Rural Gardening: outdoor ovens- questions regarding building materials, 0 by MaypopLaurel

MaypopLaurel wrote:
Bernard Clayton's bread book has a simple oven construction that has intrigued me for years. We have an outdoor, wood fired, pizza oven from from Earthstone. Aside from pizza and flatbreads, I've smoked meats and fish and made amazing smoked sauces. An oven like mine has limitations though. It takes hours to build a fire that then must be evened out to proper cooking temps. Here's a photo. I've got much better, but don't know where I stashed them. DH calls it "Three Mile Island". It's encased in fieldstone with a huge slab in front.

I just built a fire pit at our cottage with a firebrick floor from our torn down, damaged chimney. I dug an 8" footing, lined it 4" deep with builder sand (course gravel) and layed the brick like a mosaic on the leveled sand. I then filled all the gaps with sand. The sides and back are leftover stacked field stone from the chimney as well. I fully intend to spit roast, grill, kettle cook and bake by tweaking this open fire. There are designs for makeshift ovens that work over campfires. I think my salvaged version might be more versatile than the Earthstone.

Please don't use any rock for a floor. It would be dangerous. The floor gets way too hot. Walls are fine. I do place individual fieldstones on the edges of my new fire pit to place cast iron for cooking though. Anything hot enough for pots should be safe for stone.

I'll post some follow ups here of the new firepit FYI
Laurel