Build Your own Wood-fired Earth Oven
(Page 3 of 5)
October/November 2002
By Kiko Denzer
MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL
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Basic finishing can be done by rubbing the oven's exterior smooth with a chunk of milled lumber, a metal trowel or spoon, or a polished rock. More complex shapes and finishing require more mud material with additions like straw, manure, lime and earthen pigments. Make your oven into a sculpture, a hemispherical mural, a bench or a whole building, or keep it simple and abstract.
A rain-soaked oven takes a long time to heat up, so building a roof — as simple or complex as you choose -will protect your oven from the weather. But do not cover the oven with paint or cement! An earthen oven needs to breathe — trapped moisture will destroy it.
MAKE THE DOOR
To make your door, cut a paper template to fit the opening, then use it to cut out the door. The door doesn't need to fit perfectly, since you can drape it with a wet cloth, which also keeps the door from charring and adds moisture for baking. (You also can soak the door in water or line the back of it with metal or foil.)
To use the oven, build a fire in it and let the smoke come out of the door opening. When the oven is fully dry and has been fired for two to three hours, you'll notice that the black soot on the inside of the dome has disappeared; that's the sign that the oven is ready to use. Rake out the coals and begin baking, putting the door in place to hold in the heat.
Getting the most out of your oven
Many people build earth ovens for the crisp bread crust and chewy crumb texture that only high-temperature, retained-heat ovens can provide. But wood-fired ovens go far beyond bread, and are capable of roasting, broiling, steaming or braising.
After one oven-building workshop, some new owners wrote this note: "Roasted sweet potatoes, zucchini and onions in a cumin-orange juice glaze with roast garlic pork loin (for the meat eater). Baked apples, then roasted eggplant, squash and leeks, made rosemary polenta, herb-roasted salmon and peach pie. This morning: cinnamon rolls."
Bearing in mind the time, effort and firewood you put into your oven, you'll want to get the most out of it. Awareness, attention and experience will be your best teachers.
With practice, you'll get a reliable feel for the right temperatures. For example, 1 know the oven is ready for sourdough bread baking (400 degrees to 450 degrees) when I can hold a closed fist in the oven for a full eight seconds, or when a handful of flour tossed on the oven's floor takes 10 to 20 seconds to turn dark brown. Thermometers are OK too, but a very hot oven will destroy a typical oven thermometer that only goes up to 500 degrees.
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