Masonry oven

Modern masonry ovens are closely associated with artisan bread and pizza, but in the past they were used for any cooking task involving baking.

The process began as soon as our ancestors started using fire to cook their food,[1] probably by spit-roasting over live flame or coals.

Over time, the single-loaf ovens grew large enough to bake multiple loaves, and construction practices expanded from holes in the ground to clay pots to brick and rock domes and vaults.

They are widely used in artisanal bakeries and pizzerias, restaurants featuring pizzas and baked dishes, and increasingly as small backyard or home ovens.

A supercharged steamy atmosphere produces a more flavorful and chewy crust (see Maillard reaction); it also keeps other foods moist and tender.

Whether the materials are mud and brick, the latest high temperature castables, or pre-fabricated modular ovens, all these methods are still in use.

Since masonry loses heat as fast as (or faster than) it absorbs it, early ovens extended bake times by increasing mass.

Since heat moves from high to lower temperature, the outside of the oven cannot get as hot as the inside — unless it is wrapped in a fireproof blanket.

Nature offers few materials that combine compressive strength, insulative properties, and imperviousness to high temperatures, but recent technology has greatly expanded the options.

Removing the form left about an inch of air gap to isolate the entire oven structure from the base.

Some earthen oven builders use a lo-cost combination of empty glass bottles surrounded by an insulative mix of clay and fine organic matter (sawdust, chaff, nut shells, etc.

); as the organics burn out, they leave thousands of tiny voids in the clay, making a spongey, insulative, and firm foam-like material.

For a smaller profile and a rounder look, the oven may be wrapped in mineral wool blankets (similar to fiberglass but made from clay or rock and much more resistant to high temperatures and thermal cycling).

However, early masonry ovens dating back to ancient Egypt were typically made of native clay, often tempered (to minimize cracking) with gravel, sand, and/or straw.

Clome ovens were a modular (and sometimes portable) variant—essentially a large, upside-down clay pot with a door opening cut into the side.

Bread and meat can be cooked in a type of covered ceramic casserole dish known variously as a cloche, a Schlemmertopf (brand name), or the like.

Most expensive is a ceramic or stoneware oven liner that provides many of the benefits of a cloche without restricting the baker to one size of pan.