Small steps in a long journey

This was the first oven I built in October 1999. It consists of a mixture - half raw brick, clay, sand and grass mortar. I ran a small restaurant, serving food off the farm.






I implemented a tapas-style menu: cold meats from the farm, olives, pates, fresh breads and baked desserts like this cheese cake. Fantastic - watch this space for the recipe. This oven was huge - 1m wide and 1.5m long on the inside diameter. My new oven wil be 1.5m wide and 2m long on the inside diameter.

What is an earthen oven and why on earth would anyone want one.  An Earthen Oven or Cob Oven is a fairly primitive cooking device.  It is a wood fired oven made from a mixture of mud or clay, sand and straw, which is what "cob" is.  It is built to retain the heat from a fire built inside of it. Cob ovens are preferred for baking because of their even heat and excellent  heat-retention.