Build Your Own Earth Oven: A Low-Cost Wood-Fired Mud Oven, Simple Sourdough Bread, Perfect Loaves

by Kiko Denzer

Build Your Own Earth Oven is a fully-illustrated handbook for making a simple, wood-fired, masonry-style oven. It provides clear, step-by-step instructions for building and firing the oven, as well as complete directions for making sourdough bread in the best (and simplest) artisan tradition. Earth ovens are as simple as a southwestern horno or European bee-hive oven and every bit as effective as a fancy brick hearth or modern, steam-injected commercial oven. The dense, three-to-twelve inch thick earthen walls store the heat of the fire; after the hot coals are removed, the hot walls radiate a steady, intense heat for hours. The resulting steamy environment is essential for the crisp, flavorful crusts of true hearth loaves, and you can easily build it for less than the price of a couple of fancy dough-rising baskets! If you like to cook outdoors, an earth oven can also transform fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs into delicious pies, pizzas, and other creations (one of my favorites is fresh vegetables, herbs, and potatoes drizzled with olive oil). Pizza cooks to perfection in three minutes, and you can even use the residual heat to dry your surplus garden produce, and incubate your home-made yogurt! Building with earth is safe, easy, inexpensive, and extraordinarily effective. Good building soil is usually right under your feet! Many will find it in their back yards. Use it plain, or mixed with sand and straw. Build the simplest oven in a day! Adding a roof and foundation makes it permanent. The simple, round shape makes a beautiful garden sculpture, or can be sculpted into a fire-breathing dragon! It is a project that appeals to bakers, builders, and beginners of all The serious or aspiring baker who wants the best lo-cost oven for their bread; Gardeners and outdoor cooks who want a centerpiece for a beautiful outdoor kitchen; People interested in creative uses of low-cost materials and simple technologies; and Teachers who want a multi-faceted, experiential learning experience for their students (the book has been successful with everyone from third-graders to adults). Illustrated by the author with over a hundred drawings and photos, it includes color pictures of sculpted ovens and their builders, as well as further references on food, baking, and building.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Food, Construction, How To, Gardening, Crafts

132 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2000

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I built an earth oven using these using instructions in the book. Three years out it is still holding up to the weather. Word of warning though, be sure if you do decide to build one you have easy access to the opening. Ours is really low to the ground and I haven't used it as much as I'd like because of having to kneel down all the time. It would have been better to have it raised on a higher platform of rocks or a solid mount of dirt. It's a really great way to bake, though, and even store bought frozen dough ends up making amazing bread in a wood fired oven. There's a new edition of the book out.

[Jack Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiko Denzer's gifts as an artist and teacher shine in this book. Building an earthen oven is the perfect project to satisfy many desires to be useful, creative and healthy, and "Build Your Own Earth Oven" speaks to those desires eloquently and practically. With Kiko as a guide you can make something that is fun, useful, artful, cheap, practical and beautiful. And then, thanks to Hannah Field's expertise as a baker, you can enjoy delicious and healthy artisan breads, and so much more.

I especially enjoyed the simple explanations of the physics of building with mud and baking in earth. The numerous illustrations beautifully support the clear instructions on building and finishing an oven, and the thorough and practical advice about using the oven well, troubleshooting and baking make this book a very useful tool.

As a natural builder I've found that building an earthen oven is the ideal first project to gain experience, insight and enthusiasm for the beauty and benefits of building with natural materials. If you use the lessons offered in "Build Your Own Earth Oven" you just might realize the innate wisdom you already possess as a human being - engaging your hands, heart and head to create, to engage life, to do something useful. Or, as Kiko has also wisely pointed out, you can "...just make a mud oven so you can bake your own bread."

Beatifully illustrated, well-written and immensely useful, I heartily recommend this book.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and great photo's to help inspire such a project.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only book you'll need to build yourself an oven, and just possibly become one with nature in the process. Delightful and useful.

[Kenneth Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learning to build and fire an earth oven is a fascinating project. This is *the* book that you must have if you want to do it. Be careful to get the most recent edition since a lot of new information has been added over time. One caution on this though... the earlier editions had simpler, easier to build oven plans. Those plans are legitimate and they do work. You should not get caught up in a complicated design (unless you enjoy that), but should focus on the amazing fact that you can build an oven in a few hours.[return][return]I think that everyone should build an earthen oven at least once in their life. It gives you a greater appreciation for how highly complicated we have become. It is amazing that you can build a working oven with just a bit of mud and some rocks! You'll have a better connection to your food and your survival if you have done this at least once!

[Micki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, I read this book in the wrong season! The ground is frozen, and there's no way I can easily build an earth oven to try out the fun stuff in the book! But maybe in the spring!

This is a hopeful kind of book, of the "Mother Earth News" hippie genre of books, where the author tells the reader, "yes, you too can do this traditional craft/art." (-: I have a feeling it will be more trouble than it's worth, but come spring, I plan to try making my own pizza oven.

The writing is zesty and bubbly, and the instructions seem quite clear and do-able.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I built one two years ago using this book as a guide. Lots of fun playing in the mud with my kids ensued. In use, it takes some practice to get the temperature right for bread, but you can use it right from the beginning for the best pizza you will ever have. Made pizza's for a work party, they cooked in only 90 seconds! most people spent more time building the pizza than it took to cook one.

If you want to have a very cool conversation piece in your backyard, go for it!

[John Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect and definitive reference/"how-to" for cob ovens. If you have ever thought of building your own, make sure you get this and read it first.

[Belle Meade School]

643

[Paul Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book :-)

[Kristen Gurri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book/concept. We have built small practice ovens and the kids have loved it. If you need things spelled out in measurements and precise line by line instructions this book will frustrate you a bit. I really liked the way it encourages you to learn by your own experience and guides you through the trial and error stages. I agree with other reviews - a practical sized earth oven is the work of several casual weekend projects. Gather materials, build the base, build the oven, insulate. Much more relaxed and realistic to spread it out over a few Saturdays. But then again I have small kids and don't get to do anything linearly.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book itself contains much useful and encouraging information on constructing your own adobe oven in a variety of circumstances. The bread section is pretty crude, however, to the point that its pages would have been much better spent providing more information on oven construction.

[Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This inspired me to make my own wood-fired oven from recycled materials and clay. Currently I am building the foundation. You can finish this in a weekend (once you have all the supplies assembled), but I've set the modest goal of one-month for this project.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome!!! I especially love Denzer's comments about bread and art. The last couple pages of the book were so powerful. He articulates so well the magic of bread-especially one made with love and a earth.

[Cillaann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read through this book so many times it isn't funny. Someday I really want to build a mud oven in my back yard before I die.

[Dave Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The standard work with all the DIY you'll need to build and fire up an outdoor oven. Good sense advice with descriptive illustrations.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won't have the opportunity to try this out until next summer, but this book is definitely inspiring.

[Briverb · Rating 5 out of 5]

can't wait till Spring to build one!

[Ro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rarity if you are searching for information on how to build an outdoor oven. Easy to understand and detailed with photos and illustrations.

[Edwin Whiting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome read. Learn the simple way one can build a wood fired oven out of mud. You get to play in the mud and learn at the same time: what could be better :) :)

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

add it to the pile of references for whenever i finally get to build one.

[Pzikmanis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a true Hippie book. Essentially how to build a functioning wood oven from dirt and junk in your backyard.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting.