Product Code Database
An earth oven, ground oven or cooking pit is one of the simplest and most ancient cooking structures. The earliest known earth oven was discovered in Central Europe and dated to 29,000 BC. At its most basic, an earth oven is a pit in the ground used to trap heat and bake, smoke, 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. Earth ovens remain a common tool for cooking large quantities of food where no equipment is available. They have been used in various civilizations around the world and are still commonly found in the Pacific Rim to date.
To bake food, the fire is built, then allowed to burn down to a Smouldering. The food is then placed in the oven and covered. This covered area can be used to bake bread or other various items. Steaming food in an earth oven covers a similar process. Fire-heated rocks are put into a pit and are covered with green vegetation to add moisture and large quantities of food. More green vegetation and sometimes water are then added, if more moisture is needed. Finally, a covering of earth is added over everything. The food in the pit can take up to several hours to a full day to cook, regardless of the dry or wet method used. Today, many communities still use cooking pits for ceremonial or celebratory occasions, including the indigenous lovo, the imu, the Māori hāngī, the Mexico barbacoa, and the Clambake. The central Asian tandoor use the method primarily for uncovered, live-fire baking, which is a transitional design between the earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven. This method is essentially a permanent earth oven made out of clay or firebrick with a constantly burning, very hot fire in the bottom.
The clambake, invented by Native Americans on the Atlantic seaboard and considered a traditional element of New England cuisine, traditionally uses a type of ad hoc earth oven (usually built on a beach). A large hole is dug into the sand and heated rocks are added to the bottom of the hole. A layer of seaweed is then laid on top to create moisture and steam, followed by the food. Finally, another layer of seaweed is added to trap in the steam and cook the food, which mainly consists of shellfish and vegetables.
The curanto of the Chiloé Archipelago consists of shellfish, meat, potatoes, milcao , and vegetables traditionally prepared in an earth oven. It has spread to the southern areas of Chile.
The huatia or watia and pachamanca are traditional earth ovens of the Andes regions of Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. They are both indigenous practices that pre-date the Inca Empire.
The Hakka of China that live in tulou have been known to use earth ovens to cook.
In Taiwan, earth ovens (t=炕窯) are also a popular way to cook. In early Taiwanese agricultural society, adults would take children to build earth ovens and cook simple ingredients like sweet potatoes and taro.
It is the main traditional method of cooking for Polynesians in pre-contact times which is advantageous to tuber corps like taro that could be cooked in bulk and shared communally, displacing the need for earthen pottery developed in Lapita culture necessary to process cereal crops standard to cultures in Southeast Asia and New Guinea. In some part-Melanesian, Polynesian, and other closely related languages, the general term is "umu," from the Proto-Oceanic root *qumun (e.g. Tongan language umu, Māori umu or hāngī, Hawaiian imu, Samoan language umu, Cook Island Māori umu). In some non-Polynesian, part-Polynesian, and Micronesian parts of the Pacific, which some islands use the similar word umu, but not all Micronesian islands having many different languages use that base word umu, however, other words are used instead of umu - in Fijian language it is a lovo, in Rotuman language it is a koua and in Tahiti, it is a ahima'a.
In Papua New Guinea, "mumu" is used by Tok Pisin and English speakers, but each of the other Papuan languages of local languages has its own word. In the Solomon Islands the word in Pidgin is Motu.
Despite the similarities, there are many differences in the details of preparation, their cultural significance, and current usage. Earth ovens are said to have originated in Papua New Guinea and have been adopted by the later arriving Polynesians.
The Samoan umu starts with a fire to heat rocks which have been tested by fire as to whether they will explode upon heating. These rocks are used repeatedly but eventually are discarded and replaced when it is felt that they no longer hold enough heat. Once the rocks are hot enough, they are stacked around the parcels of food which are wrapped in banana leaves or aluminium foil. Leaves are then placed over the assembly and the food is left to cook for a few hours until it is fully cooked.
Exceptions do exist, such as the Irish Fulacht fiadh, in common use up to the Middle Ages. In Greek cuisine, there is also a tradition of Klephts ("thief style") dishes, ascribed to anti-Turkish partisans during the Greek War of Independence, which involve wrapping the food in clay and cooking it in a covered pit, allegedly at first to avoid detection by Turkish forces.
|
|
