Outdoor Oven

[Butch50]

I am gearing up to build an outdoor wood burning cooking oven. There are about a blue million references on the internet to about 12 blue million styles, plans, concepts, philosophies, etc. Where to start? Holy smokes! I had no idea it was a religion with about half of the worlds weirdos kneeling at it's altar.

Has anyone here built one, or have experience with one that would care to share their actual real life hard earned non
weirdo-save-the-green-earth-pseudo-new age-religious-advice on where to start with this project? I just want to build one that works and doesn't use a cord of wood to turn out a loaf of bread. I have plenty of river rocks and sand at my disposal, plus whatever they have at the hardware store and lumberyard.

Any help will be gratefully received.

Thanks.

[theholymackerel]

Glad to see another convert.

Get a piece of slate for the floor bakin' surface and you'll be thankin' yerself for years to come. I say go with adobe. It's cheap, easy, and has LOTS of thermal mass.

The smaller the hornito the less fuel used to get it ready, the larger the more. Smaller hornitos also get up to temp faster. I suggest ya go to the smaller size (24 to 30 inches interior circle) and do a traditional "beehive" shape. I like to have a short 4" diameter stove pipe stack on the ones I make. A small coffee can makes a great damper/ rain guard. Make yerself a THICK hardwood door that ya can place over yer openin' and the heat lasts longer and you'll be able to duplicate results more easily. Keep yer wooden door and yer wooden peel well soaked with water. (Peels are mandatory when usin' a hornito. They are easy to learn to use, and once yer good with one you'll amaze folks.) A light sprinklin' of corn meal is all ya need to keep bread or pizza from stickin' to the peel or the slate.

To use one ya actually build a wood fire inside (remove door and coffee can) and feed the fire till the interior temp of the oven is over 400 degrees F. Sweep coals and ashes out of the hornito, replace coffee can, put door in place, and wait 10 or 15 minutes and check the temp again. Is it still 450 degrees, or so? No? Put yer bucket of yer coals back in there and build the fire up again. The temp is still 450ish? Great!

Pizzas and bread come first, once the temp drops down to 400ish it's ready for roasts/etc. Toss dutch ovens and pyrex bakin' dishes with veggies in there. Once the temp drops to the 300 to 350 range yer ready to bake desserts like cobblers, crumbles, puddin's, cookies, and brownies.

If ya live somewhere hot you'll fall in love with yer hornito. It lets ya cook outside and not heat yer house up. It's nice in the autumn or winter too for when folks come over to visit but everyone has cabin fever. It's nice to have a warm outside spot when ya just HAVE to get outside in the winter.

[Ricky]

i have to remember to use this forum for more than drink! i am thinking about building me something in the yard to cook on and havent got it figured out yet. how well does the hornito hold its heat? can you cook like a roast or something that takes a while? if the temp falls i guess you just put the coals back in and warm it up? i am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[punkin]

i have to remember to use this forum for more than drink! i am thinking about building me something in the yard to cook on and havent got it figured out yet. how well does the hornito hold its heat? can you cook like a roast or something that takes a while? if the temp falls i guess you just put the coals back in and warm it up? i am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Beerkegs work well for other things than beer and stills too...

This little gas powered 50l job cost nothing cept $40 for the spit kit, bbq burner underneath the radiator mesh, just a slot cut out of the bottom of the keg and the burner sits in a recessed fold of stainless the length of the keg.




Fits a couplea or three chooks or a nice large rolled pork shoulder or leg and a chook.

[Butch50]

Glad to see another convert.

I do live where it is hot, it was 101 in the shade today, and that was one of our cooler days this month. Cooking indoors in the summer is no fun - we eat a lot of cold cuts this time of year.

Did you use any stabilizers in your adobe? My micro-eco climate area (as the greenies say) is quite humid and it rains hard and fairly often. I can mix sand and portland and get a really good stable mix, but not sure how it will react to heat - may start popping.

Do you have any plans you can recommend, or a website with good plans that you know are good?

