Terracotta woman baking bread, Cypro-Arcahic II, circa 600-480 BCEMetropolitan Museum, The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76 The tandoor oven (there are variant spellings) is ancient. There had been tandoor-style ovens for thousands of years before this terracotta figurine was made. The YouTube video that follows shows someone making an oven very similar to the … Continue reading Tandoor Oven 2,600 Years Ago
Category: (Bread Ovens)
Portable Oven — Campaign Oven — Dutch Oven
The impromptu oven is beyond ancient. This said, in terms of the history of bread, its documented history is recent. The documented history only goes back to ancient Greece and Rome. If you know of something earlier, then please share in your comments. The biggest literature on impromptu ovens prior to the Early Modern English … Continue reading Portable Oven — Campaign Oven — Dutch Oven
A Georgian Tandoor Oven
This photograph, taken by Reaktion Books publisher Michael Leaman in Tiblisi, Georgia, very clearly shows that the top of the oven is angled so that breads stuck to its side will receive direct radiant heat from the embers or fire at the bottom of the oven. If you build a tandoor oven I would use … Continue reading A Georgian Tandoor Oven
Peruvian Watia Oven made with Spaded Soil
The impromptu Peruvian oven that is is built in the Peruvian highlands to bake potatoes can easily be adapted to bake bread. While the Peruvian watia dome is heated and then collapsed onto the potatoes, one can use the form to bake bread the usual way. The Peruvian potato oven is constructed in situ with … Continue reading Peruvian Watia Oven made with Spaded Soil
A Simple Military Clay Oven circa 1895
Armies march on their stomachs. Historically, this often meant that armies marched with their bakeries. Military field manuals are a source of information in simple impromptu oven construction. The simplest oven is the item 496: An oven may be excavated in a clay bank (Fig. 6) and used at once. Few of us have sloped … Continue reading A Simple Military Clay Oven circa 1895
Building a Mud Oven with Soil/Concrete
The ovens demonstrated here are based on designs from the Jewish Moroccan community in Israel. They were built at the Jewish Moroccan Museum and Archive for Living Culture at Moshav Sedot Micah, a village in the center of Israel. There is a profound way in which these ovens are traditional constructions. The ovens are built … Continue reading Building a Mud Oven with Soil/Concrete
Building a Clay or Cob Oven
This is part 6 of a multi-part video by Kurt Gardella. Kurt is affiliated with the Northern New Mexico College adobe construction program. He offers workshops in building a traditional New Mexican horno. Kurt also offers online workshops. This is a brilliant video. Anyone interested in building an earth oven (clay, cob, adobe, argile) will … Continue reading Building a Clay or Cob Oven
Roundboy Outdoor Products
Roundboy sells oven kits for ovens that sit on a metal stand. I provide the link to the dimensions page for one of their barrel-shaped models. What I want to point out is the 14" roof height. When looking at oven kits be aware that the roof height tells you what the oven is designed … Continue reading Roundboy Outdoor Products
Kiko Denzer Earth Oven Book
No matter what kind of an oven you decide on in the end, you must purchase Kiko Denzer's book on clay ovens. Kiko brings a level of imagination to building ovens that is second to none. He offers you easy instructions for making an oven out of the earth -- an oven that can cost … Continue reading Kiko Denzer Earth Oven Book
A Simple Moroccan Oven
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fMWRs_NgIo&feature=related This is one of the most extraordinary baking videos posted on You Tube. The baker, a Moroccan woman, is sitting in front of small oven fired with brush. The bread is baked on a griddle within the oven. She crisps the puffed up bread by building up flames to radiate heat down on to … Continue reading A Simple Moroccan Oven
