Book Review: Build Your Own Earth Oven

Build Your Own Earth Oven

Ever since I had by first taste of naan (an Indian flat bread baked on the wall of an earthen oven called a Tandoor), I have wanted an earth oven. From foods more familiar to those in the U.S., like 2-minute flat crust pizzas and sourdough breads, to more ethnic foods that I love, like chicken tikka and earth oven-baked lamb, some food should only be cooked or baked in an earthen oven.

A sampling of wood-fired, earth-oven pizzas!

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I have been leisurely reading about ways to make earth ovens for the last few years, but this book provides everything all in one place. From initial design and foundations to bricks and earth mixes to chimneys and firing, this book has it all. I am really excited giving this a try. When I do, I'll post about it.

Fresh naan... a little piece of heaven on earth!

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From the Publisher:

Kiko Denzer and Hannah Field, maker and baker, invite you into the artisan tradition. First, build a masonry oven out of mud. Then mix flour and water for real bread "better than anything you can buy." Total cost? Hardly more than a baking stone - and it can cook everything else, from 2-minute pizza to holiday fowl, or a week's meals.

Clear, abundant drawings and photos clarify every step of the process, from making "oven mud," to fire, and to bread. Informative text puts it all into context with artisan traditions of many ages & cultures. Beautifully sculpted ovens (by the author and readers) will inspire the artist in anyone. And the simple, 4 step recipe (based on professional and homestead experience) promises authentic hearth loaves for anyone, on any schedule.

From weekend gardeners to "simple living," back-to-the-landers; Peace Corps volunteers to neighborhood community-builders; third-graders to earth-artists of all ages, this book feeds many hungers!

Chicken Tikka... a classic Indian dish.

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