determine if it would be convenient to work with in

order to make your entire Tanksgiving dinner.

Build a
Functional Facade
l
Im always drawn to oven facades that facilitate bread
baking and cooking. Te hearth shouldnt protrude
so much that its difcult to reach into the oven. But
a shelf is nice to have for resting your peels, and other
small ledges are handy as permanent places to put your
lame and other equipmentsprayer, timer, et cetera
except in the case of a larger commercial oven, where
its better to have no shelf in front of the doors so a
loader can be rolled right up against it.
A functional facade might include a loading hearth
or altar thats lower than the baking hearth. Tis al-
lows easy access to load the bread into the oven without
having to lif the peel up and over the altar. If you in-
corporate this design change, try to make the ash dump
as wide as possible so the ashes have a large void to fall
down without scattering over the altar.
Safety must be considered in addition to conve-
nience. Tere must be sufcient clearance between
combustible materials (the facade itself ) and the radiat-
ing thermal mass. Insulation, of course, will help
No matter what type of oven you have or want to build,
use the following recommendations to make your
oven more efcient and convenient. Many of these
recommendations apply specifcally to barrel vault
brick ovens. Some, however, such as using foam glass
as an under-hearth insulator, can and should be easily
incorporated into plans for any type of oven, even the
simplest cob oven. A general note is that most amateur
masons (myself included when I built my frst oven)
tend to overbuild. So build for strength, but remember
that overkill is not a hallmark of good design.
Foundations
l
Many foundations are overbuilt, giving the impression
that the oven is more formidable than it needs to be.
William Rubel, author of the gorgeous book Te Magic
of Fire, has this to say about oven foundations: Struc-
turally, there is no point to the massive concrete bases
that are almost universally specifed for bread ovens.
[...] Also, perhaps more fundamentally, building a base
that is in balance with the actual structural loads is
more in keeping with the spirit of returning to tradi-
tional country ways.
Your hands are your most effective tools, no matter what type
of oven you build or kind of bread you bake.
APPENDIX A

