Ghetto Backyard Brick Oven
Aug. 23rd, 2009 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morgainaEmail friend Kelly Savino made this oven http://www.primalmommy.com/earthoven.html several years ago. I have been in great admiration of it. But since I don't have the kids at home any more and would like to move at some point it wasn't at all a reasonable thing to make. But then Dame Zenobia posted this http://people.umass.edu/dac/projects/BrickOven/Instant_BrickOven.htm web page on FaceBook last Wednesday eve. I have been somewhere between overwhelmed and obsessed about it since then. It was temporary, it was quick, I could tear it down again and use the materials to make a ziggurat or a tornado shelter if either became necessary.
I was able to scrounge all the materials for it from off my place, which was one of my rules. I am trying to purge, not accumulate. Or in this case at least put to use some of the crap around here. It took longer than the hour promised, but only because I had to find the materials, tote them to the back yard, and scrub them off. If the bricks & blocks were already sitting in the back yard it would have taken less than an hour.
From the ground up there are: 1) two layers of cement blocks 2) a warped kiln shelf 3) a layer of fire brick 4) Walls consisting of 3 layers of firebrick, 5) a good & new kiln shelf wrong size for any of my kilns 6) a layer of firebrick.
There are three firebrick sitting on the top layer that I will use for the door.
The 1 hr. brick oven web page used a red clay flue liner. If need be I'll make a clay chamber, but that will take time and I want it now!
I started some lump charcoal in a brazier, then when it was burning nicely I transferred it, via tongs, to the oven and used little branches & twigs. Again I blessed![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
a_pink_monkey for her gift to me of bellows. The fire burned very well in the oven, this was helped because of a combination of a windy day and the oven is not air tight :-/ as it would be in a real cob oven.
dancing_guru was coming over to have lunch with me, she was quite late, so I just kept feeding the little fire. It turned out this was the right thing to do. It takes quite awhile to heat up firebrick.
I started some bread dough, but was so impatient to bake it, I sped up the rising by using the old timey method of putting the crock holding the rising dough on the lid of the oven.
Then used a hoe (hur) to scrape the ashes out of the chamber. Then moved the dough into the oven. I put the bread directly on the bricks without anything to release it which, as it turned out, wasn't needed. I used the three bricks temporarily sitting on the top for the door to close it off.
It baked for about 40 minutes. This was a 4" thick loaf. Done all the way through, very nicely too. I make soft loaves, I'm going to try a chewy loaf next. It was darker on the base and that may have been the tastiest part.
This was a fun project!!
I was able to scrounge all the materials for it from off my place, which was one of my rules. I am trying to purge, not accumulate. Or in this case at least put to use some of the crap around here. It took longer than the hour promised, but only because I had to find the materials, tote them to the back yard, and scrub them off. If the bricks & blocks were already sitting in the back yard it would have taken less than an hour.
From the ground up there are: 1) two layers of cement blocks 2) a warped kiln shelf 3) a layer of fire brick 4) Walls consisting of 3 layers of firebrick, 5) a good & new kiln shelf wrong size for any of my kilns 6) a layer of firebrick.
There are three firebrick sitting on the top layer that I will use for the door.
The 1 hr. brick oven web page used a red clay flue liner. If need be I'll make a clay chamber, but that will take time and I want it now!
I started some lump charcoal in a brazier, then when it was burning nicely I transferred it, via tongs, to the oven and used little branches & twigs. Again I blessed
a_pink_monkey for her gift to me of bellows. The fire burned very well in the oven, this was helped because of a combination of a windy day and the oven is not air tight :-/ as it would be in a real cob oven.dancing_guru was coming over to have lunch with me, she was quite late, so I just kept feeding the little fire. It turned out this was the right thing to do. It takes quite awhile to heat up firebrick.I started some bread dough, but was so impatient to bake it, I sped up the rising by using the old timey method of putting the crock holding the rising dough on the lid of the oven.
Then used a hoe (hur) to scrape the ashes out of the chamber. Then moved the dough into the oven. I put the bread directly on the bricks without anything to release it which, as it turned out, wasn't needed. I used the three bricks temporarily sitting on the top for the door to close it off.
It baked for about 40 minutes. This was a 4" thick loaf. Done all the way through, very nicely too. I make soft loaves, I'm going to try a chewy loaf next. It was darker on the base and that may have been the tastiest part.
This was a fun project!!
