On Mon, 18 May 2009 16:17 Kenneth Anderson wrote:
>
<snip>
>
>*Loren Cordain:* Organized stone hearths (and hence the first concrete
>evidence for the control of fire) probably did not occur until the
>appearance of Neanderthals roughly 200,000 years ago. So prior to this time,
>humans probably did not cook their meat. I do not recommend, however, eating
>raw or slightly cooked meat because of potential bacterial contamination.
>
Hey, William! I think you and Loren Cordain may have
more in common than you thought.
>
<snip>
>
>*Robert Crayhon:* What is the best way to cook meat?
>
>*Loren Cordain:* ... . A favored cooking procedure was digging a pit and
>putting in hot stones, putting in the whole animal or portions of it,
>putting in vegetable matter and other stones above the vegetable matter and
>cooking the meat all day long.
>
I wonder how "favored" this procedure actually was.
Imagine the time taken to cook meat this way with
only stone tools and wood for digging the pit, moving hot
stones etc. You'd have to empty the top layers of the pit
to recover the meat. The whole procedure would take - 
what - half a day? If people were hungry, and they
preferred to cook, I think they'd go for a barbecue
which would take about one fifth the time and labour
power. They might either 'toast' the meat on a stick
(the quickest) or rest it on large stones around the fire
(takes a couple of extra hours, but no digging or
shifting hot stones required). They would also prefer 
the fatty portions of meat if they went the barbecue 
route, as these would cook without burning the flesh.

I don't know if my speculations hold any water. What
do you think?

Keith