Research

A history of the bread oven The bread oven, as we still know it today, has a very long history. The “basic model” with oven floor and dome has been around for at least 4,000 years. Bread can also be baked in other, simpler ways. Man has always been inventive in his preparation of food. Depending on his lifestyle and the materials available to him, he baked bread in a clay pot on an open fire, under a movable bell-shaped vessel, or in a temporary or a fixed oven construction. The “oven” has been around for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found remains of prehistoric ovens in many places around the world. Archaeological traces are sometimes difficult to recognise, however. Often only the substructure of the oven remains, and you do not know what the walls or dome looked like. Sometimes you still find part of the content, and you can thus determine what was baked in the oven. Because food remains do not preserve at all well, it is almost impossible to prove that an oven was used...

Building materials In general Here we present the various materials that can be used to build an oven. The proposed values are being used under normal circumstances. They won’t be correct in every case. During cold weather you have to take different proportions into account; the mortar proportions depend on the strength of the pressure of the brick, etc. Also not every material can be used everywhere. In coastal areas, the mortar has to be resistant to salt deposits from the sea. So always check which materials are commonly used in your environment to know which ones are suitable.

Preparing the covering loam This text can only be consulted in Dutch.

Building the oven vault This text can only be consulted in Dutch.

Laying the oven floor This text can only be consulted in Dutch.

Construction hook This text can only be consulted in Dutch.

Recipes from Ons kookboek 1943 translation under construction Alongside everyday bread, many specialities and festive dishes were baked in bread ovens. We have included here a few old recipes for oven delicacies that were baked in the old days. You can still make them today. Delicious! apple roll When baking a cake, you can use the dough remains to make an apple roll. Also called in Flemish “kattekop” (cat’s head), “bollebuis”, “krollemol”, etc. Apple rolls were a pure indulgence for small children. There was always room in the oven for a few “krollemollen”. The recipe is simplicity itself.

Measurements of the oven mouth The size of the oven mouth is a personal choice and depends on the use of the oven. Is it only for baking bread and pies or do you also want to use it for making pizza and roasting meat? In the last case, the oven mouth has to be made wider and higher to be able to put in and take out of the oven, pizza’s and grills. Yet there are some general rules: The width of the oven mouth is always in proportion to the size of the oven floor so that the whole floor surface remains accessible. It is usually between 40 cm and 85 cm; The height of the oven mouth cannot be lower than 63 % of the maximum height of the vault. This is to ensure, during stoking, a better smoke duct and therefore a permanent air current, necessary for a good combustion. It is for that same reason that the oven vault’s façade is as high as the oven mouth. If this is not the case, then the smoke in the oven will start to precipitate and it will eventually extinguish the fire. The height of the...

How many loaves of bread do you want to bake in your oven? Before you start building your bread oven, you will first have to choose how many loaves you want to bake in one session. This is important for the measurements of the oven. The MOT designed a building plan for a good functioning oven, based on data from literature (see bibliography). We opted for a smaller bread oven in which you can bake about 8 loaves of bread (diameter approx. 25 cm; approx. 800 gr) in one session. Measurements of the oven ( from VANDENDAEL: 274):

Wooden moldsmolds for an oven with a circular ground plan of 1.5 m diameter (from d'ORNANO: 65-67)