Title: Assiniboin Hot Stone Cooking
Categories: Native
Yield: 1 Info

The Assiniboin "stone boilers" were a Siouan tribe living in northeastern Montana and adjacent parts of Canada. This tribe, as well as many others, used the hot stone method to boil water and cook some of their food. A hole was dug in the ground and a buffalo hide pegged over the hole to form a primitive kett.e The hide was then filled with water, meat, wild vegetables and greens. Small red-hot stones were dropped into the water to make it boil. The cooled stones were replaced with hot stones to keep the water boiling. Some tribes used birch bark containers in a similar manner with the same results.

Your family may like to try this on your next camping trip. Here is what you do. Dig a hole big enough to hold the necessary equipment for boiling the water and food to be cooked. A piece of plastic can be used, in place of the buffalo hide, to line the hole. Fill with water and place four cold stones of similar size in the bottom. Make a basket out of slender branches and set it in the water on the stones. This basket will hold the hot cooking stones, otherwise they would burn holes in the plastic. Meat and vegetables are placed outside around the basket. As they cool, cooking stones must be placed with hot stones to keep the water boiling.

Source: "Indian Cookin'", compiled by Herb Walker, 1977

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