Saturday, May 23, 2009

Earth oven

Earth oven. Also called a cooking pit, it's a pit you cook in. It is one of the simplest and oldest methods of cooking known to man. It's especially useful when there is no equipment lying around. I've never made an earth oven, but I sometimes use a non-earth oven to bake dinner.

According to Wikipedia, to make an earth oven you need to dig a hole, make a fire in the hole, let the fire smolder, put your pork chops in it, and cover. You might recognize the technique from your last New England clambake, or Hawaiian luau, or Maori hangi, or Fijian lovo, or Cook Island umu.


Scientists today worry the Earth itself is an earth oven.
Photo: woodleywonderworks via Flickr (CC)
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5 comments:

  1. RTMay 23, 2009 at 6:41 PM

    can you cook chicken and rice in an earth oven? I'm loving these by the way...

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  2. Adam ShonkoffMay 24, 2009 at 10:36 AM

    Chicken and rice at the same time would be a challenge, but I bet you could turn an earth oven into an earth rice cooker by filling it with just rice and water (and salt to taste).

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  3. Warren BerryMay 26, 2009 at 2:25 PM

    Dear Wikibloogia: I went camping last weekend to celebrate Memorial Day. During said camping event, a debate arose over the proper name for cooking food inside aluminum foil in a campfire. Would you call this a "hobo meal" or something different? Is this the same as an "Earth Oven"? Please advise.

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  4. Adam ShonkoffMay 26, 2009 at 2:31 PM

    Dear Warren Berry,

    I can confidently say that it was not an Earth oven. An Earth oven needs to be in a hole. Your food was in a campfire.

    However, I did search Wikipedia for "hobo meal", and it said, "Did you mean: hobbs medal", so I thought maybe I did mean hobbs medal, so I clicked on it, and I came to the page for John Hobbs Medal, which "may be awarded annually by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union for 'outstanding contributions to ornithology as an amateur scientist.'"

    Hope this helps.

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  5. Warren BerryMay 26, 2009 at 2:36 PM

    Hmm. No, I believe it's more along the lines of the follow, from urbandictionary.com:

    When you have no plates or dishes to cook with. Typically when camping.

    Get a campfire going.

    Get tinfoil and get a decent size square sheet out. Put a ball or patty of hamburger meat in the middle. cut up potatoes and throw in with the burger. you can add onions, carrots whatever you want for extras and seasoning. Get another piece of tinfoil and fold up all the ends and corners so the ingredients don't fall out.

    Now put the tinfoil with your meal on the fire. Works best with no flames, but on hot coals of the fire. Let it cook 15 -20 minutes. Amazing meal.

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