Carneiro no Buraco

Carneiro no Buraco was invented in 1962 in Campo Mourão, a young frontier town in central-western Paraná, by Ênio Camargo de Queiroz together with neighboring families, who wanted a memorable way to feed visiting officials. The technique drew on South American indigenous earth-oven cooking, and town lore adds that the buried-pit idea was sparked by a scene in a Western film. A national festival has celebrated it every year since 1991, and in recent years it was recognized as intangible cultural heritage of the state of Paraná.

Lamb so tender it slides off the bone, deeply savory and faintly smoky from hours underground, the fat melted through the vegetables packed around it. The potato and cassava are soft and soaked in lamb juices; the pumpkin goes sweet and almost jammy. Plated over rice with farofa to catch the gravy, it eats rich and rustic — the food of a crowd gathered around an open pit, never a plate for one.

This is pit cooking, retained-heat style. A pit is dug and a hard wood fire burned down in it until the earth walls and any lining stones are radiating heat; the embers are cleared or banked. Sealed cast-iron pots holding the seasoned lamb and vegetables are lowered in, the pit is covered and buried, and the stored heat plus trapped steam cooks everything slowly with no flame touching the food. Because the pots are closed and the heat is gentle and all-around, the lamb braises in its own moisture — collagen melts, the meat falls apart, and a little smoke from the spent fire perfumes it. Modern versions line the pit with concrete and keep the method, just with a cleaner, reusable hole.