camp oven, not Dutch

[George]

I don't do rendezvous, but I ran across a neat video about baking bread which I think someone who does could make use of. It's by Jas Townsend & Son, and shows the building of a clay oven, then baking bread in it in less than 24 hours. If someone was going to be in camp for a week or so and was interested in such things, he could learn something, have a lot of fun, make some good chow and draw a crowd, to boot.

It's on YouTube, Make and Use an Earthen Oven in 24 hours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPQVFQmwZMU

Spence

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I "second" Spence's link. Why do you need to stay for a week though..., I am thinking of making one on day one of a four day event!

LD

 

[George]

It'll take at least a week to get your feet clean enough to keep the cats away. :haha:

Spence

 

[trent/OH]

Except for having to get onto the ground to feed it, and to feed me, I like it! And the video is very well done too.

If I still worked with a Boy Scout troop, they'd be making one or more of these this year.

 

[George]

And the video is very well done too.

There is another one about making a real clay oven... elevated, you'd like it..., then some about baking quite a few things in it. Also, for anyone interested in 18th-century cooking, there are a lot of very good ones about that. Boiled puddings, for example.

Spence

 

[Bon Sauvage]

That was a good post. Thank you.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Years back there was a guy that had a brick/clay oven built on a skid that he would drag to the Eastern. Must have weighed a ton.

When I was just ten or so, my much older cousin bought an old grist mill & house. Nothing had ever been updated and the mill still ground flour. The house had the big fireplace with the brick oven. They only fired up the oven for some holidays, but his wife made the best baked goods in that oven. Apple pie still doesn't taste right without just a hint of smoke. I'd like to have a built in masonry BBQ with a closed pit and a brick oven as part of an "eat in" summer kitchen. I'd be eating pit beef, bbq beans, corn bread and sweet tea all summer long.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

If you check online sites for brick ovens or clay ovens you will find you are not limited to the typical loaf style oven, unless you want to stay historic...

I have seen a large piece of chimney liner laid sideways, and enclosed in bricks that were simply stacked..., used to make a very serviceable oven.

A clay chiminea, with bar-b-que rocks used to elevate a stone slab placed within for a fire platform, then when the fire is done and the ashes are raked off the stone, baking is done within the chiminea..., with a wooden door and wooden lid to reduce the heat loss. You can't bake all day on a single firing, but you can get it hot enough for pizza or a few loaves of bread.

LD

 

[Coot]

The 'portable' oven shown in the following site is on my "to do" list, somewhere after new rope bed & library shelves......
http://jm69.free.fr/four/

 

[Loyalist Dave]

hey that's pretty cool! Is it clay or tinted concrete, or something else??
:thumbsup:

LD

 

[George]

The 'portable' oven shown in the following site is on my "to do" list, ...

There's precedent. Here's a link to Townsend's video about making a regular clay oven, not a one-day wonder. Look 34 seconds in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0foHjPVbP4

Spence

 

[Coot]

hey that's pretty cool! Is it clay or tinted concrete, or something else??
:thumbsup:

LD

In english, the closest term would likely be "cob". It is basically a mixture of clay and straw - the straw adding strength and reducing weight. A google search for "cob oven construction" will give a number of ideas/plans. I just happened to be particularly impressed with the French version that was shown. Mrs Coot has done demos of 18th c oven baking at several historic sites & I think it would be neat to have our own.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Ah super cool; I savvy "cob". :haha: I wish the site I like to visit would quit talkin' about an oven (been three years now), and let us build one. Oh well...

LD