How to Cook in a Steam Pit

If you attended Dirttime 12, you were treated to a class on steam pit cooking by Stone-age skills instructor Chris Morasky. Really, though, if you’ve attended a clam bake, that’s all it really is.

At its core, steam pit cooking is nothing more than a pit with hot rocks, followed by food, then green vegetation then covered with dirt and allowed to sit. The moisture from the vegetation helps in the steaming process and keeps the food tender.

Okay that sounded really basic, so here is a little more in depth article that covers this type of cooking. Not only will it turn out delicious moist food, but it is always a crowd pleaser.

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The steam pit is one of those traditional cooking methods that is a fair bit of work, but it’s also worth the trouble. If you’ve been to a real Luau or a New England Clam Bake, you have enjoyed the results of a steam pit (or steam mound). These cooking techniques use a hole or mound with hot rocks at the bottom, with layers of dirt, vegetation and food above the hot rocks. The heat of the rocks produces steam from the dirt and vegetation, cooking great tasting food that stays hot for hours until you’re ready to eat it.

To start out, a pit of varying depth and width is dug in the dirt, clay or sand. The pit can be as small as one foot deep and one foot wide, or as big as you need if you have enough hot rocks and food to fill it. I typically dig two feet wide and a foot and a half deep to cook for a few people, but I once dug a steam pit as big as a grave to cook 72 fish for a large group.

Next you’ll need rocks and lots of firewood. Select suitable rocks from a high, dry location. These rocks are placed in the bottom of the pit to see how many it will take and where the stones fit best. You have a choice now of leaving the stones in the pit and building the fire on top of them, or taking the rocks out of the pit and placing them in a big fire. Either way the stones should be heated for two hours.

If you heat the rocks in the pit, you must scoop the remaining wood, charcoal, coals and ash out of the pit when the rocks are hot enough. The wood, ash and charcoal will give the food an unpleasant “wet smoked” flavor otherwise. If you heat the rocks outside of the pit, you can use a shovel to scoop them up and move them into the pit. You can also just roll them or slide them with a stout pole.

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For the rest of the article, visit http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/survivalist/2012/02/survival-skills-how-cook-steam-pit