Earth Oven - Fotografía de stock

Earth ovens are said to have originated in Papua New Guinea and have been adopted by the later arriving Polynesians. An earth oven, ground oven or cooking pit is one of the simplest and most ancient cooking structures. 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 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 region to date. Steaming food in an earth oven involves fire-heated rocks which 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, known as hangi in New Zealand, mumu in Papua New Guinea and bakar batu throughout eastern Indonesia. This earth oven was used to cook a pig and many vegetables for a major ceremony in Usku village, Keerom Regency, Papua province, Indonesia.