Phase 01 — First days: water, fire, shelter / About year 1
01.19
Earth oven
pit cooking for a large group
AWhat it needs
Needs 7 other products in all, 2 of them directly.
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- 01.19 Earth ovenFood Year 1 needs 7 products
- 01.04 Digging stickMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
- 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.08 First fire and stone hearthMaking Year 1 needs 5 products
- 01.06 Tinder and kindling storeMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.07 Bow-drill fire setMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeshown above ↑← shown at left
- 01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cordMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.
BWhy
There are 24 mouths and no pots. A pit of hot stones sealed under earth steams a whole day's food at once: fish, roots, shellfish and large joints of meat. While it cooks, everyone is free for other work.
CYou need
- A digging stick (01.04) and fire from the hearth (01.08)
- Thirty to forty stones, fist-sized to head-sized, dense and dry. The rule is the same as for boiling stones: never from the stream, never flint, never layered stone.
- A large pile of firewood
- Armfuls of green leaves that are known to be safe to eat from: banana, large grass, seaweed
- The food, and more leaves or cord to wrap it
DSteps
- Dig a pit knee-deep, an arm-span long and half as wide. Keep the earth in a heap beside it.
- Lay firewood in the pit in a criss-cross stack and pile the stones on top of the wood.
- Light it from the hearth. Let it burn for two hours, until the wood has fallen to coals and the stones are grey-white with heat.
- Meanwhile wrap the food in leaf parcels. Cut large joints so nothing is thicker than a fist.
- With green poles, drag out any wood still flaming and spread the stones in an even layer.
- Work fast now. Cover the stones with a hand-depth of wet green leaves. Steam rises at once.
- Put the food on the leaves: meat and big roots in the middle where it is hottest, fish and shellfish at the edges.
- Cover with another hand-depth of wet leaves, then a layer of bark slabs or more leaves to keep the earth off.
- Push the earth back over the whole pit, a hand deep, and pat it down. Wherever steam leaks out, add earth.
- Leave it. Fish and shellfish: one hour. Roots: two to three hours. Large joints of meat: five to six hours.
- Open it from one side with care. The first steam scalds.
EIt worked if
- Meat pulls away from the bone and is the same colour all the way through.
- A stick pushes through the thickest root without effort.
FWhat goes wrong
- Raw in the middle. Stones not hot enough, pieces too thick, or opened too soon. Burn the fire longer and cut food smaller.
- Burnt on the bottom. Too few leaves over the stones. Use a full hand-depth, and wet them.
- Gritty food. No cover layer under the earth. Use bark slabs or a thick mat of leaves.
- Bitter or foul taste. The wrong leaves. Use only leaves the keeper of the food list has passed.
GSafety
- Half-cooked meat and shellfish make people ill. If in doubt, seal it again for another hour.
HIn the story
Tane and Ulani both grew up with this oven, an ocean apart, under two different names, and argue happily about which is right. Sofia listens to both and then runs it her own way. When it is opened on the fourth evening, the camp eats until it cannot move.
IFigures
