As part of my two week prep test I wanted to be able to cook outside without being reliant on man made fuels. In an urban setting its very much similar to using firewood in a National Park. The fire needs to be within a contained area. I do own a Chiminea which is great for heating but difficult to use for cooking when attempting to lift large pots from the top of the chimney at chest height or large camp ovens wont fit through the mouth section for baking.

I purchased an Ozpig cooker made from a 9 kilo gas bottle (see links below). My idea is to put wheels on my chiminea to move it from beneath the flue that is constructed above it. This is not usually neccessary but I built a roof over my decking for use during winter. The flue sits a few inches above the chiminea chimey to draw naturally or the amount of fuel doubles from the excess draft created from 20 feet of extra chimney that is created.

I do have a low pressure Heatlie gas BBQ and a Webber Charcoal BBQ but these require either gas or briquettes to operate. Firewood can still be scrounged in emergencies where as man made fuels will be harder to come by. I also wanted to be able to bake bread. Most staple foods are either grain based or root based vegetables in western societies.

Staples such as rice are easy to keep long term when using buckets in conjunction with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, along with wheat and corn for bread making. The whole form of grains keeping longer than processed forms being flour. Root vegetables without refrigeration require a cool room arrangement for keeping any length of time, unless having dried slices pre-stored.

I prefer to use man made fuels when using foods that are fast to cook but for longer cooking times then briquettes or timber are more efficient and safer to store. To cook a stew on butane cylinders would use almost an entire cylinder for one meal. Two hours of cooking to make a stew tender for example. This is also true of attempting to bake. Either charcoal or timber is needed for extended use to conserve fuel.

Bread will be one of the most desired articles of food when SHTF and may even become a trade item. I tend to own Bedourie camp ovens for camping. These are made from rolled steel and dont break when dropped and are much lighter to carry than the cast iron versions, however for this excersise Im buying a cast iron camp oven as these absorb heat slowly and spreads it more evenly and gently when baking. I’ll also be covering the use of charcoal briquettes as these can be stored for long term use and are a very easy alternative to outside cooking in the burbs. Another baking alternative is to build a home made pizza oven, covered below. This will be my next building project.

Allow 30 mins for the heat beads to burn down and are ready to use once they change colour and are then the same as using hot coals. A good rule of thumb for the ammount needed for a camp oven is as follows.

TOP – the size of the oven + 5

BOTTOM – the size of the oven – 3

ie. for a 12 inch camp oven yourd need 17 to 18 beads for the top(lid) while the bottom would need 9 to 10 beads. This should give you 45 to 50 mins of cooking time.

The heat must be distributed on the top and the bottom. Around 180 degrees Cel is sufficient for most cooking, although bread will need to be hotter, around 220 degrees Cel. Different dishes will require more or less heat beads, a general guide is; dishes with lots of liquid such as casseroles and soups will need more beads on the bottom than on the top. Even number of beads on the bottom and top for meat, poultry, vegetables. For bread, damper, bannock and cakes youll need more heat on the top than on the bottom.

Temperature guide using heat beads(approx for a 12 inch camp oven)the addition of each heat bead adds about 20 degrees.

F                C             TOP        BOTTOM

300                150        12-13           5-6

350                180         17-18          9-10

400                200        18-19          10-11

450                220         20-21         10-11

How to tell the temperature

Paper test-put a piece of paper(not newspaper) in a preheated camp oven, within a few minutes it will turn;

Dark Brown – very hot 240-250 Cel

Light brown – hot 220-230 Cel

Yellow – moderate 180-190 Cel

Pale – slow 120 Cel

Flour Test-throw a couple of pinches of flour into the camp oven. if it doesnt turn brown within a few minutes then the temp is about 120Cel/250F(very slow), if it goes a dark brown colour then the oven is about 180Cel/350F (moderate).

Links

Ozpig

http://www.ozpig.com.au/

Bedourie Camp Oven

http://www.southern-metal-spinners.com.au/camping-page.html

Hillbilly Camp Ovens

http://www.campingwithhillbilly.com/products.htm

Furphy Camp Ovens

http://www.furphyfoundry.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=5&category_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=3

Cooking with Heatbeads

http://www.heatbeads.com.au/news/2007/10/23/camp-oven-cooking-with-heat-beads%C2%AE-bbq-briquettes/

Camp Oven Cooking Forum

http://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?action=print;num=1190965119

 

Homemade Pizza Oven

Food cooked on a wood fire has a very special flavour about it, and having a wood fired pizza oven in your own garden is a fantastic addition. It is a good idea, when taking on a project like this, to get advice from a builder or structural engineer, and always check with your local council.

Pizza Oven Design
This design is constructed in an adobe style brick dome that is mud rendered. Large wooden posts support the base and raise the oven to a level that is ergonomic and comfortable to use.

Materials
Try to use reused materials wherever possible. Some that were sourced for this project were:
Timber bearers for framing, tin from the roof of a house,
Sand, cement, gravel & reinforceing mesh for the concrete slab,
Second-hand, solid, common bricks for the oven,
Firebricks and mortar for the base of the oven,
Clay, sand and straw for the adobe render.

Location
Ensure there are no overhanging branches or debris in the area that could pose a fire risk.
The ground surface should be comfortable to work on, but it is most important that the base of the oven is level and is positioned at approximately hip height to give a comfortable cooking and serving surface.

