Make Your Own Mud Oven
by Justin Thomas, Virginia
on 06.13.05
Here's a way to have pizzas and loaves baked in your backyard. You can build your own mud oven — they are surprisingly easy to make. The main ingredients are sand, clay and water. Here are some
instructions for constructing the mud oven seen above. See these step-by-step photos: Part 2. Here are some tips on make your oven more efficient. Here's a book on building an earth oven. Thanks to Kathreen and Rob for the tip.
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- 5 Reuses for: Watermelon
- How to Use a Solar Oven: Beans and Rice Recipe
- Stop Buying Packaged Cereal! 5 Awesome Granola Recipes to Try Instead
- 7 Great Weekend Solar Power Projects
- How to Use a Solar Cooker: What Works and What Doesn't
- Chipotle Goes Green, Plus Recipe for Hormone-Free Braised Pork with Chipotle Peppers



































I have a copy of the book "Build Your Own Earth Oven" and it is pretty straight-forward and easy to understand. When we live in a house, I am sure to be building one ;)
I bought the book through this company http://www.lindsaybks.com/HomePage.html and recommend looking at the "Gimme Shelter" section at Loompanics - http://loompanics.com/online-store/scstore/shophome.html
Thank you for this article. I would love to see more articles like this.
clay, sand, water and - dont forget the STRAW - more insulation will help your baking!
the technical term for this, in natural building, is "cob."
we only used a single layer construction for a couple of reasons 1- to experiment with heat efficiency 2- time constraints in building. In Kiko Denzer's book he does reccommend 3 layers - the second being a cob layer (with straw in the mud mix) as an insulating layer, however he also says that for a pizza oven or a quick to build oven a single mud layer (without straw) is sufficient. And we have found it to be fine for our needs - maybe next time we build one we will try the three layer process.
we defintely have to supplies here and titus and alex can help!