Appreciate all the real world advice I can get. Eventually I will be building a complete outdoor kitchen, with a large masonry smoker, a wood burning oven (this first one is going to be for my Sister's house - I get to practice on her first ) a gas fired stove, a sink, a grill, etc....all built around the side of a patio overlooking a stunningly gorgeous spot on the Brazos River.

Thanks!

[Hack]

Instead of a stabilizer in your adobe try a coat of lime and sand plaster over the outside. That should be sufficient. Try making sure that everything is sloped to shed water as well.

[punkin]

Eventually I will be building a complete outdoor kitchen, with a large masonry smoker, a wood burning oven (this first one is going to be for my Sister's house - I get to practice on her first ) a gas fired stove, a sink, a grill, etc....all built around the side of a patio overlooking a stunningly gorgeous spot on the Brazos River.

Ain't got no river views, and everythings gas powered, but i'm pretty happy with my setup...



It's got a 60 sq metre patio over tween the house and the shed that i built for entertaining. It get used at least once a week

And we cook outside most nights cept in the winter.

Cant see real well but the far end has an oval shaped stainless sink with flick mixer tap.

[theholymackerel]

Nice patio set-up Punkin.

We don't do anythin' special with our adobe here Butch. It's gotta be protected from water like anywhere else. Most folks here use a toppin' and thin outer surface of cement. Some that don't mind doin' maintenence use plaster if they want it to look nicer than cement.

I've never seen any internet plans for hornito's. We just make a 3-D plywood form of a tall dome and either skin it with brick and mortar, or just start with the adobe. Once all the adobe bricks are in place, and settled, the first fire burns out the form and everyone drinks cervesa and and lays bets on whether it stands or falls. I've built two, and neither have fallen yet.

A small hornito (24 - 30 inches interior diameter) once heated to 450 will hold it's initial heat 30 min or more, which is plenty of time for pizza and most high-temp breads. Once the heat is down to 400 or 375 the temp drops WAY slower. Gettin' from 400 to 300 can take quite a few hours. The larger the hornito the slower the heat loss. The thicker the walls the slower the heat loss. Addin' a damper and a door slows heat loss, and the lower the hornito temp the slower the heat loss. Make sure yer door is hardwood, well soaked with water, and not attached to the hornito. It just sets in place.

I think the two foods that are most impressive out of a hornito (or any masonry oven) are pizza and artisan breads. A hornito is the perfect type oven for sprayin' water inside to get those perfect crusts.

[tracker0945]

Like livin' rough do we Punkin





Cheers

[punkin]

Like livin' rough do we Punkin





Cheers

Doesn't the outside wall of everyones shed look like that?

Would love to build a wood fired oven, but i don't reckon i'd get enough use for it.

I rarely make bread (although i'd make more if i could find an acceptable recipe for swedish black bread) but i might try my hand at sourdough.

Campoven cooking is about as adventurous as i get, i'm very comfortable with my camp oven from everything to bread rolls, roasts, brazes and stews, curry, or marinaded dishes...even do bacon and eggs on the lid

[Butch50]

Ain't got no river views, and everythings gas powered, but i'm pretty happy with my setup...

Punkin, that is a great setup. It gives me several ideas for what I will be doing. I was thinking of maybe installing a mini-fridge, but not sure how good it will be outside. Maybe if I put it inside a weather proof enclosure with ventilation?

We just make a 3-D plywood form of a tall dome and either skin it with brick and mortar, or just start with the adobe. Once all the adobe bricks are in place, and settled, the first fire burns out the form and everyone drinks cervesa and and lays bets on whether it stands or falls. I've built two, and neither have fallen yet.

theholymackrel, that sounds like a good plan. I like the christening part especially well. I can build that. How long do you generally let the adobe cure before firing it up? I would guess until it is thoroughly dry so that the fire doesn't create steam inside the adobe?

[theholymackerel]

How long do you generally let the adobe cure before firing it up?

