[JRandomFreeper]

When I was a kid, we learned to boil water in a paper lunch bag. Everything above the waterline was toast. Everything under the waterline was 212F -1 degree per 500ft ASL.

/johnny

[Errant]

You have to fill it all the way. ;)

I remember reading accounts of early American Indians using hot stones, as a previous poster mentioned. Clay pots, fire, and hot water are probably a pretty problamatic combination. Heck, I even recall my mom melting an aluminum pot or two.

[SampleMan]

When I was a kid, we learned to boil water in a paper lunch bag.

For my daughter's science project, she boiled water in a paper cup. I helped her set up a right with a propane torch under the cup.

It wouldn't even discolor the paper. However, the wax coating evaporated quickly.

[Errant]

Or in the ageless words of Ulga the cave wife, “Some people don't even know how to boil water.”

[Errant]

Everything under the waterline was 212F -1 degree per 500ft ASL.

The only real modern advancement in culinarny tools, IMO, is the pressure cooker: