Page "Cuisine of the United States" Paragraph 8

Early Native Americans utilized a number of cooking methods in early American Cuisine, that have been blended with early European cooking methods to form the basis of American Cuisine.

Grilling meats was common.

Spit roasting over a pit fire was common as well.

Vegetables, especially root vegetables were often cooked directly in the ashes of the fire.

As early American Indians lacked the proper pottery that could be used directly over a fire, they developed a technique which has caused many anthropologists to call them " Stone Boilers ".

They would heat rocks directly in a fire and then add the bricks to a pot filled with water until it came to a boil so that it would cook the meat or vegetables in the boiling water.

In what is now the Southwestern United States, they also created ovens made of adobe called hornos in which to bake items such as breads made from cornmeal and in other parts of America, made ovens out of dug pits.

These pits were also used to steam foods by adding heated rocks or embers and then seaweed or corn husks ( or other coverings ) placed on top to steam fish and shellfish as well as vegetables ; potatoes would be added while still in-skin and corn while in-husk, this would later be referred to as a clambake by the colonists.