Survival Digest

Long Term Survival

Build An Outdoor Adobe Oven

Great article over at Sunset on how to go about building a classic adobe oven.

SUNSET – We first featured our backyard adobe oven in our August 1971 issue. It’s modeled after mud-brick ovens used around the world, from the Southwest to Mexico, Italy, and France.

Building it takes about two days of grubby work; it speeds up building to have two or three people making the thick-walled adobe shell, the mass of which stores the heat of the fire. The reward: wonderfully rustic pizzas, roasts, vegetables, and crusty loaves of bread from your own backyard.

Materials and Tools

You’ll find most of the materials you need at a home center or building supply yard, except for the cardboard barrel, often used by movers. (You cut it in half lengthwise and use it to form the oven’s curving top.) Look in the yellow pages under Barrels & Drums for a local source.

• 14 concrete building blocks (8 by 8 by 16)
• 14 concrete cap blocks (8 by 2 by 16)
• 68 firebricks (2 ½ by 4 ½ by 9)
• One 28- to 30-gallon cardboard barrel
• One empty 1-quart can
• 6-foot square of 6-inch wire mesh (used to reinforce concrete driveways)
• 10 feet of 30-inch-wide chicken wire
• 4 feet of rough-sawed redwood 2-by-4
• 2 feet of redwood 1-by-3
• 16 1 ½-inch deck screws
• 3 feet of 6-inch-wide aluminum flashing
• Eight large wheelbarrow loads of adobe soil (heavy clay garden soil)
• Three bags Portland cement
• 1-foot square of ¼-inch galvanized wire mesh
• Exterior latex paint
• Optional: 24 precast 1- by 2-foot concrete steppingstones

You’ll also need a tape measure, hacksaw, pencil, circular saw with masonry bit, wire cutters, saber saw, drill, screwdriver, large wheelbarrow, hoe, shovel, sturdy rubber gloves, sponge, small piece of scrap lumber or plywood, old towels, and plastic tarp.

View  step-by-step building instructions »

Adobe oven heating guide »

Tags: cooking, Food, oven