The posts are going to take the weight of the concrete slab and that of the pizza oven. Find a central point from which to measure the radius of the pizza oven. It is underneath the circumference of the oven that will carry most of the weight. The posts should be positioned to bear this weight.

Construction – the Base
Treated turpentine posts have been used in this construction. This is very dense timber and has an extremely long life. Ensure that the posts are made from a strong, long-lasting material.
Notch the posts ready to slot in the bearers. The bearers will support the concrete slab. The slab will rest on top of the four posts.
Dig the holes, leaving the soil at the bottom of the hole loose to allow for the post to be easily twisted into position and levelled. Check that all four posts are level before proceeding to firm the posts in the ground. The bearers should form a level framework through the posts and sit flush into the top of them.
Place the tin on top of the bearers, to the shape of the concrete base and secure it with self-tapping screws. Place and secure a framework around the perimeter of the tin, which will contain the concrete.
Place a circle of old hose, made to the circumference of the base of the proposed pizza oven, onto the tin in a rough outline of the position it will take. Also mark the entrance door. This is just to check that the design will fit the proportions of the base, and its orientation in relation to the garden. Remove before laying the reinforcing mesh.
Place reinforcing mesh over the base, tying pieces together with wire, using supports to elevate it above the base. Do not allow the steel mesh to come in contact with the roofing tin because corrosion will occur.
Concrete recipe – 3 parts sand : 2 parts gravel or blue metal : 1 part cement. Pour the concrete, tamping it down to fill all the voids, using a float to smooth over the surface.
Allow the base to cure for several days before beginning the construction of the dome.

Construction – the Dome
Place the second-hand bricks in the shape of the outline of the dome. These bricks will be a firm base on which to build the dome.
Place an insulation layer of double washed river sand in the base of the dome to a depth of 40 – 100 mm. This layer provides thermal mass to trap the heat, so the thicker it is the more successfully it will hold heat in the oven.
Place a layer of refractory firebricks on top of the sand, covering the entire area of the bottom of the pizza oven. Place the whole bricks tightly together then mark them to the outside edge and cut them with an angle grinder.
A refractory mortar must be used to fix the bricks together for the oven. Ordinary cement mortar will crack and crumble when exposed to the heat of the oven.
Use more of the washed river sand to fill in the gaps around the edge between the refractory bricks and the clay bricks, and also leaving a thin layer around the edge to prevent any mortar from getting on the refractory bricks
To create the angle on the bricks: cut the bricks in half, with the bricks inside the oven touching, and with a gap of 15 mm on the outside of the dome, the construction will gradually arch over, but a well shaped dome is achieved in combination with a good eye. The brickwork does not need to be extraordinarily neat, because it will be covered with the adobe finish and the holes and gaps will be filled with this finishing layer.
Fondue is an additive for cement that will cause it to set more quickly. This can be used when the bricks are beginning to arch over and tend to be difficult to hold in position. Another trick is to place boxes or similar behind the bricks to hold them in position.
An alternative is to shape a dome of moist, firm, bush sand over the pizza oven base and build the brick construction over the top of it. Place a sheet of black plastic over the firebricks first, to keep them clean. The form of the bricks will follow the shape of the sand dome. To cut some corners, foam boxes can be used to fill some of the space under the sand, and will also lessen the need to dig out and remove so much sand when the brick dome is completed. Ensure that this material can be easily removed through the doorway.
Construct some formwork for the entrance door to the pizza oven. Ensure that the width of the door is larger than the largest tray that you intend to use for cooking. The arch could be shaped from two pieces of plywood that are joined together by strips of timber. This formwork will hold the shape of the doorway while the bricks are set in place over the top of it. The height of this should be no more than 63% of the internal height of the dome.

Applying the Adobe Render
Before applying the adobe render the bricks should be wet down thoroughly. Because the bricks are very porous they will draw out all the moisture in the clay finish. The slower the drying process the less cracks there will be when it dries.
The adobe render is mixed at proportions of 30% clay : 70% sand with some added straw to bind the mix together.
Apply the mixture about 6 cm thick all over the whole dome.
When the mortar has set, remove the formwork used for the door, and remove the sand and supports that have been used inside the oven to build the dome.
Once this first coat of mud render is completely dry, a second finishing layer can be applied to weatherproof the surface. One alternative is to apply a layer of cement render made from 3 parts washed sand : 1 part cement : 1 part lime (optional). Coloured oxide can be added to create any desired coloured finish. This will need to cure for several weeks before the oven can be fired up. Another alternative is to paint the surface with cement slurry made from just cement and water with added coloured oxide if desired, or a waterproofing agent like bondcrete and cement can be used.
The oven can be given an individual touch that complements the design or style of the landscape in which it has been built. Sculptural additions can be made, or surface textures, patterns or motifs can be applied – glass, broken china, marbles, pebbles; it is only limited by the imagination. The oven can be given a creative touch or can remain as a simple earthy construction.

This design has allowed for a chimney. This is not necessary in an outdoor oven, but if this oven were to be built inside, it would need to be flued to the outside of the building.

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s943952.htm

Backyard Ovens

http://www.goodlifebookclub.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=606&osCsid=c34a4246303c9318913304b916414ac9

 

　

 

 

 

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