Alan Davidson

Earth Oven

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

Earth Oven is one form of pit cookery, which will also be dealt with here. From prehistory until recent times, from the plains of North America to the pib of the Mexican Yucatan, from Siberia to the hangis of New Zealand, and across the Pacific, where the Hawaiian imu is the best-known example, earth ovens have been an important means of food preparation.

An earth oven is a pit, often lined with stones, in which a large fire is built. As the flames die down, so stones are placed on the embers to absorb, and then retain, the heat. Suitably wrapped or insulated, the food to be cooked is lowered on the hot surface, the pit is covered to exclude oxygen and keep the heat in and, many hours later, the food is excavated and eaten. Because of the lining and insulation, usually leaves, the food is steamed as well as baked.