Retained heat masonry bake ovens are in a class by themselves. The growing popularity of authentic village style breads and bakeries is spawning a revival of this ancient technology. Bread and pizza lovers everywhere are ecstatic.
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.
Click here to order “So, you want a wood-fired oven to bake bread and have pizza parties? What should you build? How does it work? What else can it cook? As an oven-builder I hear these questions a lot, but the books I can recommend for cooking with fire say little about ovens, and the ones about bread and ovens don’t take you very far with cooking.
So I’m glad to now be able to recommend Richard Miscovich’s From the Wood-Fired Oven. He speaks with the authority of a professional baking instructor (and cook), an experienced mason, and a neighborhood baker; he also writes well, takes beautiful photos, and has a wealth of stories to tie it all together. He’s worked with leading professionals in many fields, and teaches from extensive experience with bread, pizza, meats, vegetables, desserts, etc., as well as ovens, masonry, fire, heat, and more.”–Kiko Denzer, author of Build Your Own Earth Oven
MHA member Hikary Fukazawa is a professional forester in northern Japan After participating in the 2003 MHA French bake oven workshop, he returned to Japan and built his own oven. Hikari writes:
Here is the picture of my bake oven. Our bakery is going so well. Last Saturday we sold out 30 pizza at the Saturday evening market. Of course I baked by wood fire. Every day my wife Shuko is baking 10kg wheat flour and selling out in a short time. We will increase products little by little. But we will keep making hand made bread.
Stone Bake OvensBuilding an Horno: the Adobe Bread Ovenby Michael Moquin – Detailed adobe instructions.Greg’s Earth OvenGood adobe oven building instructions with illustrations.Ben’s Art – nice selection of clay ovens modeled on “Bread Ovens of Quebec”Ovens by Rado Hand. He has an extensive Wood Burning Oven Website, including oven plans,pizza instructions, and more. Highly recommended for amateur oven builders.Oven built by Mike Iapalucci from Rado Hand’s plans. Detailed constructions photos. Portable cob oven in France – detailed constuction photos, instructions en francais 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 ScottDefinitive work on authentic hearth breads.Includes instructions for building a backyard bake oven. _“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 BookWoodfiredpizza.orgGood site with instructions for an Alan Scott style oven.Brick Oven Map on GoogleAugust Vanderdonckt writes: The map allows brick oven fans to find out if they are close to somebody who already has one.It enables people to upload pictures, communicate with each other directly and locate ovens geographically.August Vanderdonckt’s detailed photo record of building an Alan Scott oven.Frankie G’s Pizza Oven Project – good photo record and pizza info.Tom’s oven.Build Your Own Earth Oven (3rd Edition)Click here to orderA 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. Kiko Denzer’s Blog ,  also archive on oven buildingMore Books on Baking and MasonryRussian Bake Oven Drawings 30 pages 2Mb pdf file (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. BlackOvenGood site by a brick oven enthusiast, including recipes and baking info. Castable Ovenstep-by-step construction photos of a refractory concrete oven. (above) Backyard oven by Phil Connor, Britain. 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 ProgressInteresting oven experiments, including a novel firing technique Catamount Brick Ovens – Peter Moore Masonry Inc. builds domestic beehive ovens throughout the Northeast. Fireplace/ Bakeoven Combo Family room fireplace preheats kitchen bakeoven. Rammed earth house, Saltspring Island, BC. Phillip Van Horn, architect. Richard Dakin, mason Electric Brick OvensSmall Domestic – by Breadstone Large Domestic – at Masonry Stove Builders Kitchen Cooking Fireplace with Bakeoven – by BiofireMasonry heater bakeoven feedback from Bill Derrick Bakeoven by Doug Wood. Click on image for more information Commercial Ovens Traditional French commercial ovens Little Stream– 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 – 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. 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. Sourdough Calculator Excel spreadsheet template that simplifies “baker’s percentage” sourdough calculationsInteresting LinksThe 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 AmericaSan Francisco Baking InstituteBread baking classes and bakery consulting Cafe Beaujolais – great place, great website. They have an early Alan Scott oven.