Mud (Adobe) Oven
An oven made from clay
Suitable for baking bread outdoors.

"This page contains plans and designs to enable you to make a simple but effective outdoor oven suitable for baking bread and pastries.

 

(This oven relies on an abundance of clay soil being readily available)

This oven is manufactured from clay, and some stick formers.

The oven was designed to be used out-doors and will provide baking facilities for a small group's daily needs.

It is created in two parts, the fire pit area and then the oven area.

The structure is straightforward and incorporates a wooden frame as a former which will burn out leaving the fire pit first and adobe oven secondly, ready to use.

The chimney can be made from an adobe mix and fire dried.

Building the oven

Using pliable twigs or strong grasses, make a structure that resembles the shape of the pictures above. Make an adobe mix from soil with a good amount of clay mixed in. If you have cement available, so much the better. Plaster the mix all over the outside of the frame to a uniform depth of about 2 inches. You can check the depth by pushing a match stick through the wall. Smooth off the outside of the wall with a damp trowel or similar tool.

Allow the structure to dry a little. Place wood and kindling inside the oven and light. Keep the fire going by adding more wood - but slowly, you don't want to blow the oven apart through having a furnace. You just want to "cook" the clay with a hot, but not fierce heat.

When the oven is fully dried and the stick formers have been burned out you can use the oven and bake bread.

Some experimentation may be needed depending on the quality of the clay in the soil. Cement paving slabs have successfully been used for the oven floor if the clay is weak or of poor quality.

Alternatively, you can omit the fire pit and just build the oven straight on the ground. To use it, light a fire inside the oven, build it until the clay is almost glowing red hot, scrape the wood and ash out and place your bread into the hot oven. A flat stone or metal plate placed in front of the door opening will help retain the heat for ages. This was the traditional method for using an adobe oven.