Description
bb206 Build Your Own Earth Oven 3rd ed.
We no longer stock this item…Look up the Author’s ‘Hand Print Press’ to order…left here for reference.
We have to admit. We took the 2 day course that Kiko and Hanna offer…and came home to build a Earth Oven at the Family Harvest Party the following weekend. From youngins to oldsters, they all had a great time mixing the clay, sand and water as they danced around in their bare feet. Sorta like stomping grapes, with a twist, and your feet don’t turn purple. 😉
Earth ovens combine the utility of a wood-fired, retained-heat oven with the ease and timeless beauty of earthen construction.
Building one will appeal to bakers, builders, and beginners of all kinds:
- Serious or aspiring bakers who want the best low-cost bread oven
- gardeners who want a centerpiece for a beautiful outdoor kitchen
- outdoor chefs
- creative people interested in low-cost materials and simple technology
- teachers who want a multi-faceted, experiential project for students of all ages (the book has been successful with everyone from third-graders to adults).
Build Your Own Earth Oven is fully illustrated with step-by-step directions, including how to tend the fire, and how to make perfect sourdough hearth loaves in the artisan tradition. The average do-it-yourselfer with a few tools and a scrap pile can build an oven for free, or close to it. Otherwise, $30 should cover all your materials–less than the price of a fancy “baking stone.” Good building soil is often right in your back yard, under your feet. Build the simplest oven in a day! With a bit more time and imagination, you can make a permanent foundation and a fire-breathing dragon-oven or any other shape you can dream up.
Earth ovens are familiar to many that have seen a southwestern “horno” or a European “bee-hive” oven. The idea, pioneered by Egyptian bakers in the second millennium BCE, is simplicity itself: fill the oven with wood, light a fire, and let it burn down to ashes. The dense, 3- to 12-inch-thick earthen walls hold and store the heat of the fire, the baker sweeps the floor clean, and the hot oven walls radiate steady, intense heat for hours.
Home bakers who can’t afford a fancy, steam-injected bread oven will be delighted to find that a simple earth oven can produce loaves to equal the fanciest “artisan” bakery. It also makes delicious roast meats, cakes, pies, pizzas, and other creations. Pizza cooks to perfection in three minutes or less. Vegetables, herbs, and potatoes drizzled with olive oil roast up in minutes for a simple, elegant, and delicious meal. Efficient cooks will find the residual heat useful for slow-baked dishes, and even for drying surplus produce, or incubating homemade yogurt.
NOTE: Kiko Denzer and Hannah Field put on a fantastic 2 day training seminar…and publish several books through their company Hand Print Press
131 pages, softbound
