History Forum / General / Ancient History / July 2008

An earth oven or cooking pit is one of the most simple and long-used
cooking structures. At its simplest, an earth oven is simply a pit in
the ground used to trap heat and bake or steam food. Earth ovens have
been used in many places and cultures in the past, and the presence of
such cooking pits is a key sign of human settlement often sought by
archaeologists, and remain a common tool for cooking large quantities
of food where no equipment is available.

To bake food, the fire is built, then allowed to burn down to a
smolder, and the food is placed in the oven and covered (this can be
used for bread-baking, for example, and has been used in some cultures
for soldiers on military expeditions). Steaming is similar; fire-
heated rocks in a pit are covered with green vegetation, large
quantities of food, more green vegetation (and sometimes water), and
then a final covering of earth. Food takes several hours to cook
whether by dry or wet methods.

Today, many communities still use cooking pits, at least for
ceremonial or celebratory occasions: the Hawaiian luau, Māori hāngi
and the New England clam bake. The central Asian tandoor, used
primarily for uncovered, live-fire baking, is a transitional design
between the earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven,
essentially a permanent earth oven made out of clay or firebrick with
a constantly burning, very hot fire in the bottom. In modern times,
earth ovens are sometimes used for outdoor cooking and recreational
meals in lieu of an open campfire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_oven

GDenke@tx.rr.com