The Brick Oven Page

Backyard adobe - this simple oven was built at our neighbour's and has been in use for 10 years. It is based on the traditional Québec oven shape, an elongated dome. Click on image for assembly photos.

Building an Horno: the Adobe Bread Oven
by Michael Moquin - Detailed adobe instructions.

Greg's Earth Oven
Good adobe oven building instructions with illustrations.

Ben's Art - nice selection of clay ovens modeled on "Bread Ovens of Quebec"

Ovencrafters - simple, high efficiency insulated design developed by Alan Scott. Proven in a range of sizes and applications including home, restaurants and bakeries. Click on Alan to join him for a seminar.

Click here to order. by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott Definitive work on authentic hearth breads, including instructions for building a backyard bake oven. Your webmaster rates it a 10 "Wing and Scott do more than get the details right: they get the right details. It is difficult for me to imagine any baker, amateur or professional, coming away from this book without having learned something significant, even profound, about the art of bread baking." -Thom Leonard, author of The Bread Book Retained Heat Oven Data - now available in the book. Build Your Own Earth Oven Click here to order A simple, fully-illustrated handbook for making an oven from earthen materials (similar to adobe and cob). Provides clear, step-by-step instructions for building and firing the oven. Also complete directions for making sourdough bread in the best (and simplest) artisan tradition.  Click here to order This unique study of the role of the bread oven in rural Quebec society also gives complete instructions on how to build a traditional outdoor bread oven. 115 pages, many illustrations. More Books on Baking and Masonry

• Backyard Bakeoven Workshop with Norbert Senf
  step-by-step construction photos of a 32" X 36" oven.
  
  
• Backyard Pizza Oven Workshop with Pat Manley
  MHA Annual Meeting, 2000
  

  

(above) Amish style "Squirrel Tail" oven at Old Salem, NC- see MHA 2000 Meeting for some details. on this, and on a backyard pizza oven workshop.

• Castable Oven
  step-by-step construction photos of a refractory concrete oven.
• Commercial Castable Oven
  good photos of the manufacturing process, including a unique safety test
  
  (above) Domestic oven by Laurens van Eijk, Netherlands
  
• Indian Tandoor
  Pier's Thompson's excellent site on building and using a traditional Indian Tandoor.
• Heat-Kit white oven - this oven is an option on the Heat-Kit masonry heating system and is the most developed masonry heater oven design. Check out oven testing at Lopez Labs
• Traditional French Oven - from Gasogne region, southwest of Bordeaux. Similar shape to Quebec oven, built from brick. A well-illustrated CD (in French) on brick dome oven construction is available from this web site.
• Cob Oven - An Experiment in Progress
  Interesting oven experiments, including a novel firing technique
• Prefab Ovens - examples of several systems manufactured in Europe and North America.
• More Prefabs:
  • Fayol -Excellent oven made from a unique clay deposit in Provence, France, that has been used for ovens since Roman times.
  • EarthStone - Good website.
  • Renato Precast Ovens - the oldest oven precaster in the United States.
  • Superior Clay - Clay oven manufactured in Ohio
  • Mugnaini Imports - California company importing high quality Italian ovens.
  • Beech - Australian dome shaped oven that appears to be very well engineered.Excellent website.
    
  • Backyard Gourmet - lightweight, assembled
  • Golden Embers - Australia, South Africa
• Catamount Brick Ovens - Peter Moore Masonry Inc. builds domestic beehive ovens throughout the Northeast.
• Electric Brick Ovens
  • Small Domestic - by Breadstone
  • Large Domestic - at Masonry Stove Builders
• 
  Fireplace/ Bakeoven Combo - Family room fireplace preheats kitchen bakeoven. Rammed earth house, Saltspring Island, BC. Technical design and custom refractory components by Masonry Stove Builders. Phillip Van Horn, architect. Richard Dakin, mason
• Kitchen Cooking Fireplace with Bakeoven - by Biofire
• Custom white oven for a Colonial fireplace - by Masonry Stove Builders.
• Masonry heater bakeoven feedback from Bill Derrick

Bakeoven by Doug Wood. Click on image for more information

Commercial Ovens

Traditional French commercial ovens

• Ovencrafters (modified by Masonry Stove Builders) - 4 foot by 6 foot hearth, this oven was producing 1800 loaves per week at Little Stream Bakery near Perth, Ontario.

• Montreal Matzoh Oven Rebuild - MHA member Gabriel Callender's rebuild of a large gas/wood hybrid oven
• Building Heather's Oven - construction sequence of an Alan Scott style 4' X 6' oven.
• drawings of a traditional French commercial design with a separate firebox.
• 1930's - 1950's Finnish Commercial - This double deck design was presented at the 1997 MHA meeting by Heikki Hyytiainen and is from a 1951 book from Finland.
• Oven by Pat Manley - construction photos.
• Catamount Brick Ovens - Peter Moore Masonry Inc. builds commercial restaurant ovens throughout the Northeast. Link to his website

Spanish Llopis oven with revolving hearth, Acme Bakery, Berkley. The Farjas is similar.

• German 1930's Commercial - this plan is from a German masonry textbook from the 1930's.
• 1900's American - the oven at Black Diamond bakery in Washington state has been in continuous use for over 90 years. It has a 10 foot by 12 foot hearth. Photos.
• Historical oven in Waterdown, Ontario. We partially documented this recently unearthed 10 X 10 oven.

Sourdough Calculator

Our Excel spreadsheet template that simplifies "baker's percentage" sourdough calculations

Interesting Links

The Bread Bakers' Forum
Comprehensive website maintained by Beth Hinkle . Includes brick oven page, including list of builders, manufacturers, websites, books, articles.

The Bread Bakers Guild of America

San Francisco Baking Institute
Bread baking classes and bakery consulting

The Bakeries of Belfast - A virtual tour, including recipes

Cafe Beaujolais - great place, great website. They have an early Alan Scott oven.