Stone boiling facts for kids

Stone boiling is a super old cooking method. Imagine heating rocks in a fire until they're really hot. Then, you carefully put these hot rocks into a container filled with water. The rocks make the water hot enough to cook food!

This way of cooking was used by many Indigenous peoples in places like Canada and the United States. They used it a lot on the West and Pacific Northwest coasts. Stone boiling helped them control the cooking temperature. This made it easier to get fats and oils from food. It also helped them get more nutrients from these oils. People first started using stone boiling about 4,800 years ago in the Great Plains. It became even more popular between 250 C.E. and 1750 C.E. This was likely because more people needed to be fed.

What Was Used for Stone Boiling?

To cook with hot stones, people needed special containers and the right kind of rocks.

Containers Above Ground

People used different types of containers for stone boiling. These included:

• Baskets and containers made from tree bark
• Pots made from clay
• Animal stomachs or hides hung up

Sometimes, even small canoes were used as cooking pots! This happened on the Northwest Coast to cook whale fat.

The type of container people used depended on what materials they could find. For example, some First Nations on the Northwest Coast and in eastern Canada used bark baskets. Bark baskets were often better than other bark containers. They didn't burn as easily, so they lasted longer. In eastern Canada, some Haudenosaunee peoples probably used large, thick clay pots. These thick walls helped keep the heat in. They also made the pots strong enough to hold heavy, hot rocks without breaking. People on the Plains used animal stomachs hung up for cooking. They also used special pits dug in the ground.

Containers Below Ground

People on the Plains often used cooking pits dug into the ground. Why? Because the wind could cool down containers above ground too quickly. This made it harder for the rocks to heat the water well. Digging a pit helped keep the heat in. At a place called Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Alberta, Canada, people lined these pits with bison hides. The hides held the water for cooking.

The Rocks Used for Cooking

To cook with stones, people first heated them in or near a fire. Once the rocks were hot, they used special forked sticks to move them. They would carefully place the hot rocks into the water-filled container. After cooking, they used the same forked sticks to take the rocks out. They would brace the rocks against the side of the container to lift them.

The rocks used for stone boiling were usually about the size of a fist. Smaller stones didn't transfer enough heat to be worth the effort. So, if a rock became smaller than 10 centimeters (about 4 inches), it was thrown away.

Rocks would often break because they were heated over and over again. These rocks could get as hot as 500°C (932°F)! At Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, archaeologists didn't find any whole boiling stones. This suggests the rocks were used many times until they broke. People think these rocks came from nearby rivers. River rocks were better for cooking than sandstone. They heated up and released their heat more slowly, which was perfect for cooking.

How Stone Boiling Was Used

Stone boiling was a very important cooking method for many reasons.

What Was Cooked?

Indigenous peoples used stone boiling to make many different foods. They made nut oil and bone grease. They also cooked vegetable and meat stews. Even though it took a lot of fuel, stone boiling helped feed more people. It allowed them to get more nutrients from the food they had.

Bone grease was especially important on the Plains. It was used to make pemmican. Pemmican was a very important food that could be stored for a long time. It was also a valuable item for trading with others.

Where Was It Used?

Stone boiling was used all across North America. It was very common among peoples on the West and Northwest Coasts. Generally, people living between certain lines of latitude and longitude used stone boiling. This is based on studies of many different cultural groups.

Having enough fuel, like wood, was important for using stone boiling. For example, the Deg Xitʼan and the Aleut peoples used this cooking method. They lived in colder areas, but they had good access to wood. This allowed them to heat the stones they needed for cooking.