth. Sweet cinnamon, hot flash of spice, soft thrum of cloves, strong kick of cardamom—it’s baharat, the nation’s sweet spice, humble guardian of some of the nation’s finest dishes.
From the back alleys of Baghdad to home on the range in Mosul, baharat prevails over stews, flakes meat, and perfumes rice with centuries-long histories on their horizons. Untethered of the commodities, but epoch-making in scope.
A Melange of Luxurious Histories
Baharat literally “spices” in Arabic, but it’s an Iraqi spice family mix that transforms the tasteless flavor into poetry. Baharat depends upon geography and in family practice, but the classic Iraqi preparation is typically black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, and paprika.
“Oh, baharat is a fingerprint,” says Al-Mustansiriyah University Prof. Aliya Salman, a historian of Mesopotomian cuisine. “Every family’s got a ratio that’s handed down from mother to daughter. It’s our family signature.”
Spice mixture is one discovered in Iraq thousands and thousands of years earlier. Sumerians and Babylonians already had spice tablets and herbs to be applied during cooking, which Iraqis supplemented recently in all bagilla timman, tashreeb, and quzi dishes. Writers of articles under Iraqi Institute for Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage who asserted Mesopotamian food borrowed to develop most Middle East spice culture.
The Secret Ingredient of Home
Shame on Iraqi chef—why is his dolma so full, his lamb stew so rich? He’ll blame it on baharat.
“When I add it in, the whole house will smell like my mum’s,” says British chef and creative mind behind now-defunct hip Basra Bites street food pop-up, Rasha Karim. “It’s not for the taste. It’s for the memory. It’s comfort.”
That close one-on-one has been baharat clogged up on kitchen worktops, while dinner elsewhere in the world is trending. Iraqi expat kitchens are dry and grinding spices at home or receiving them in care packages from relatives in Baghdad or Erbil.
And there was social media upside down over there as well. There are a lot of food bloggers on YouTube and TikTok videos on how to make many of these old baharat with tutorials and tutorials on how to make how.
Global Acceptance, Local Heritage
And as Iraqi cuisine goes international where there is world travel to be found, so does baharat. BBC Good Food authors even have made the blend “transformational spice mix” and a “must-have” in serious cookbooks. It’s being stocked by fancy spice shops and ethnic markets more and more, most of which are marketing it as “Middle Eastern seven-spice,” but its ingredients, as found in Iraq, must be experienced in Iraqi context.
Iraqi-American restaurateur and London-based chef Philip Juma employs baharat to stuff his slow-cooked lamb, his falafel mashup dessert, and all things in between. “It’s so versatile,” he explains. “I have even used it in sweets—spiced chocolate brownie with a touch of cardamom and black pepper. It is a flavor that speaks.”
Baharat in the Modern Iraqi Kitchen
In modern-day Iraq, the cool chefs are messing around with baharat, placing it on everything and anything without ever changing its roots. At Baghdad’s coolest new eatery, Layali Baghdad, Chef Noor Al-Taie is cooking the baharat-spiced date glaze-caramelized chicken and the grilled chicken with the date glaze flavored with baharat—tip of the hat to the past, tip of the hat to the future.
“Proud to flavor our heritage, fresh Iraqi children,” Noor says. “Baharat is our anchor. Even when we’re developing new flavor, we never forget the anchor.”
In fact, sellers in Baghdad’s Shorja Market indicate more young people are opting to blend their own spices and make their own mix or try something new such as rose petal or paprika smoke. Preparation of food at home and spice mixing feature on that list in the 2023 Iraq Private Sector Development Center survey.
A Legacy That Remains on the Tongue
Technically, baharat is a blend of spices. It’s an Iraqi hospitality—a assurance the guest one gets to dine with is full of welcome and generosity.
In reconstruction and rebuilding in Iraq, things such as baharat are not suspended animation on wobbly ice but thriving in sweet form.
It’s an act of defiance, ingenuity, and the irresistibly human desire to feed.
And as long as there are grinders and mills, and memories to be stored in hearts, baharat will remain the old Iraqi dish—spiced, but not excessively so.
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