Earth Ovens
Traditionally called “hornos” in New Mexico, building your own earth oven is a great way to learn the basics of mud brick construction in a small project. The walls of the earthen oven dome hold heat for long periods of time and slowly release that stored heat into the oven cavity. It is not uncommon for an earth oven to maintain baking temperatures for 3-4 hours on a single firing – even after the fire has been removed. One can easily do a week’s worth of baking and cooking on a single firing. In addition to bread and desserts, hornos are also great for pizza and cooking meats and vegetables. I always try to use local and natural materials when building an oven and have adapted the traditionally larger oven size to a smaller design which requires less fuel and time for firing.
Please contact me to join an upcoming internet or live instruction class or schedule an oven-building workshop at your own home – you provide all materials and a minimum of 5 participants and we build the oven together in 2 days.
Construction Details
- The oven foundation is usually a simple gravel or stone pad.
- The square oven base is made of sun-cured adobe bricks.
- The oven floor can either be made of troweled mud or fire brick.
- Soil taken from the oven site is used to construct the rings of the oven dome.
- The ovens are usually finished with natural earthen plasters which are strengthened with wheat paste for water-resistance.
