From pressure cooker to slow cooker. Pls reassure me I haven't dreamed up the origin

Bobthefireman

I think I read somewhere that somehow stewing meat was invented by accident.
From what I vaguely recall, ancient Celts used pits of water (maybe to keep things cold?)
Somewhere in the depths of my brain, I seem to 'imagine' that accidentally they threw hot rocks into the water to cool, where they were storing the meat, and eventually discovered that the meat was cooked after 24 hours or so.

I have googled and googled but can not find any evidence of this notion I have!

Can anyone enlighten me one way or the other? Thank you.

jonniebgood1

You aren't to far off the mark. See link here for some information about food preparation in earlier times

http://www.dochara.com/the-irish/food-history/food-in-early-ireland/ Food was also sometimes boiled in a wooden cooking trough using water boiled and then kept hot by stones heated in a fire.

Tefral

I think what you are referring to is a Fulacht Fia.

They used to dig a hole in the ground, line it with timber and fill with water. They would then roll stones from a fire into the water to cook food.

Arsemageddon

cronin_j wrote: »

I think what you are referring to is a Fulacht Fia.

They used to dig a hole in the ground, line it with timber and fill with water. They would then roll stones from a fire into the water to cook food.

Fulachtaí Fiadh (now more commonly referred to as burnt mounds) date primarily from the Bronze Age. The name in old Irish means approximately 'wild cooking place', a more fanciful interpretation of the term is 'cooking place on the Fianna'.

The pit was generally excavated into an area where the water table was quite high (soft, boggy ground) which saved on the need to carry water. The pits are not always lined, it depends on what the soil is like. However, some of the lining structures can be very elaborate. The hot stones used are pretty much always sandstone as it is the most effective stone for transferring heat to the water.

While it has been demonstrated that the Fulachts/burnt mounds can be used to cook they were probably were used for other purposes as well e.g. bathing, sweat lodges etc. There is a huge amount of effort involved in their preparation i.e. digging and lining the pit (trough), gathering sandstone and carrying it to the site and gathering enough wood to heat the sandstone.

I have eaten meat prepared in a fulacht and it's fine, but to be perfectly honest it is both easier and tastier to cook meat on a spit over an open fire. Because of all the effort involved in preparation it seems reasonable to suggest that there was ritual significance behind the use of such sites.

Bobthefireman

Arsemageddon wrote: »

Fulachtaí Fiadh (now more commonly referred to as burnt mounds) date primarily from the Bronze Age. The name in old Irish means approximately 'wild cooking place', a more fanciful interpretation of the term is 'cooking place on the Fianna'.

The pit was generally excavated into an area where the water table was quite high (soft, boggy ground) which saved on the need to carry water. The pits are not always lined, it depends on what the soil is like. However, some of the lining structures can be very elaborate. The hot stones used are pretty much always sandstone as it is the most effective stone for transferring heat to the water.

While it has been demonstrated that the Fulachts/burnt mounds can be used to cook they were probably were used for other purposes as well e.g. bathing, sweat lodges etc. There is a huge amount of effort involved in their preparation i.e. digging and lining the pit (trough), gathering sandstone and carrying it to the site and gathering enough wood to heat the sandstone.

I have eaten meat prepared in a fulacht and it's fine, but to be perfectly honest it is both easier and tastier to cook meat on a spit over an open fire. Because of all the effort involved in preparation it seems reasonable to suggest that there was ritual significance behind the use of such sites.

So how did they discover this?

Arsemageddon

Bobthefireman wrote: »

So how did they discover this?

I don't think that question could ever be answered definitively. It may have been by accident or it may have been due to refining existing methods. Or it may also have been knowledge acquired indirectly from working with metals.

The use of hot stones to cook was common across the globe, usually a large, flat stone was placed in a fire and food was cooked on top of the stone - this method is an easy way to make flat bread and was used from the Neolithic period onward when cereal was first cultivated.

Another way hot stones can be used is to dig a pit, wrap up the meat and place it in the pit, fill the pit with hot stones and then cover all the top with soil to trap in the heat so that the meat roasts. I've eaten meat like this (goat) and it was delicious. I'm pretty sure this is a north African method, but I could be wrong.

Markcheese

Arsemageddon wrote:

Another way hot stones can be used is to dig a pit, wrap up the meat and place it in the pit, fill the pit with hot stones and then cover all the top with soil to trap in the heat so that the meat roasts. I've eaten meat like this (goat) and it was delicious. I'm pretty sure this is a north African method, but I could be wrong.

The new zealand Maori still do this (feasts ect),its called a hangi,the food is more or less steamed underground..