Sparrows’ Heads Simmered in Dill Sauce

This is my family’s favorite dish whenever we want a break from the familiar red stews. Delicious, pretty, and so medieval. The Abbasid cooks loved to give their dishes some panache by adding these dainty spicy meatballs of different sizes, sometimes using egg-white as a binder. Eggs were also used to thicken sauces. For flavor, dried dill was added in a bunch and removed before serving, as in al-Baghdadi’s recipe for mudaqqaqa sadhaja ‘simple pounded meatballs’ (Arberry). In another