Ancient Roman Oven Photos

[Annie2]

Hi everyone, I am new here. I found this threat really interesting.

[david s]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

The ancient Romans were masters where concrete was concerned and many of their secrets are still undiscovered. The Pantheon in Rome is a breathtaking example. To make the dome lighter as it ascended to avoid collapse, they gradually tapered the walls getting thinner and thinner towards the top, but also they used lighter aggregate, as it rose, transporting large quantities of pumice hundreds of miles from Pompeii. when we visited I gate crashed a uni lecture on the building which was spellbinding.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

What did they use for insulation back then?

Nubian slave girls.....

[wotavidone]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

Pumice probably

[Jimney]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

What did they use for insulation back then?

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

Aluminium originates in the earth in the form of a red or brownish clay called Bauxite. Bauxite ore is found in abundance in the Caribbean, Australia and Africa and estimated figures suggest that 8% of the earth?s surface contains this red clay. Bauxite is an ore, rich in aluminium oxide formed over millions of years by chemical weathering of rocks containing aluminium silicates.

Environmental Issues
Makes you wonder whether the red clay bricks naturally had a high aluminium content.

[Optionparty]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

Would the bricks and mortar in the old ovens just be standard terracotta bricks and standard mortar?

The terracotta in my oven looks like it could have been made from old broken terracotta roofing tiles, because I see a slight curve to some of them. I don't know how long ago terracotta roofing tiles were being used, but I suspect it was a long time ago.

Carl

[brickie in oz]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

It sure would, and they are still there.. it would have been lime mortar though.

[TropicalCoasting]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

Would the bricks and mortar in the old ovens just be standard terracotta bricks and standard mortar?

[david s]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

On visiting Pompeii in October last year I was rather surprised to see that not all of the ovens had their flues at the front. Some, usually smaller ovens, had their flues at the centre of the dome, the same configuration the ancient Romans used for their pottery kilns. I built my first oven like this and it performed well. Probably lost a fair bit of heat out the flue, but because it is small fuel is not really an issue. Less smoke at start up and no entry to reach past are the big advantages of this design.

[mn8tr]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

Impressive! Some of the joint work was amazing for the tools that they has at hand.

[lwood]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

That's good to hear. Will definitely be one of my stops. Sounds like I shouldn't worry finding WFO'S. Will look up Villa di Fontanella when planning my trip.

[luca]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

Fascinating! I have relatives in the Orvieto/ Perugia area (a little town called Citta della Pieve) and I remember them taking their raw bread dough, pies, etc. to a local baker who would do the baking for a small fee in his own WFO. I rented a farm house once and they had an old small oven built into the outside (brick) wall, with a stone slab for the cooking surface and the brick chimney reaching up to the roof line. I think you are right that "it would be like counting sheep," there are so many different cooking structures there!

[Optionparty]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

E una cosa spectacolo!! Any evidence of what it was used for? (There doesn't seem to be a lot of black soot or other signs of long term burning, but it's been many years...)

I met a woman who said she remembered being at a pizza party there years ago.
I fired the oven for several days, raising the temperature a little higher each day.
Not wanting to crack or collapse the oven, it dried slowly and came to 940F.
Carbon from the cold firing burned off, and made the oven look new.
It took days to cool, as it?s built on the second level, under the house.

wow! I would love to watch them build it! every little stone!

When I Look at my photos posted here, the little stones look like pieces of
?Terra Cotta? roof tiles. I would like to know how they built this also.
The town is about 400 years old, I suspect the casa to be from the same era.
It?s built over a cave ?Trappeto? 14? x 72? that was to be an olive mill,
but the project must have been abandoned many years ago, as the mill stone still sits outside.

Came back and looked at these pics again. They truly are amazing. Is Villa di Fontanella yours Optionsparty? I love what you have done there. Want to include Villa di Fontanella in an Italy trip of WFOs. It looks absolutely gorgeous, on the Adriatic, very quaint little town. Are there operational WFO's in town?

I would really like to get a list of all WFO's in Italy that people have visited. Planning an Italy trip in the next 2 years and would like to see as many ovens as possible, and cooking classes. Maybe I'll start a thread

A friend of my wife posted about the villa on his blog, saying ?someone must buy it?.
We went to see it, and were told to view it ?with rose colored glasses?, we needed to,
as it needed lots of work. We fell in love with it, bought it, and had it renovated.
The movie/book ?Under the Tuscan Sun? doesn?t really show the adventure involved.

I think every restaurant serves pizza. I don?t believe any Italian pizza baker would
use anything other than a ?wood fired oven?. They often fire with olive wood.
This is Puglia where the bread is famous. One bakery in town uses a ?Deck oven?
stoker fired with olive pits. Bread (about 2kg), large holes. Olive oil, the best.
They don?t want bread to overwhelm the taste of the local olive oil.
Documenting WFO?s in Italy, would be like counting sheep.

Carl

[lwood]

Re: Ancient Roman Oven Photos

Came back and looked at these pics again. They truly are amazing. Is Villa di Fontanella yours Optionsparty? I love what you have done there. Want to include Villa di Fontanella in an Italy trip of WFOs. It looks absolutely gorgeous, on the Adriatic, very quaint little town. Are there operational WFO's in town?

I would really like to get a list of all WFO's in Italy that people have visited. Planning an Italy trip in the next 2 years and would like to see as many ovens as possible, and cooking classes. Maybe I'll start a thread