Get Your Hands...and Feet...Dirty. Build Your Own Horno!

The year is now 2010.  It has been a while now, about four years, since we have been able to cook bread or turkey or anything outside in an horno.  It was our trip up to New Mexico recently to visit a new restaurant in La Union that gave us inspiration.  We talked about rebuilding the horno and writing about the new construction, so here I am putting together my ideas and a few pictures of what I am going to do to document the process..

My first undertaking will be to build a roof over where the horno will stand so we will not have the weather to contend with on this horno.  I can make it look like it is supposed to by coating the outside with mud plaster.  A young man came by the house a few months ago and asked if we had any work for him, and as it turned out he said he could do cinder block work.  What we have in the back yard is an area that is a grape arbor, and it has stucco covered cinder block pillars.  I wanted the pillars for the roof of the horno to match.  So I asked the man to duplicate the pillars and, of course, he said, “Yes, not a problem; he could do that with ease.”  I went to Lowe’s and got all the necessary building materials and brought them to Rudolfo to do his masterful work. What I didn’t do was stay with him to supervise that he was as masterful as he said.  When the job was complete (after several more trips to Lowe’s) the pillars looked great.  I paid the man and he went on his way. I went out the next day and was leaning on one of the pillars to pick something up off the ground and the pillar moved.  I myself was moved by the event and began to investigate what had happened.  It turns out that the “master cementero” had put no cement footing for the ten high stacks of cinder blocks.  He only put a little as a base to set the first block.  

This story is long so basically I will cut to the chase and tell you that I had to retrofit what he had done and dig around the base and pour a footing to give a bit for stability to the pillars.  My “fix” seems to have worked.  I will further strengthen the pillars with adobe which I will explain later.  With two by six joists sitting on pillars supporting an adobe colored tin roof, I can begin on the adobe work.  

I located Antonio De La O in Anthony, New Mexico whom I had purchased adobe from years ago, to do the kiva fireplace and banco in our BBQ courtyard as well as the first horno.  I estimated the job would take approximately 200 adobes, allowing about 50 for the horno and another 150 for the bench that surrounds it.  

Señor De La O is 80+ years old and still supervises the adobe making process and uses a machine he invented and built himself.  It is a wonderful contraption with a V8 engine and a couple of other smaller lawn mower engines to work various hydraulic systems.  Quite unique!  The process he uses is to combine 30% clay with 70% local sandy soil and adds to that a quantity of straw.  

I now have the adobe stacked at the horno site and am ready to begin the process.  I have removed all of the old “melted” adobe and leveled the base.  The next step will be to get a good foundation of adobe mud which will become the floor of the horno.  Layout of the adobe in a circle will begin the process and once the first course of adobe is in the proper place, each block will be fitted and mudded in and then move to the next one.  I will use that method or mark a line to follow and mud the whole bottom course and lay it all at one time.   

I began by laying a flat (the last horno, I layed the block on edge) course of adobe block in a line from where the horno opening will be to the back edge of the round foundation structure which is made of rock, dirt, adobe and plaster,.  Then I’ll follow with a course on both sides of the center course and so on until the area is covered with adobe.  I might add here that the foundation is covered up on the sides with plaster so that when and if it ever rains the bottom will not deteriorate with the water since I am building on flat ground.  

The first course is put down flat on a bed of mud which will give the horno the thickness of one adobe block. The starting point is one side of the opening and going around the foundation area and back to the opening, leaving the width of the opening which I left at approximately 15 inches by 18 inches.  As the next course is set about one inch offset toward the inside thus making each course come together toward the top forming a dome.  After reaching several bricks high (this depends on the height you want to make the horno) and getting closer in the middle, I laid several rebar across before finishing the top.  I also left a vent hole toward the back and at the top.  To close the vent when necessary I used the same steel ball that I used on the first horno. As for the door, I decided to make it a rectangle, thus necessitating a length of angle iron across the top of the opening incorporated into the course of block that marked the height I wanted for the doorway, which is approximately 14 inches.

When the horno was completely enclosed I then mudded up the irregularities in the adobe block and mud plastered the complete surface getting it as smooth as possible. I used a hatchet to square up the opening for the door.  I made the door using short pieces of 2x4 to make the frame and covered both the inside and the outside with 3/8” plywood.

No horno is complete without a good peel, scuffle, and a rooker.  I had some 1x6” pine I used to make the peel which is about 4’ long. The peel is what you use to add and remove what it is you are cooking.  The scuffle was made using an old broken shovel handle and adding an eye hook on the end with a swivel to which can be attached an old towel for cleaning out the horno.  The scuffle is what you use to clean the bottom of the oven before adding your bread.  The rooker was made from an old metal weed whacker that didn’t work well on the weeds, so I took one of the braces off and bent it out so that with the short 30” handle it makes a nice tool to rake out the coals and ashes after burning the wood.  

I used a slab of shale as a door on the last horno and decided it would make a good table since I no longer was going to use it for a door.  I dug a hole and set up a two foot long piece of mesquite wood vertically and set the shale on it, thus making a rock preparation table.  

I decided to use two different recipes for the first bread to be cooked in the horno utilizing pecan wood that was close by for the first firing.  It was a pretty good bunch of wood, and I added several pieces over a period of about 30-45 minutes, then let it burn down to coals and just about to ashes.  I raked out the residue and scuffled the inside.  Then I put the bread in the oven using the peel.  Everything went well with the exception of one thing:  I forgot to close up the vent hole.  Much of the precious heat escaped in the 20 minutes before I noticed and covered the vent.  The bread cooked, but it did not reach the beautiful golden brown that I was expecting.  The taste was good and the bread was done in, I think it was about 45-60 minutes.  I am sure the bread would have baked much quicker had I covered the vent earlier, even before all the coals were taken out.  It will take a couple of times before I have the timing and the amount of wood correct.  Also, you can use cornmeal to test the heat of the oven.  When you throw in a  bit of cornmeal and it lightly browns fairly quickly you are at about the right temperature.

Just yesterday, I cooked another two loaves of oat beer bread in the oven, all the while checking the temperature.  Just before I removed the wood, the temperature was about 875 degrees according to the digital thermometer I was using.  When I got the floor of the horno cleaned out the temperature had dropped to a little over 400 degrees.  Something seemed wrong for the heat to drop that quickly.  Maybe, just maybe I didn’t burn the wood long enough to sufficiently heat the adobe.  The bottom line is that I still was not completely satisfied with the result.  The bread was cooked in about an hour, but still not the golden brown I was expecting.  Next time I will use a Native American recipe and cook without using a loaf pan and see if the results change.

Ultimately, the time it takes to heat the oven depends upon the size of the oven.  I will burn mine down for about 3-4 hours then raking out the coals.  Checking the temperature you, you can use flour or cornmeal.  If you sprinkle a little from the center toward the front and see how long it takes to smoke or burn.  You are looking for a temperature that will turn the “sprinkle” brown in about a minute.  Just like cooking in any oven, whether it is in your BBQ or in your oven inside the house, you always have to spend some time and “learn” how it cooks best…..

I still have some left over clay that needs mixing for the smooth finish coat of adobe before it will really look good.  And so goes the horno project.

Wayne Calk

March 2010