As a former survival instructor I cooked chicken, rabbit, fish and
vegetables in these pits evry course I ran.  They work great, no added water
as the dry heat cooks the meat in its own moisture.

Aborigines and others cook this way.  If you want to try it yourself - line
a pit with newspaper (thickly - you can wet it to minimize it burning), heat
non-exploding fist size rocks in a fire for 2 hours, we use sandstone or
limestone.  Place maybe 6 rocks on the newspaper, place whole chicken
(insert a hot rock into the chicken as well), spread some vegetables around,
throw in some more rocks, you can place fish in foil if you dont have palm
fronds, grass or paperbark to wrap it, throw in some more rocks, cover with
thick newspaper then cover with dirt.  Make sure no steam is escaping (cover
with dirt wherever you see it).
Wait about an hour (minimum) or you can leave it for hours as it can't
overcook with the temperature continually dropping.  Remove dirt, GENTLY
peel back newspaper to avoid getting dirt in and it is all cooked
beautifully.  Meat just falls apart.  We use paperbark instead of newspaper
as that is traditional but thick layers of grass will work as well.


> What about oven pits? Not the burnt mound type which cooked with water,
but
> the hole in the ground in which the animal was inserted and covered with
hot
> rocks. I know this practice was used in Scotland until late medieval, and
> often wonder if the burnt mounds really did use water (- or were they
> saunas??) It seems to me that the broth from a burnt mound would get a bit
> contaminated and be a lot more wasteful, never mind the taste aspect...
Either
> way - the technology was available if they thought to do it.
>
> Fran
>
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