The potential of ancient pit ovens to yield important information about the human past has been recognized only recently in the U.S. Ovens implicate cooking and diet as well as food procurement and construction of large, complex features. Such behaviors are directly referable to subsistence, mobility, and labor organization, which are central to the tempo and mode of evolutionary change in foraging societies. Most archaeological data about pit ovens are hidden in cultural resource management reports. These data are brought to light in this study’s exploration of archaeological patterning framed by the ethnography of pit cooking and the people who do it. Students and professional archaeologists will benefit from the broad survey of an ancient cooking technique in the American Southwest and Pacific Northwest, and its utility for intensification research at the theoretical level. Heritage management specialists will value the study as a useful guide for data collection in the field, and a meaningful demonstration of the enduring value of publicly funded archaeological research.