Monday 5 November 2007

Baking Oven 2

Well, I thought we done it right. I looked it up on the internet, Ron and Mitzboard fetched the clay from the carabao wallow, and the sand from the beach, and we (sorry, they) started work.

earth oven Siargao Island PhilippinesFirst, we made a sand hill as a mould for the oven interior (see all the preliminaries at Baking Oven - 1). Then we made Layer 1 - Dense layer over this sand hill, which was enveloped closely in a black plastic garbage bag.

For Layer 2, we didn't have straw, as insulation and strengthening, so used wood shavings instead. We never really got around to Layer 3, which was going to be a fine ceramic covering, 2/3 clay and 1/3 buffalo shit.

earth oven siargao island philippines The final product was quite impressive - Moloch with a hangover.
Firing up the oven, however, revealed Moloch's weaknesses.
He just cracked up, raining down bits of fragmented clay down from the interior ceiling. If I'd actually got round to trying to cook that wonderful bread, or a great pizza, they'd have been topped with dried mud lumps.

So now we've started all over again. I've had some more brainwaves (after all those phony claims about going back to 5000 year-old traditions). I'll let you know if they work.

No comments: