Building an earth oven (long with many pictures)

[GavinC]

I have just got back from visiting friends who own land in North East California. Part of the object of the trip was to build an earth oven along the lines described by Kiko Denzer in his excellent book 'Build your own Earth Oven':

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 25-4312650

The oven was built at a leisurely pace over three days by 2 people; the structure to house it took about the same with 3 people doing the bulk of the work. All materials used for the oven and its home were harvested from land within a quarter of a mile of the oven site and were free apart from the chicken wire and fire bricks. The bread and pizza baked in the oven where made using natural leaven started from scratch using Dan's formula and the local spring water.

Day 1 - choose a location
The square of stones roughly marks the spot.



We also tested various ratios of the local clay to sand to find the best mixture to build with.

Day 2 - Raise a roof. This was fun! All the wood used comes from trees that needed to be cleared to reduce the risk of wild fires on the land.




Build a foundation - chicken mesh filled with rocks will form the platform that the oven sits on.


Seal the platform - a layer of local clay mixed with sand is added to the top of the platform to seal it so that sand can be poured on top without leaking


Day 3 lay the base of the oven. Sand is poured on to the top of the platform and firebricks are laid into the sand - these will form the floor and the hearth of the oven


Day 4
Making the void - the empty space at the heart of the oven is molded out of sand mixed with a little clay. This will act as a mold for the oven walls and will be removed to leave an interior void when the walls are complete.



Tread the clay - Clay is mixed with sand to form the building material for the oven walls - feet are the best tool


Building the walls - this took about three hours the walls are 4 inches thick



Now we need a door



Removing the sand/clay to leave the void



We then fired the oven with a small fire and left it over night to dry

Day 5
Fire the oven for bread and pizza making. It took about an hour to get the oven up to blisteringly hot pizza temperature



The fire was then raked out a pizza added and the door sealed (we made a 5 inch thick door out of local pine)

Unfortunately the first pizza was so good we ate it before anyone had a chance to photograph it, but here is some bread I baked after scoffing the pizza:



And another loaf posing



More photos if anyone is interested
All the best
Gavin

[majr]

Gavin, that looks like *real* fun, I'm so jealous! How long did the oven stay hot for? Could you bake more than one batch per firing?

[GavinC]

After being fired for an hour with hardwood the oven was at about 700F, too hot for bread, great for pizza. Each pizza took about 3-4 mins to cook and after three the oven was approaching bread baking temperatures. Bread baked for about 35-40 mins at the end of this time the oven was hot enough to bake rolls, but not another whole loaf.
The oven only had one thermal layer and no insulation and was quite small in comparison to the size of the door (most heat is lost through the door when loading or unloading the oven). A bigger oven would retain baking temperatures longer, but take more wood to get up to speed. With insulation the oven could probably retain baking temps for 2-3 hours.

We also used the oven to cook a stew and it kept a large casserole simmering for a good 3 hours.

All the best
Gavin

[Jeremy]

Hi Gavin,
Awesome!


Jeremy

[Teck Poh]

Beautiful photo essay! I love the moods captured, from the busyness, concentration and one-mindedness of making the oven to the loaf amongst the grass blowing in the wistful breeze. Yes...more pix please.

[Nick]

Wonderful stuff, a stunning little oven experiment if ever there was one.

Did the bread taste noticably different for being baked as it was?

I'm tempted to have a go myself. I wonder how the Hyde Park groundskeepers would react to me digging up her Majesty's soil?

[GavinC]

Thanks all

Nick - made a big difference to taste, I guess because the oven is completely sealed so no steam can escape, get much more caramelisation (sp?) on the crust. Pizza definitely the best I have made (I guess also partly due to the insanely high temps the oven reached compared to a domestic).

Go for it in Hyde Park and claim its a free festival (or find willing friends with a garden)

Teck Poh thanks for the lovely comments, one of the nicest things about the build was the participation of so many people - more pictures (of pizza flinging, and tool making to follow when I get round to processing them (your cakes look fantastic).

All the best
Gavin

[Forno]

Wow, awesome! view aint bad either

[Matt]

Gavin,

That looks like a cracking day. I'm jealous.

Matt

[Jeremy]

So Gavin,
when are you going to post the formula for the bread in the pic?


Jeremy