brick built oven?

[julesapple]

In Italy, they make the frame work from bendy whips of willow (or similar) then cover it with clay mixed with horse hair. When you light a fire in it the first time it burns away the frame and bakes the clay hard.

[bazzaboy]

Aussie Russell Jeavons' book "Your Brick Oven" (2005) seems to have become a bit of a celebrated item (can’t quite see why), still available at:

Your Brick Oven: Building it and Baking in it: Amazon.co.uk: Maggie Beer, Russell Jeavons: Books

Didn’t Jamie Oliver push these as a fun idea once upon a time:
Wood Fired Ovens :: Home
Someone on Jamie's site claims his brick oven was so popular he received offers for his house, so it was kind of "Sell a Brick Oven with house attached..."

There’s also several brick oven pages on the Net, e.g.
The Brick Bake Oven Page

Good fun I’m sure but they just seem to be so big for an occasional pizza…. I've amassed some of the materials but never decided the location.... they seem to need a lot of space as well as being a safe distance from anything combustible or plants etc likely to be damaged by the heat…. Some are so big in the books and online that as a permanent structure strictly speaking they require Planning Permission!

I’ve just spent a rainy Sunday piecing together (at last) a Mexican metal chimera I purchased last year but never got round to assembling… Pretty useless for cooking I believe, best used as a heat source on chilly summer evenings (sounds likely...) or for toasting the odd crumpet, think I’ll leave the bread to the bread machine or Mothers Pride, mmmmmm

In fairness both Jeavons and Jamie promote them for far more than just bread/pizza once you get adept at handling their special attributes, both for fast cooking and as a giant sealed pre-heated slow cooker. Sounds challenging....

[julesapple]

I'd love to build one...just don't think I have a suitable site in my garden. There are wooden fences everywhere, or the chooks' wooden shed. I think it would be a bit of a safety hazard sadly.

Jules

[chris]

Middle of the garden - make a feature of it?

[pigletwillie]

My clay oven has a 4" thick cover of concrete (but with finer agregate) which was painted and has held up fine for some 4 odd years now, The concrete acts as an extra thermal layer and keeps the elements at bay. Total cost to build was about £20 although the clay was free.

As for running one, tis easy. A bag of kindling will be enough to fire it up and burn for a couple of hours to get up to temperature then keep at that temp long enough to cook about 30 pizzas and still have a bit left over. The only agravation is adding new sticks every ten minutes or so whilst its hotting up and in use.

[pigletwillie]

Oh, and there are indeed a few pictures of it on my blog.

[chris]

So when are we coming over for a pizza then pw? Need to try before I buy and all that sorta stuff!!

[Hilary B]

The other option is something that works like a Dutch oven. In Spain I have an enormous oval 'roaster' (enamelled casseroley thing, big enough to hold a small turkey with plenty of airspace all round), which I use to 'oven roast' our Christmas dinner every year. I suspect the method would work for baking, must try next time we are out there and it's not too hot for a log fire!

[Mikey]

I've read a lot on the subject over the last 9 months, and they say that the heat you get has a number of purposes, cooking pizzas is just the start, casseroles, breads, meats and puddings are other options. Once you take the fire out, there is a lot of residual heat left in the oven. This is as far as I can find out the real benefit from a fire brick oven as opposed to clay, in that it retains the heat for longer, and as long as you make a door for your oven and a lid for your chimney you can keep the stored heat for several hours allowing you to cook a huge variety of other meals aswell.

I'm sure there was a company in Bristol that made cast iron oven doors with integral temperature gauges allowing you to see what temp the oven is without opening the door and losing the heat.

I'll see if I can find it and post a link.

[Mikey]

This is it, Vitcas was the company, you can buy the components separately or as a complete unit. It is worth checking out the pizza oven forum I mentioned earlier as I know they have direct contacts with this company and can get discounted prices for members.

[pigletwillie]

I have cooked a leg of lamb and a big stew in mine Mikey. It has also cooked bread and biscuits. Due to the heat metal doors tend to expand and can crack the opening so I use the traditional method which is a piece of wood cut to size and dunked in a bucket before use. As well as being cheap and simple you cans severely burn your hands on it like a metal one. My clay/concrete oven us about 8" thick and retains heat for hours.

I guess it depends wether or not you want a cheap easy to build on or an expensive, albeit nicer looking one that really needs a professional to build.

[Mikey]

I guess it depends wether or not you want a cheap easy to build on or an expensive, albeit nicer looking one that really needs a professional to build.

One of the reasons I didn't get around to building it last year, was due to the complexity of creating the dome with fire bricks. Its a bit daunting TBO, its interesting to hear your comments on the heat retention, have you blanket insulated between the clay and the concrete, or used mesh to reinforce the concrete?

To be honest I'd rather build it with clay, due to the fact that my allotment is pretty much pure clay!!, and I could get it in the barrow load, though I'm not sure whether this would be appropriate. Did you mix the clay with a stabilizer?

Sorry PW, its 20 questions!!

[pigletwillie]

I added a bit of sharp sand to the clay that's all. The clay layer is about 100mm thick and was covered in wire mesh, about 100mm of concrete was added, then loft insulation and more chicken wire then another 100mm of concrete. It gives a big block of thermal retaining mass and when you add in the base too it will hold her very well.

[Mikey]

Did you build a concrete base, I've seen some use thermal blocks and top with vermiculite cement for its insulating properties.

Also how did you manage to get the clay to hold its shape at the top of the dome without collapsing? Your comments I'm sure will help others aswell as me PW.

[pigletwillie]

I used a 3x2 smooth slab for the base. It has to be smooth otherwise your pizza will stick good and proper. As for the shape, well just use soft sand to make a round dome and layer your clay over this including the entrance. Let the clay dry a fair amount before concreting over. After a couple of weeks you just remove the sand from inside. As the clay dries it shrinks and cracks so just use more clay to fill these cracks in. Once it's quite dry give it a gentle firing before going into cook mode.