TANDOOR OVEN

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COPIED FROM OLD FORUM FROM 13 SEPT 2011
Whilst struggling with how to knock the cost off a home made cast WFO, I distracted myself with how to build a tandoor oven. Most of the guff on the net is about using a cut down flower pot inside a metal dustbin or oil drum. Nothing wrong with those, I ate some lovely tanoor bread cooked in an clay lined oil drum on the main highway through Syria.
Anyway to get to the point I came across a few You Tube videos from Hatay province in SEastTurkey, next to Syria. You can see the women making the tanoor ovens from mud & chopped straw.
Also there are links to other videos that show a clay tanoor pot from Russia that looks good and footage of cooking whole sheep in Clay lined pits. This is called Mandi in Syria.
What a brilliant resource is the internet.I hope this link works

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqAXKRoz8bo&feature=related

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Happy Baker
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:24 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Fascinating - I guess with it being so close to the road it is 'street food'! Not understanding Turkish, I assume that they are cooking that many for sale? And the ovens are for their own use? What a skill Smile And what are the toppings?
Thanks for posting.
Edit: Two things come to mind having watched all three now ...
The ovens must be for sale, surely, they're built on the side of the road where the clay is? There are so many of them.
And, in this country they wouldn't last long on the side of the road without being smashed up Mad

What skill those women have, I guess practice really does make perfect!
But what was the reason for the cotton wool? Structural or cosmetic? Rolling Eyes

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I've been baking all (well nearly!) our bread for longer than I can remember - I enjoy it and now I want another challenge - to bake in an outdoor wood fired oven!
But actually, I'm enjoying the pizzas as much, if not more ...

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ivergirl
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:24 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
fascinating !!!! I love the herb flatbreads as well ( although as I also plaster them in garlic butter they must be very fattening Crying or Very sad )
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Big Al



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:02 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
It just goes to show that us in the "civillised" west have so much to learn.......

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 12:35 am Post subject: WHAT LITTLE I KNOW Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post
Happy Baker wrote:
Fascinating - I guess with it being so close to the road it is 'street food'! Not understanding Turkish, I assume that they are cooking that many for sale? And the ovens are for their own use? What a skill Smile And what are the toppings?
Thanks for posting.
Edit: Two things come to mind having watched all three now ...
The ovens must be for sale, surely, they're built on the side of the road where the clay is? There are so many of them.
And, in this country they wouldn't last long on the side of the road without being smashed up Mad

What skill those women have, I guess practice really does make perfect!
But what was the reason for the cotton wool? Structural or cosmetic? Rolling Eyes


I am sure the ovens were for sale and I agree that they wouldn't last 5 minutes in the UK. I thought that the cotton was to give surface strength and to give a smooth appearance. On the Forno Bravo site I saw mention of giving an oven a stucco finish with a Qwikcrete product that had acrylic fibres for a smooth strong finish to line basements against water. I would prefer cotton to acrylic and it looked like it stuck like XXXX.
As for the toppings, the green stuff looked like a form of spinach or chard called Sillet in Syria. It is one of many seasonal spring greens, it is coarsely chopped, wilted in olive oil with sweet onion and then flavoured with Sumac or lemon juice. The pastie/calzone is suspended inside the oven on a wire hanger shaped like a 9" wide flat strainer. Cooks for about 3 to 4 minutes. I liked the dimples they put on the pastie.
The red stuff is called Mohamra in Syria. It is made from minced red peppers, choose either hot or sweet types, onion, chopped nuts, tomato paste and seasoning. Very addictive. Both toppings are also found in Fatayer shops where they bake flat breads covered with a variety of toppings, meat, cheese, greens & zataar. I think that every district has a fatayer shop.
I was lucky to spend a few weeks this spring with Abu Sleiman in the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus learning about 5% of the trade. I really miss him and his bright spirit. God keep him safe

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jerrym
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:15 am Post subject: Reply with quote
much appreciated the video link.

looked like water was used to help placing the bread in the oven.

materials must be something like cob used in house building of old.

adding the seasoned oil before pushing out the bread was something i'd not seen.
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doug clay



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 1:40 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Happy Baker wrote:
And, in this country they wouldn't last long on the side of the road without being smashed up Mad


Smile In this country there would be nothing to smash, they have melted in the rain...

Great videos, couldn't follow the link from work... glad I remembered from home...

It would be interesting to get some subtitles for these...

I wondered what the hole at the bottom was for Smile
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Turkey
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:38 am Post subject: Reply with quote
doug clay wrote:


I wondered what the hole at the bottom was for Smile


let air in I suppose, for coals once hot I guess they do not need as much ?

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[Fat Bob]

I reckon a lot of editing is needed but I get the gist.

I in my retarded thinking, consider tandoors a throwback before ovens became easily used in a more conventional dimension.

I have made naan in a tandoor and been burned and had bread drop and burn - it just is not necessary. Build an oven that cooks without these problems.