When the water came to a boil, the stones would cook the contents of the pot, which usually included fresh or dried meat, dried corn and wild vegetables, and tubers. Most Plains tribes still prepare this traditional soup, particularly on ceremonial occasions. These days it is cooked, however, without stones and in an iron kettle. In this season of outdoor cooking and barbecuing, we were interested in trying another very old Plains cooking technique known as ember roasting. Fresh meat was often cooked directly on the embers of a hardwood fire.
Plains cooks preferred willow, chokecherry, alder, mountain maple and cottonwood.
In testing this recipe, we feared that the outside would be too burnt and the inside too raw. But by allowing fifteen minutes per pound, the result was a roast that was charred on the outside and a beautiful medium-rare on the inside. Wild onions were a typical Plains seasoning. But threading them through the roast is our innovation. It really gets the flavoring into the meat, and the sliced meat with pieces of green onion in it looks attractive.