Iraqi Sausages

A brief satiric Sumerian text reveals that the ancient Mesopotamians knew how to fill intestine casings with meat of some kind (Bottéro, ‘The Cuisine of Ancient Mesopotamia,‘. In the medieval period, small sausages were called maqaniq and laqaniq. They were small intestines stuffed with a spicy mix of pounded meat, using a sausage stuffer. The bigger ones were maba’ir, and the largest, mahashi. Some were made for immediate consumption, such as those filled with a