Pit cooked lamb

Procedure

Dig a hole of 1 m width and 0.5 m depth. You will need the turves from the hole plus an equal amount to later cover the pit

1. Carefully line the bottom and sides of the pit with fist-sized stones (not flint). Make a fire in the pit. You will need quite a lot of firewood, at least a couple of big baskets full. When the fire is burning, add more stones. After a couple of hours you will end up with glowing embers and the stones will all be very hot. But before then you need to prepare the meat.

2. Rub the meat with salt, distribute the seasonal herbs and roll it up. Tightly wrap the leaves around the meat and tie with string.

3. When the stones are sizzling hot, move the top stones and the live embers to the sides.

4. Cover the bottom stones with a good layer of fresh, wet grass.

5. Place the wrapped up meat onto the grass. At this stage it is necessary to work
fast for the stones not to lose too much in temperature.

6. Move the stones back to cover the parcel completely.

7. and 8. Cover with two layers of turves. The first layer with the grass-side down
and the second one with the grass-side up.

This roast needs to cook for 1.5 to 2 hours. Allow 0.5 hour plus 1 hour per kilo
of meat in cooking time.

Transfer the parcel to a board and remove the leaves. The tender meat is ready to
cut and eat.

The temperature in the pit oven can reach about 200oc. The cooking time for
the meat will be 0.5 hours longer than in a modern oven