It is the long heat storage time of … I used electric fence wire or twine as needed. I remember some twenty or thirty years ago discovering the pleasure of a Catskill bread bakery which then used a true wood fired oven. When the hydrogen chloride bonds with steam or atmospheric water vapor, it becomes hydrochloric acid gas. It is beyond belief. In neither case did we “weather the clay first” as Boily and Blanchette describe. At temperatures of 1,100 degrees or more, hydrogen chloride is produced. in future posts. Bake both in the sawdust bucket (step #5 above) to see if there is any difference. If you find yourself awanderin’ down the coast, do stop in at Sargentville. Bread oven foundation plans Next, you have to build and install the formwork, along the trences. Once again Thank You and any insight on this issue would be wonderful! In this way they become permanent redundant construction members able to be used in the future if need be. This gives a theoretical working interior of 27″X55″ (24.5 sq ft) although the Maine oven turned out to be substantially larger than the first one we made in NY. Nearby ‘marine clay’ in situ looked just like the NY clay. The tutorial is so easy to follow and if you do get confused, the pictures cure that right up. They run crosswise under the hearth. Most brick oven plans will include instructions for a concrete foundation. The Farjas is similar. 10a. How much salt do you use? I have been doing some research on wood fired ovens for some time and have found that your website as well as reading the Bread Ovens Of Quebec have been the most helpful. They come with all of the bricks cut to size, with custom made tools, formwork and much more, as well as step-by-step plans to follow. 3a. 10c. To my eye this armature is the most beautiful part of the oven, and yet it is there to be sacrificed in the first fire. And that goes not just for building the ovens but also for providing instructions. firebrick or just cement? The walls should be 10″ thick at the base gradually thinning to 5″ over the top of the oven. Let us know which way you decide to go and how it all turns out. Checking various atlases I see that the Gaspé is primarily a rocky upland area where the Appalachian Mountains meet the Laurentians and where the glacial clay deposits are likely to differ from the lowland  clays of the St. Lawrence River Valley and the broad Coastal Plain. However, if you make it bigger, you can also create a patio or sitting area next to your brick oven%(26). Superp crusts, tender crumb, and rich smoky flavor enough to write home about (reminded me of the bakery in the village of Fontan-Saorges on the Roya River in Alpes Maritimes where I spent a few summers) Alas that bakery in the Catskills has now gone decidedly thin and flat as they have increased production and softened their crusts for a broader market. Since they refer to the excavation of French Canadian clay from intertidal areas one can assume it was also ‘marine clay’. During this process it is VERY important to wear a pair of tough rubber gloves. At only $19 it looks like a great buy. If you don’t mind downloading lots of pdf files, you can get it free online from the Canadian Museum of Civilization. And thanks, again, for all this information. I plan on starting this project in the spring, But I had one question. It helps to lay in a course of reinforcing chicken wire over the first few courses above the metal door opening as this area expands under use, the heat causing cracks. FREE WOOD FIRED PIZZA OVEN PLANS. P85 PLANS. As the shape comes into being you can progress to smaller and smaller twigs. These will extend out beyond the side of the base and will become the support for the roof. The breads that Leslie bakes however are as good as can be. compare to the New York walls Celia's inspecting. First published by Prospect Books in 1996. His sketchy instructions, however, were no match for the weighty anthropological reconstruction of the French Canadian ovens described by Boily and Blanchette. We did not add any salt to the clay we used in either of our ovens. From p. 48 the length to width ratio of the base can be determined, and by subtracting the 10″ thickness of the clay ‘loaves’ which will make the side walls of the oven the inner size of the oven will result. The oven door should be slightly less than two-thirds the height of the dome and about one-half the oven’s inner diameter in width at the base (about 13 inches in our example). Clay is incredibly heavy, even after lightening it with sand and earth. (page 47 following). Our two ovens, the first in New York, and the second in Maine, were inspired by reading The Bread Ovens of Quebec*, by Lise Boily and Jean-Francois Blanchette. Mix marine clay with sand and earth into a doughy paste. I plan on using the plans (or some derivative there of) when I build my clay oven with my boys this summer. Not many cooks have a huge wood-burning outdoor oven, but thanks to my loving ( and very handy) husband we have two, one in New York and one in Maine. I would like to start out by saying Thank You! thanks much ….stan. And for bringing up the question. 3c. They are somewhat porous so are good at holding some water when the oven is swabbed out. Here is how we did it. Masonry Heater Mall. Thanks to Leslie for putting me onto this! BUILD A BASE OF STONE, MORTAR, SAND AND RUBBLE: It should be as long and wide as your plans dictate and end up being knee to thigh high so as to make the heavy work of tending the fires and baking the bread easy. This size oven will bake @ 10 round loaves plus 4- 8 baguettes of bread, along with a small pizza or two in one baking, followed by a few pies and slow cooked beets, tomatoes or other vegetables using only the residual heat of the firing. Over these construct a 2X4 frame around the perimeter of the base. 38 and 39 will give the height of the door opening relative to the height. Spread the mixture evenly over the entire surface of the oven. Are you aware of an alternative to raw clay? I am glad you all enjoyed the post on our ovens. 4d. – than we realized. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100110 120 130cm. 1: Clay Made Bread & Pizza Oven Plans. A bed of fire brick may be added above the cement floor. I used a plywood core with aluminum flashing on the inside, boards on the outside and wooden handles. Leslie, Hi Bill….I cam across your site researching outdoor oven plans and really enjoyed the work you have done here, very informative. The concrete base will bear the weight of the brick oven, keeping it level for many years. BUILDING A WOOD %FIRED OVEN FOR BREAD AND PIZZA. I was thinking of using clay bricks which I can get readily get for free. Next thing to be thankful for: he’s a man of action. We did not know to do this on the NY oven and a permanent crack now exists over the arch. Gather more than you think you will need. Build this ring into a strong wall about 1 foot tall, then fill the inside of it with soil, sand, or rubble, packed and tamped down tightly. I highly recommend it. 6b. Here’s his step by step how-to: For a number of years now, ever since The Three Thousand Mile Garden TV series aired, we have received a steady stream of requests for assistance/plans/advice for building an outdoor bread oven similar to the one constructed for that series. In Maine a local farmer brought us a load. With magic marker trace out the inner dimensions of your oven; mark the apex point. The second oven, in Maine, incorporated the chicken wire reinforcement and has only two hairline cracks to the left and right of the arch, a result of better distributing the stress of expansion. Simple Cooking continues on as a web site and blog http://www.outlawcook.com/ where you may be able to ask about these home friendly items. All you need to build your own chimney, flue/vent, smoke box, firing dome and arch in the serene and welcoming setting of your backyard. Required fields are marked *. In the videos below we walk you … Yes the bread, the thin pizzas, the pies, the roasted tomatoes are all wonderful. The French Canadians used clay to make both the floor and walls of their bread ovens. Lay a pair of full dimension 2×4’s (such as the rough cut stuff found at sawmills) on edge across the top of the base during the last round of leveling. This edition published in 2011 by Prospect Books at Allaleigh House, Blackawton, Totnes, Devon TQ9 7DL. Info on the net however indicated that are probably made with aluminum oxide. Their website is as you might expect, http://www.fortnerbooks.com. Although the Italian side of my family, and the community in which they were immersed, made and used several outdoor ovens, these were all made of stacked paving brick and mortar.