The possibility first presented itself when I came across a recipe for a kind of ka’ak in the 13th century Arabic cookbook Kitab al Wusla ila al Habib, one of the earliest cookbooks on record in the world, in which the dough is shaped, boiled, then baked. The chapter opens, “We begin with several kinds of simple bread, the accompaniment to every meal. First, ka’ak, which are of several varieties.” It ends by saying, “plain ka’ak are too well known to need describing,” implying not only that these were common breads, but also ones that had been made for so long and hence were so well known that they needn’t be explained. Indeed, ka’ak is referenced in the oldest Arabic cookbook on record, the 10th century Kitab al Tabikh, without much explanation, as a staple of the cuisine.
You can even see this in ka’ak. While that ancient recipe calls for boiling then baking the dough, the most popular ka’ak across the Middle East today isn’t boiled before baking; ancient ka’ak recipes call for kneading seeds and flavorings into the dough itself, while present-day ka’ak al Quds uses a sugar water solution to attach the sesame seeds that are the most commonplace seasoning.
