Traditional Stone Boiling

Ingredients

• Water (Enough to fill your cooking container (bark basket, clay pot, or lined pit))
• Meat or Vegetables (For stew; typically bison, whale fat, or local tubers)
• 6 River Rocks (Fist-sized (at least 10cm), ideally smooth river stones which transfer heat more effectively than sandstone)
• Firewood (Sufficient fuel to heat stones to approximately 500°C)

Steps

1. 1

   Prepare your cooking container. This can be a bark basket, a thick-walled clay pot, a wooden trough (kōhua), or a below-ground pit lined with a bison hide.

2. 2

   Fill the container with water and add the ingredients you wish to cook, such as meat, bones for grease extraction, or vegetables.

3. 3

   Build a large fire in a nearby hearth. Place several fist-sized river stones (at least 10cm in diameter) in or near the fire.

4. 4

   Heat the stones until they reach a high temperature, potentially upwards of 500°C.

5. 5

   Using forked sticks, carefully lift a heated stone from the fire and transfer it into the water-filled container.

6. 6

   As the stone cools and transfers its heat to the liquid, use the forked sticks to remove it, bracing it against the side of the container to lift it out.

7. 7

   Repeat the process of adding freshly heated stones and removing cooled ones until the water reaches a rolling boil and the food is thoroughly cooked.

8. 8

   Once the desired temperature is reached and the food is cooked, remove the final stones and serve the stew or collect the extracted fats and oils.

Notes

River rocks are preferred over sandstone because they heat up and transfer heat more slowly, making them more durable for cooking. Stones smaller than 10cm should be discarded as they do not hold enough thermal mass to be efficient. This method is highly fuel-intensive and requires constant attention to the fire and stone rotation.

Nutrition per serving

• traditional
• indigenous
• slow-cooked
• stew
• ancestral-cooking
• outdoor-cooking
• survival