General Masonry Oven

Design Tips
Te foundation should also be at the right height
for you. Imagine where the hearth height will be and
A Le Panyol oven pedestal with nice lines and minimal bulk
General Masonry Oven Design Tips 277
actually fractured frebricks in half. I feel these cracks
have occurred mostly because of thermal cycling and
the intense heat of the fre, not the frebox expanding
against the cladding, especially because I did include
the aluminum foil.
But why would you want an insulation layer in the
middle of the mass? Any gap is going to slow the migra-
tion of heat to the outer cladding, and the goal is to
have the mass heat as evenly and quickly as possible.
Tere are reports of foil that has been found to have
disintegrated when the oven was taken apart to be repaired
or removed. I have access to the front face of Magdalenas
frebox (through a hole used to house the thermocouple
monitor). Te foil layer is still visible between the fre-
box and cladding and appears to be largely intact.
Its reassuring to note that the foil layer does not
hurt anything or lead to problems, so you may want to
go ahead and include it. You can also add a layer of foil
on the very outside of the insulation, installed so the
shiny side is facing the frebox. Tis will radiate heat
back toward the frebox, slowing heat loss.
prevent combustion and an accidental fre. Check your
local codes on required clearances.
Aluminum Foil:
Debunked
l
Teres a lot of discussion among wood-fred oven
enthusiasts about the aluminum foil layer Alan Scott
advised placing between the frebrick frebox and ad-
ditional poured cladding. Does it reduce hot spots or is
it insulation? Does it serve as an expansion joint so the
expansion coefcient of the frebox doesnt crack the
cladding, or vice versa?
Well, it wouldnt be catastrophic if the cladding
cracked, because the reinforcing mesh in the cladding
prevents it from falling apart. It is disconcerting,
however, to have cracks appear in the frebox. Afer 15
years of use, Magdalena has plenty of crackssome
that run through mortar joints and some that have
The altar on Bill Freeses oven provides a convenient place for the peel when scoring loaves before loading. PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER RAY
From the Wood-Fired Oven 278
Construct the ash dump so it extends completely
across the entire mouth of the oven. Any ledges prevent
ashes from falling into the can below. Te ash dump
should be outside the door so the baking chamber is
sealed when the door is closed.
Its important to note that wood ash, when combined
with water, makes lye. Commercial food-grade lye is
sodium hydroxide, while homemade wood ash lye is
potassium hydroxide. Both versions are corrosive. Skin
can get burned if it comes in contact with a water solu-
tion that has a high enough concentration of potassium
or sodium hydroxide. Lye solutions have traditionally
been used for soap making and as a dip for pretzels be-
fore they bake. (Regarding pretzels: Although there are
pretzel recipes that use baking soda instead of lye, only
a lye solution will create authentic pretzel favor. Tis is
because the alkaline lye solution increases the efciency
of the caramelizing Maillard reaction, creating the rich
brown color and the distinctive favor.) I like to sif my
ash container through fne hardware cloth, and then
distribute the fne ash in the garden and around the
A safe and convenient way to remove ashes from the oven
PHOTO BY JONATHANBELLER.COM
Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down
l
An ash dump is a slot near the mouth of the oven that
penetrates all the way through the hearth slab and di-
rects the ashes into a container under the oven. Ive
worked in ovens with and without ash dumps, and Im
always grateful when one is there. Te absence of an ash
dump means you have to use a shovel or peel to clean
out the oven. Hopefully, all your fuel has completely
combusted, but if it hasnt, removing it means you have
to balance burning or smoking ashes and embers on a
peel or shovel while you transfer them to a nearby re-
ceptacle. Cinders fall, smoke billows into your eyes, and
you have a hot ash can that needs to be moved out of
the area. An ash dump, however, allows you to pull all
the ash forward and have it fall into a can permanently
placed safely out of your work space. A simple metal
trash can, with a tight-ftting lid to cut of oxygen and
shut down combustion, is a good container.
Magdalenas ash dump
Construct the ash dump so it extends completely
across the entire mouth of the oven. Any ledges prevent
ashes from falling into the can below. Te ash dump
should be outside the door so the baking chamber is
sealed when the door is closed.
Its important to note that wood ash, when combined
with water, makes lye. Commercial food-grade lye is
sodium hydroxide, while homemade wood ash lye is
potassium hydroxide. Both versions are corrosive. Skin
can get burned if it comes in contact with a water solu-
tion that has a high enough concentration of potassium
or sodium hydroxide. Lye solutions have traditionally
been used for soap making and as a dip for pretzels be-
fore they bake. (Regarding pretzels: Although there are
pretzel recipes that use baking soda instead of lye, only
a lye solution will create authentic pretzel favor. Tis is
because the alkaline lye solution increases the efciency
of the caramelizing Maillard reaction, creating the rich
brown color and the distinctive favor.) I like to sif my
ash container through fne hardware cloth, and then
distribute the fne ash in the garden and around the
A safe and convenient way to remove ashes from the oven
PHOTO BY JONATHANBELLER.COM
From the Wood-Fired Oven 280
western Vermont was worried it would create a cool
spot in the oven, but family friend and masonry heater
builder Peter Moore convinced him to include a simple
porcelain fxture in a masonry cubby protected by heat-
resistant glass and wired with high-temperature wiring.
In the frst nine years of its life, the bulb has had to be
replaced only three times. Illumination inside the oven
makes loading and checking the bread much easier.
Lights shining in from the outer hearth, or bent down
from a bracket outside the oven, are good options but
throw more of a spotlight, instead of casting a wide
warm glow over a larger expanse of hearth.
Illumination in the oven at Rupert Rising Breads PHOTO COURTESY OF JED MAYER
base of plants that prefer a more alkaline or neutral soil.
My soil is acidic, so I can spread the ash pretty much
anywhere except for acid-loving plants like blueberries
and azaleas.
Shine a Light
l
Even a small oven can be hard to see into, and installing
a light in your oven as you build is not as complicated
as it sounds. Jed Mayer from Rupert Rising Breads in