How to Make an Earthen Oven

Earthen ovens are also known as cooking pits, clay and mud ovens.

Earthen ovens are simple outdoor cooking structures used by indigenous people across the globe to prepare food for centuries. Earthen ovens continue to be made by novices and professionals alike for private or communal ceremonies and celebrations. Cook many kinds of barbecued meats, grilled vegetables, baked bread and pizzas with an earthen oven. Making one yourself provides a one-of-a-kind outdoor culinary tool and a conversation piece.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Rake
• Wheelbarrow
• Other garden tools
• Water
• Soil, clay and sand or both
• Straw, sticks and lumber scraps
• Charcoal or fire wood

Instructions

1. Prepare the ground where you are going to construct an earth oven. This includes digging out a sizable trench if you're making a cooking pit, or digging just enough to make the ground level for construction of a mud oven. It's also best to rake away dead leaves and other plant debris that could catch fire, as well as re-locate any nearby plants.

2. Construct your earth oven to suit your needs by either digging out a cooking pit, which with the aid of cloth tarp traps heat to steam, smoke and bake food, or creating permanent clay oven, like that of an Asian tandoori, in which food is cooked or baked in a chamber over a live fire.

3. To build a dugout hearth like the ones still used by Australian Aborigines, at Maori hangi feasts and at Hawaiian luaus, dig a hole a little bigger than the amount of food you'll be cooking. Use burlap sacks or large leaves to cover meats, vegetables and simple breads, placed on hot stones warmed by the fire, and buried in a layer of soil. Make the cooking pit a permanent feature in your back yard by lining it with decorative rocks or arranging outdoor tables and chairs in a way that puts an emphasis on your earthen oven.

4. To build a clay earth oven such as a tandoori used in India and south Asia, you will need an ample supply of clay, sand and soil. The quality of these ingredients will determine if you need hay or grass to help hold the oven's form in place. Create a small, hollow mound out of a thick mixture of clay, sand, soil and water and leave an open face where a door attaches or a burlap sack is thrown over. Let the clay oven completely air dry for about 48 hours before using it. The heat stored in the bone-dry walls cooks the food in this type of earthen oven.

Tips & Warnings

• Take into account the amount of protection from wind and accessibility to water when choosing the location of your earthen oven. If constructing a clay oven, a foundation of bricks will help it sit level and prevent accidental fires. Using them as walls will help make building larger structures easier.

• Don't build an earthen oven near your home, plants or other structures that may catch fire from embers or prevent smoke from dissipating. Instead of painting or covering your earthen oven with concrete, built a small roof or cover it with a tarp to protect it from the elements.

References

• 100% Pure New Zealand: Maori hangi - a real taste of culture
• Tandoors by Ron Levy, LLC
• Mother Earth News: Build Your Own Wood-fired Earth Oven
• Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Associations:  From the Farmhouse; Building an Earth Oven

Resources

• Chelsea Green Publishing: Build Your Own Earth Oven, by Kiko Denzer and Hannah Fields