Building an Outdoor Oven

Test your skills by building an outdoor oven. This easy-to-construct, DIY clay oven fires up quickly and stays hot for days.

article image
by William Rubel
This easy-to-build clay oven is based on ancient technology. Not only does it heat up fast and hold its heat, it's also a beautiful architectural statement.

Test your skills by building an outdoor oven. This easy-to-construct, DIY clay oven fires up quickly and stays hot for days. Cook dinner at night and bake bread in the morning with its stored heat. This is the first of a two-part article on DIY backyard ovens. Part I discusses building an outdoor oven, and Part II will discuss how to cook with your oven.

The technology of the domed oven is ancient. In one of the world’s oldest excavated Neolithic villages, every house had a domed mud oven. That was 9,000 years ago! The technology hasn’t changed. Any refractory dome that has a hole cut into it (so you can heat the oven with an interior fire) will cook pizza and other foods when the fire is still burning. However, the ultimate power of the domed oven is that the dome functions like a battery, absorbing heat while it’s being fired. So, after the fire has died down, you can sweep out the embers and bake bread and casseroles with the stored heat radiating into the oven from the dome. When the oven is nearly cool, you can dry wild mushrooms, herbs, and fruit inside.

The oven I suggest you build is made of powdered clay — fireclay — and sand. It heats quickly; you can start baking dinner in 15 to 20 minutes while the fire is still burning inside the oven and achieve a full firing after about an hour and a half. While the shell is thin compared with brick, it’s so well-insulated under the floor and over the dome that it can be used for days on a single firing. In summer, after making a pizza dinner, if I close the door and put insulation in front of it, my oven will almost always be at least 400 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning — still hot enough for me to bake bread that afternoon. And, its temperature will still be higher than 200 degrees by the following morning.

Ovens are beautiful architectural and sculptural statements. I built my oven on a table made of the trunk and branches of a backyard plum tree. I was inspired by ovens I saw in Italy that were built on platforms made of chestnut trees. This is my aesthetic; you’ll want your oven to reflect your own aesthetic. A friend made his oven base out of pallets, setting his oven at an angle on the tabletop. A wooden base can be finished with stucco or siding, or built with dovetail joints and contrasting woods. It’s all up to you. You don’t need the structural strength of a masonry base, but if your aesthetic tends that way, then build a stone base.

Choosing a Site

  • Updated on Jul 27, 2022
  • Originally Published on Apr 12, 2017
Tagged with: pizza oven
Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368