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Experimentation

A lot of art has to do with experimenting with various materials in order to find what you need to accomplish your goals. In all of my reading about building a cob structure, there is no specific formula on how to get the perfect composition of clay and sand. At times, this frustrates me because there is not an exact way to achieve the needed results. Here is where the artistic process takes over as we try different techniques over the next few weeks.

Even baking in the cob oven is an experiment. Unlike a mechanized over, there is no way to set the cob oven to a specific temperature. When we are finally ready to bake our first loaf of bread or pizza, I imagine it will take a few tries to keep the food from burning.

I also found a few videos about how to build an oven. While the readings have been helpful, I struggle to visualize some elements of the process. Watching these, I was able to get a better sense of the work we will need to do over the next few weeks.
Building a Cob Oven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgtkizOp0wg
Cooking in a Cob Oven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnHLjoKQr6Y

Inspired by this post from Mother Earth News: https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/how-to-bake-with-an-earth-oven-zbcz1511

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 14, 2018 at 12:05 PM

    These resources are very helpful in terms of visualizing the whole oven making process. I like how you envision the future when we actually use the oven to cook. I agree that experimenting from the guidelines for several times and adapt it to our campus environment is the only way that we can build a successful oven.

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