Dutch ovens (fig. 25) are often built in connection with both indoor and
outdoor fireplaces to copy early kitchen fireplaces or for actual baking.
When used as an ornament, the oven is fitted with a cast-iron door, and
the space thus formed may be used for wood storage. An open firebox or
compartment below may be similarly used. Spaces used for wood storage
should be separated from the fireplace by a brick or stone partition at
least 8 inches thick, all joints being completely filled with mortar.
If the oven is intended for baking, it is advisable to line it with
firebrick, and the masonry should be at least 8 inches thick. A greater
heat-storing capacity is secured by using thick walls. An ash drop of
standard cast-iron unit type is provided for modern ovens and may lead
either to the side of the fireplace or to an ash-pit in the chimney
base. The throat or dome should be carefully formed with brick molded or
ground to an arch and preferably should be fitted with a damper. If the
top of the oven is flat, several lintel irons will be needed to support
the brick. A separate flue with a damper is recommended. For ovens of
ordinary size an 8½- by 8½-inch flue is ample. The oven is preheated by
fire or hot coals. Before food is placed in the oven, the coals and ashes
are removed through the ash drop.
Figure 44 shows a Dutch oven made of tapered adobe bricks and plastered
outside with adobe mud. A hole in the top permits the escape of smoke,
while the orño is being heated by the fire built inside on the floor.
This hole is closed with an adobe block after the coals are raked out.
When loaves of bread have been placed on the floor with a wooden paddle,
the door hole is stopped with adobe brick.
[Illustration: Figure 44.--This Dutch oven of adobe bricks is a type very
common in the States along the Mexican border. It is called an orño and
is usually built a short distance from the kitchen door.]
Boy Scouts and campers frequently improvise Dutch ovens by packing damp
sandy clay, 8 to 12 inches thick, around a wooden barrel, a tin wash
boiler, or slabs of rock to form a vault. After the earth has been
gradually dried and baked with a slow fire, the oven is ready for use.
The hole in the top and the door can be closed as in the orño.
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