A wood-fired clay oven bakes breads and pizzas to perfection and can be used to cook many other foods. Building one is somewhat time-consuming, but costs very little and is not difficult, especially when friends and neighbors are recruited to help.
Get a Permit to Build an Earth Oven
Check local regulations to make sure they do not prohibit a backyard wood-fired clay oven. In most cases, as long as the oven is well away from other structures, there are no regulations prohibiting their construction. Some sort of roof should be constructed over the oven to keep the weather off, and this too may need to meet local building codes.
Where to Put a Bread Oven
A wood fired bread oven should be placed so that smoke from the fire will not disturb neighbors, but close enough to the house so that baked goods can be carried to and from the kitchen without too much trouble.
Bread Oven is Made from Simple, Mostly Free Materials
The basic bread oven is beehive-shaped dome with no chimney, constructed from ordinary backyard soil with some clay content. Straw and sand are mixed with the clay to give it strength. The base of the oven can be made from chunks of broken concrete, used brick and other recycled building materials. One of the joys of building a wood fired bread oven is that it can be built very economically.
Get the Handbook for Building a Clay Bread Oven
When the preliminaries of permitting, location, and gathering materials are out of the way, it is time to go to the library and check out Build Your Own Earth Oven, by Kiko Denzer, Hand Print Press, 2007. The third edition of this book is still in print and can also be purchased for $17.95.
Denzer’s Instructions for Building a Clay Oven are Easy to Follow
Denzer explains with clear, step-by-step instructions how to turn a pile of mud and sand into a fully functioning bread oven. His book also has easy to follow illustrations and dozens of photographs.
Clay Bread Oven is Very Energy Efficient
When the clay oven dries out, it can be fired and brought up to a high temperature in an hour or so. The remains of the fire are raked out, the door is put in place and the heat allowed to “soak” into the 8 inch thick clay walls of the oven. When properly soaked, the oven will then remain hot enough to cook food for several hours, though the temperature will continue to drop.
Schedule for Baking in the Oven
Take advantage of the heat from the oven with a baking schedule. After a few uses, it will be fairly easy to figure out approximately when the oven will reach various temperatures.
- Around 600 degrees, pita bread bakes on the floor of the oven in a few seconds.
- Around 500 degrees, biscuits and pizzas bake quickly, and vegetables tossed with olive oil roast in about 20 minutes.
- Between 400 to 350 degrees most breads bake in 25 to 30 minutes.
- At 350 to 325 pies and cakes bake in 30 or so minutes.
As the oven continues to cool, it can be used like a slow cooker for stews and soups. Even 12 hours later, the oven is warm enough to culture yogurt, and dry apple slices.
A backyard clay oven is practical, simple, cheap, and fun.
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