Gigot bitume

A gigot bitume is a French dish consisting of a leg of lamb prepared by wrapping the meat in kraft paper and placing it in a bath of hot asphalt. This preparation method is traditionally used in France to celebrate the completion of the structural portion of construction projects or public works.
A recipe for the dish, gigot cuit dans le goudron, appears in the 1900 cookbook La Vraie cuisine pratique: Les potages, les poissons, le bœuf, le veau, l'agneau, le mouton, le porc, la volaille, le gibier
Usage of this cooking method by asphalt workers, in particular, has existed since the end of the 19th century.
In Val-de-Travers in western Switzerland, a similar tradition exists where a ham is cooked in asphalt.