Customer Reviews

Build Your Own Earth Oven: A Low-Cost, Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ran a summer family camp in July 2002 and built the smaller oven in one day. I had kids from age two to fifty two stomping the clay, sand, hay and water with thier feet. I set fire in the oven on day two and made our first loaf of bread. The directions are easy to follow and was a hit with my fourty campers. I would highly recommend this book. A great family or group activity! Loved it.

Reading Kiko Denzer's book for the second time this December, as I thought about friends who would most enjoy a copy as a present, I was struck again by the artistic beauty and integrity of the book as a whole. Unlike most manuals, Denzer talks about life, not just bread, or ovens, or art.

The sculptural ovens delight the eye; the color photos and flowing drawings inspire. The instructions are clear and suffused with a philosophy of simple, harmonious living. Quotes add an unexpected depth. Finally, the explanation of bread-making science and technique makes a full circle of the various experiences of making, eating, and living.

The design and excellent presentation has drawn positive comments from friends, anthropologists, ecologists, as well as visitors and professional community workers from Mali, Tunisia, Japan, England, Ireland. Another friend, after seeing the book, went home with plans to build an oven for the intentional community where she lives.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I helped people build improved cook stoves (out of earth) in West Africa. Now, as an anthropologist, professor, trainer, and returned Volunteer I especially appreciate instructional texts that respect traditions of living within material limits. I would highly recommend this book, not only to home bakers and builders, but particularly to teachers and others who work in community settings.

I read the book, and immediately wanted to build an oven.

Wonderfully written and easy to follow. It was so easy in fact that i was able to build my oven, with the help of my 10 year old son over the summer. Man hours totatled about 30. I will now build a friends oven as a surprsie next weekend! IT is that easy!

Read this book and you too will realize that you can indeed built your own oven, easily, cheaply and with fun for all involved.

*Build your own Earth Oven* is simply AMAZING!

The goal of this book is to give instructions on building a mud (actually adobe) oven, similar to those constructed all over the world before the invention of firebrick and other materials and technologies took over. You CAN learn what you need to do that from this book. However, it really needs another edition and an editor who will ruthlessly organize the material and demand better and more even treatment and presentation.

While written by someone who is obviously experienced in the subject (mainly through personal research), this book is not the last word on the subject of wood fired baking. (For example, there is really nothing about tandoori ovens. Those bottle shaped ovens are in use in great number in Central Asia today; you can't make authentic naan without them.)

It is also somewhat disorganized: material on construction is scattered throughout, along with some New Age philosophy and personal anecdotes. I don't wish to seem crabby, but the author's life experiences just aren't that interesting to me.

There are many areas in which the author simply doesn't seem have enough information or technical experience. The illustrations range from fairly good to amateurish (odd for an author who claims to be an artist). The treatment of sourdough baking and baking in general is perfunctory and the author seems to be mostly unaware of the many excellent net resources on sourdough baking on USENET and the web. There are also some interesting clay oven resources on the web, including information on paleolithic and ancient ovens discovered in Great Britain and Europe.

There is useful information in this book, but it is an evolving work in progress. I hope to see a new and greatly expanded edition.

UPDATE (8/2009) Please note that this review was on the 1st Edition of this book and my review was written almost nine years ago. I have not seen the 3rd edition yet, but the recent positive comments seem to indicate that it has been extensively revised and improved. So...to the extent the above criticisms no longer apply, "never mind!".

A+++! This book is the perfect guide to building your own earthen oven, adding on a hand sculpted design, and it even shows you other design options. It has everything you need for the basics of making a working earthen oven and then leaves tons of room for your own creativity and design ideas. I really loved this book and we have already built a small prototype. The author combines logic and science with creativity and art, you have to love it!

In Build Your Own Earth Oven: A Low-Cost, Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves, Kiko Denzer offers readers clearly presented, step-by-step instructions for building a superbly effective, wood-fired oven out of common backyard soil. The informative, "reader friendly" text is profusely illustrated with drawings and photos. There is a simple presentation on the principles and procedure for making authentic sourdough bread, as well as directions for oven-firing and references on food, baking, and building. A unique "how to" manual, Build Your Own Earth Oven will prove to be of enormous interest for the environmentally resource conscious, the adventurous do-it-yourself hobbyists, and back-to-nature, simple life enthusiasts!

Kiko has done it again, I own the two previous editions and this new edition is a clear improvement.
The addition of an insulation layer in the oven construction enhances the oven performance and brings professional bake oven results. Still simple enough to build yourself though.
There is also more information on bread making as well as more color and more of the illustrative and entertaining illustrations.
Highly recommended!

This is a wonderful, hands-on, inspirational book with simple, clear, fun, illustrated (very important) instructions on how to create a sculptured mud and straw outdoor bread-baking oven. It is perfect for my family celebrations such as: Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas bread, and all of my other baking adventures. I was pleased to discover the roots of this century tested simple solution to baking outdoors. Thank you so much for this important addition to my life.

This is definitely a must have for the best home baked bread you'll ever eat! Easy to follow, chock full of humor and great ideas. What a way to spend time together building and baking and of course enjoying the best bread ever! We made pizza as well in the oven! Multo bene!

Kiko Denzer's gifts as an artist and teacher shine in this 3rd edition. Building an earthen oven is the perfect project to satisfy many desires and "Build Your Own Earth Oven" speaks to many of those desires eloquently and practically. With Kiko as a guide you can make something that is fun, useful, artful, cheap, practical and beautiful. And then, thanks to Hannah Field's expertise as a baker, you can enjoy delicious and healthy artisan breads, and so much more.

I especially enjoyed the simple explanations of the physics of building with mud and baking in earth. The numerous illustrations beautifully support the clear instructions on building and finishing an oven, and the thorough and practical advice about using the oven well, troubleshooting and baking make this book a very useful tool.

As a natural builder I've found that building an earthen oven is the ideal first project to gain experience, insight and enthusiasm for the beauty and benefits of building with natural materials. If you use the lessons offered in "Build Your Own Earth Oven" you just might realize the innate wisdom you already possess as a human being - engaging your hands, heart and head to create, to engage life, to do something useful. Or, as Kiko has also wisely pointed out, you can "...just make a mud oven so you can bake your own bread."

Beatifully illustrated, well-written and immensely useful, I heartily recommend this book.