Stone boiling

Stone boiling is a moist-heat cooking method. It involves placing heated rocks into a water-filled container to heat the liquid to the point where it can be used to cook. This method of food preparation is a fuel-intensive process and it often requires the heating and reheating of stones before the water reaches an effective cooking temperature.

Indigenous peoples in what is now Canada and the United States of America, especially on the West and Northwest Coast, used stone boiling. Cooking this way allowed for a more controlled temperature which made the extraction of fats and oils easier while also allowing for more nutrients to be obtained from such oils. Indigenous peoples’ first use of stone boiling, based on archaeological excavations in the Northern Plains, was dated at 4800 years ago. However, its use became more prominent between 250 C.E. and 1750 C.E.; Brian Reeves, professor of anthropology and archaeology at the University of Calgary, argued this is because of the need to feed increasing populations.

This method was also common among Polynesians in precolonial times including Hawaiians (particularly for processing natural dyes), Samoans, Tahitians, and the Māori.

Modern indigenous food sovereignty movements are reintroducing this traditional method of cooking.