Build your own Clay oven

cannyfradock

I've recently been asked to build a Clay oven for a community project close to my home town. These Clay ovens work a treat for pizza party's and home baking and they're quite cheap....and fun to build. I've detailed the build with pictures and stage comments. Please feel free to use any of the info to make your own Clay oven.... http://www.celticwoodfiredovens.com/buildingaclayoven.html

Pompeii oven.. http://ukwoodfiredovenforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pompeiioven&action=display&thread=677

Terry

wayoutwest

Terry - Great step by step pictures of pompeii oven construction.....how many bags of logs would it consume in order to cook, say,one large pizza. Also...how long does it take [from cold] to get to baking temperature?

cannyfradock

wayoutwest

Thank-you for your kind comments.

It would be false economy to fire up a wood fired oven for just 1 pizza. A well insulated Pompeii or Clay.....or even a Modular (kit form) oven will take about 40 minutes to heat the oven. Once you have "massed heat" then it only takes a few small or split logs thrown on a small flickering fire at the rear or side of the oven every 30 minutes or so to maintain a constant temperature for a session of 4 hours or more.

If we take a bag of wood as an example which can be bought from many outlets in a plastic woven bag costing around 6 Euro's.........It will take 1 and a half bags (rough estimate) to bring the oven up to temp. Another bag and a half will last perhaps 4 hours. After the pizza party the embers can then be raked over the surface of the hearth for 15 minutes or so, then raked out of the oven and a batch of bread can be baked. There will still be enough residual heat left in the oven (as long as it's insulated) to do a slow roast.

Every Wood-fired oven is individual in it's performance, and are not so difficult to build for a D.I.Y.er......

There are quite a few threads on Boards IE which have info on fire-brick sourcing in Ireland........and there's always lots of help available on our interactive forum.

Terry