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The Brick Oven Page

Retained heat masonry bakeovens 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.

The Bread Lady

Heather's oven

 

Domestic Ovens
Commercial Ovens

 

Domestic Ovens

Painting by William 
Kurelek

"Baking Easter Bread" by  William Kurelek, 1968.
Easter is the most important holiday for many Ukrainian settlers in Western Canada

The Bread Ovens
 of Quebec, by Boily and BlanchetteFree Download

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.

David Lyle 
Collection David Lyle 
CollectionDavid Lyle 
Collection
Stone Bake Ovens

commercial pizza oven by 
Stovemaster
48" Commercial Brick Pizza Oven - Form-Free Construction

by Alex Chernov and Sergei Kuznetsov of Stovemaster

Woodfiredpizza.org
Great resource. Check out the blog.

Bake Oven - Fireplace 
combination by Alex Chernov
Bake Oven - Fireplace Combination
by Alex Chernov

semi pre-cast ovens
Semi Pre-Cast Ovens

by Alex Chernov

Pat Manley 
builds a Bread Oven
Pat Manley Builds a Bread Oven

Chernov oven 05
Restaurant Oven by Alex Chernov


fornobravo pizza oven 
plans
Pizza Oven Plans

Forno Bravo has a great series of e-books available for free download on its web site (registration required).
Included are step by step plans for 3 styles of authentic Italian brick pizza ovens. Recommended.
Also available are oven management, cooking and bread books, and a great pizza book.
(Aug 12/08): James reports that there have been 11,000 downloads of the oven plans, and 25,000 downloads of the other books.
Pizza oven from Forno Bravo plans, by MHA member Scott Goodman

primavera oven
New Forno Bravo Primavera oven manual
Norbert Senf checks out the Primavera oven
Forno Bravo dealer in the U.K.

Also:
Online Brick Oven Forum
The Forno Bravo forum has 5,000 registered members, and is the largest online brick oven forum.

breadhunter
Bread For All

"Everything about bread, earth/mud and clay ovens"
- very cool blog by Stu Silverstein. Check it out.

Brick Oven Map on Google
August 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.

Backyard adobe - We built this simple oven at our neighbour's 20 years ago. It is based on the traditional Québec oven shape, an elongated dome.Backyard adove oven

 

 

Click on image for assembly photos.


 

frank's pizza oven
Frank's Pizza Oven
Instructions for building a loam oven. Good pizza info.
Good list of oven links.

Building an Horno: the Adobe Bread Oven
by Michael Moquin - Detailed adobe instructions.

Greg's Earth Oven
Good adobe oven building instructions with illustrations.

Simon Brookes' Clay Oven Blog

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.

pizza oven
Oven built by Mike Iapalucci from Rado Hand's plans. Detailed constructions photos.

cob oven
Portable cob oven in France - detailed constuction photos, instructions en francais

Stone Turtle Baking and Cooking School
Learn how to use a wood fired oven.

Ovencrafters Ovencrafters - simple, high efficiency insulated design developed by Alan Scott. Proven in a range of sizes and applications including home, restaurants and bakeries.

Click to join him for a seminar.

Alan ScottAlan Scott, 72, Artisan of the Brick Oven, Dies
New York Times, Feb 6/09

The Bread Builders, by Daniel 
Wing and Alan ScottClick here to order.
by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott

Definitive work on authentic hearth breads.
I
ncludes 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 Book

Woodfiredpizza.org
Good site with instructions for an Alan Scott style oven.


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)
Build Your Own 
Earth OvenClick here to order

A 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. 


Check out Kiko's great blog on ovens and earth art

Prefabricated Ovens - These can simplify the construction process a great deal

More Books on Baking and Masonry

il focolaio


  • Pat Manley recently built a kitchen bake oven for Billy Joel
    at his house on Long Island.

  • Backyard Bakeoven Workshop with Norbert Senf
    step-by-step construction photos of a 32" X 36" oven.
    Back yard bake oven workshop 
with Norbert Senf

  • Malaspina College Oven Assembly Sequence



    Bake Oven by 
Hikary Fukazawa
    Hikary Fukazawa, a participant at the 2003 French bake oven workshop, 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.

  • Russian Bake Oven Drawings


  • squirrel tail 
bake oven

    (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.


Ben Sotero and crew with the new teaching oven at the San Francisco Baking Institute.
details

  • BlackOven
    Good site by a brick oven enthusiast, including recipes and baking info.
  • Castable Oven
    step-by-step construction photos of a refractory concrete oven.
  • Commercial Castable Oven
    good photos of the manufacturing process, including a unique safety test

Backyard oven by Phil Connor

(above) Backyard oven by Phil Connor, Britain.
Bakeoven by Doug Wood Bakeoven by Doug Wood.

Click on image for more information

Commercial Ovens

Oven by Manuel Munoz, France. 
Click for larger image.

Traditional French commercial ovens

Bagel Oven by Alex Chernov
Montreal Style Bagel Oven by MHA Member Alex Chernov

Toronto, December 2008

Little Stream has become very successful. This is their new oven with a 6 ft. X 9 ft. hearth. and a 6 ft. wide loading door.

An 80 kg. load of wood currently bakes about 800 2lb (1 kg) loaves.

bakeoven repair

Little Stream Website

New design with 9ft. X 8ft. hearth

Farjas oven at
 Acme Bakery, Berkley 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.
  • Historical oven in Waterdown, Ontario. We partially documented this recently unearthed 10 X 10 oven.

Sourdough Calculator

Our Excel spreadsheet template that simplifies "baker's percentage" sourdough calculationsSourdough calculator screen shot

Interesting Links

Boulangerie Anna
Anna is my sister in law. She became a bread head about 10 years ago after working at Terra Breads in Vancouver. She now has her own bakery on the French Riviera, and it is one of the best bakeries in France.

The 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 America

San Francisco Baking Institute
Bread baking classes and bakery consulting

Cafe Beaujolais - great place, great website. They have an early Alan Scott oven.

Bread Art by Henry Ruczynski

  • Bread Art
    by Henry Ruczynski, Vancouver
    Click on image for more

Let me know of interesting oven links that you think should be on this page.
(Norbert Senf - mheat(at)heatkit.com)

This page last updated on February 4, 2010
This page was created in 1997

information on 
Heat-Kit masonry heater systems

Heat-Kit Gallery The Brick Bake Oven 
Page - most popular spot on this site Brick Oven
Page

Bookstore Library Masonry
Heater
Mall
current and recent 
masonry heater projects Current
Projects
  Contact Search Links FAQ  

Return to Masonry Heater Assoc. Home 
Page