The History of Brick Ovens
Some Background from James
The Pompeii Oven project was born during a trip to
Sorrento and Naples -- the birthplace of pizza, as well as
the home of both Pompeii and Herculaneum. I had been
interested in wood-fired ovens for a number of years, and
had built a number of them, both from brick and from
modular oven kits. Like most visitors, I went looking
forward to the pizza and to seeing Pompeii, but I was not
prepared for how impressive both would be.
I knew that ovens had been discovered at Pompeii, but at
the same time I had read in various books and articles that
implied that the ancient ovens were simpler than modern
brick ovens, so I wasn't expecting much. Instead, I found
that the ovens in Pompeii are not only well preserved, they
also demonstrate excellent engineering skill.
The ancient ovens were used inside shops, which also
served as retail stores. The ovens were well shaped, well
insulated, well vented, and beautifully built. The cooking
floors were made from 2” terracotta tiles, and the domes
were round, and spherically shaped. The domes were built
using bricks covered with about 1" of mortar, and insulated
with an expanded clay. The neighborhoods where the
ovens were located were also home to food shops, which
had insulated terracotta trays for serving both hot food and
cold drinks. My guess is that the pizza and drink you could
find in ancient Pompeii was probably better than what you
find in today's shopping mall pizzerias.
Reading more, I have learned that there are a number of
examples of Roman craftsmanship using traditional
materials, such as brick, concrete, and glass, which
modern artisans do not yet fully understand, and cannot
accurately re-create to this day. In fact, many of the
"modern" ovens you find in the Italian countryside,
typically built before the second war, are made from stone,
not brick and terracotta -- giving them a very rough and
rustic quality. The stone cooking floor on these ovens is
very uneven, making cooking an adventure. Like many
other things, the brick oven took a brief step backward
after the fall of the Roman Empire.
33 brick ovens have been uncovered in Pompeii, and it
was instructive to see are in varying degrees of disrepair,
which by luck show how the ovens were built. It is possible
to see the edges of the cooking surfaces, the oven domes
exposed from under their clay insulation, the oven vents
and chimneys, and even a cross-section of the brickwork
that made up the dome itself.
The Modern Wood-Fired Oven
Later, after having spent hours with my head inside the
ovens at the excavations, my family and I ventured out at
night to eat some of the world's best pizza.
The Neapolitans have elevated pizza to an art form. In
fact, they are so proud of their culinary heritage, they have
just requested that the European Union regulate Vera
Pizza Napoletana the same way it controls Champagne,
Chianti, Mozzarella and Parmesan. In Pompeii and
Naples, I was struck not only by the great pizza, but also
by the fact that the ovens were so similar to the ancient
Pompeii ovens that I had seen during my days of
exploring. After a few evenings of talking with restaurant
owners and pizzaioli, I decided to re-create the Pompeii
Oven, and to make it a project that could be done by
hobbyists, enthusiasts, and builders around the world.
Building the First Oven
The next step was to actually build a Pompeii Oven. Jim
Hatch and I met on-line on a brick oven user group, and
began exploring how to best put the Pompeii Oven idea to
work in the real world. Jim's creative solutions to oven
design and construction issues were great, and we
concluded that the oven would work for an English-
speaking audience. Jim took the plunge, and started the
first Pompeii Oven.
Jim completed his oven in July 2004, less than three
months after we started talking about the idea. Jim's oven
is beautiful, and cooks wonderfully -- and the Pompeii
Oven was born.
Pompeii Oven Instructions
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