I promised all who were following my slow, intermittent mud/cob/adobe oven posts that I would post a photo once the oven was done and we made the first pizza.
Well, the oven isn't technically done; we did add a 2 1/2 inch layer of mud/woodshaving/sawdust insulation but it would really benefit from another layer of insulation and a finish plastering of mud/sand to help make it more weather resistant.
BUT, the working part; the clay shell and 1st layer of insulation is all you need to bake and like the impatient child that I am (and my kids were asking, when are you going to make pizza, Dad?") we lit up the fire.
I built a small starter fire and kept it going for 2 hours adding sticks of hardwood 3-4 times during that span. I made a sourdough dough the day before and used the leftover dough to make 3 10" pizzas. The oven worked great. The pizzas cooked in about 2-3 minutes and the bread cooked in 25 minutes (instead of the hour I usually need in my conventional oven at 450degrees F.) and the only problem was that my dough was too "sourdough" for a real Pizza margherita. Next time I'll mix up a bona fide pizza dough and make them a little thinner.
I can only say fantastic! and is there any pizza left?
ReplyDeleteThanks,D.M.
ReplyDeleteI got the instructions on how to do this from Kiko and Hannah Denzer's book "Building an Earth Oven" This was made with mostly recycled/found materials and if you exclude my labor cost about $200. I highly recommend their book for the pictures of sample ovens. The only real problem was my choice of Home Depot Casters. I doubt they'll really support the weight so I won't be moving it unless I have to. (I had wanted an oven I could roll to the end of the driveway for neighborhood Street gatherings.) I still have to learn how to really use it. (Once it's fired it gets up to 700 degrees F. and will stay hot with slowly declining residual heat for 10-12 hours.
Hey, Andrew, RE: your comment-well, the HS is in financial trouble, at this point, last I heard and things seem to change all the time, it is going to be run by just two full time teachers!!!
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