The bricks are usually made around here in "ladder molds". The molds usually make 4 bricks at a time. Two guys with a shovel and a wheelbarrow and a 4-unit ladder mold can make 500 or more adobes a day. The traditional New mexico adobe is 10x14x4. New Mexico buildin' code demands that adobe walls are a minimum of 10 inches thick, though 2-3 feet is the standard.

Wait for an extended dry period to make yer adobes. Up to 30% clay is ok, but requires twigs or straw to keep from crackin'. The bricks are sun dried untill they are dry and strong. (A few days to two weeks.) The "mortar" to hold yer adobes together is a thinish layer of adobe material with a hint extra water and straw to make it stickier than used for the bricks.

I've seen folks make trapezoidal ladder molds for curved or circular adobe projects (like hornitos), but I personally think it's less work and faster to use standard rectangular adobes and either mud (adobe mud with straw and mixed sticky... if ya can throw it at a vertical surface and it sticks it's good) in the spaces between the bricks, or cut yer adobes to shape with an old machete.

As long as yer bricks are sun-baked and cured ya don't have to wait for yer mud mortar to dry to fire the hornito up. The mud mortar will get "fired" like clay and end up harder than the adobe bricks. Once the hornito has cooled and not fallen, it's time for finishin' work. Mud in and smooth the exterior of the hornito so it looks like an old-fashioned beehive instead of a step-pyrimid. Then skin it in concrete or plaster. Once everythin' dries ya fire it once more and yer done!


I wish ya luck.

[Dutchmancreek]

I'm a little more crude with my outdoor cooking, but the idea of an oven really appeals to me. I can do bread and biscuits in a dutch oven but a real wood fired oven would be neat to play with.

[eternalfrost]

my friend is a stone mason (heh the real kind not the ones the rule the world ) and he built hiself a kickass wood oven

its the full blown real-deal stone pizza oven type. i dont know the specifics of it but it is basically a big stone dome a good couple feet thick with flat slab on the bottom. you build a fire on the "porch" in front of it and once its going you push it all back inside. if i remember right it dosent have a chimney or else one of those type that switches back through the stone to transfer heat.

it will burn at like 1000 degrees inside and makes zero smoke since its so efficient at those temps.

then you put what you are cooking in the middle section on the slab. best damn cooking you will ever have. the super high temperatures cooks food in an entirely different way that takes getting used to but is heavenly once you get it down!

[Butch50]

my friend is a stone mason (heh the real kind not the ones the rule the world ) and he built hiself a kickass wood oven

its the full blown real-deal stone pizza oven type. i dont know the specifics of it but it is basically a big stone dome a good couple feet thick with flat slab on the bottom. you build a fire on the "porch" in front of it and once its going you push it all back inside. if i remember right it dosent have a chimney or else one of those type that switches back through the stone to transfer heat.

it will burn at like 1000 degrees inside and makes zero smoke since its so efficient at those temps.

then you put what you are cooking in the middle section on the slab. best damn cooking you will ever have. the super high temperatures cooks food in an entirely different way that takes getting used to but is heavenly once you get it down!

Any chance of photos or diagrams?

[eternalfrost]

Any chance of photos or diagrams?

its in texas im in NY so nope sorry but here are some that are at lest a bit like it. just some random pics from google "wood pizza oven"

it has a like "porch" on the front where you start the fire going and a big dome in the back you push the coals into once its ripping.

much like a igloo shape

if i rember him explaining it right real wood fired ovens dont need chimneys since its perfect cobustion at those high temps. or if they do have one its just a small one over the porch section

[Ricky]

butch check this sight out! http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/

[ratflinger]

Look here for type of oven I'm currently building. I'm at the arched roof stage. All plans are 'custom', so do it way you want.

http://www.deltabluesfestival.net/pizza_oven.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[minime]

Look here for type of oven I'm currently building. I'm at the arched roof stage. All plans are 'custom', so do it way you want.

http://www.deltabluesfestival.net/pizza_oven.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Nice link with great photos and an excellent story.

Thanks for posting it ratflinger

[Butch50]

Great resources! Thanks!!