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Uncle Mud's Barbacoa Oven and Rocket Comal at the Battleground Restaurant in Kent, Ohio

 
Chris McClellan
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Location: Burton, Ohio
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posted 4 years ago
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This is a project I've been very excited about. My client has asked me to add a modern wood-fired earthen (cob) oven of overnight cooking and a tortilla cooker (comal) to the patio at their Mexican restaurant in Kent, Ohio. Watch for multiple episodes and #Shorts as the project progresses.



You can follow my latest adventures at
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https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
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So this is a little further along in the project than the opening teaser. We have materials staged and the gabion bases for our barbacoa oven and tortilla maker (comal) are being installed. Stay tuned! More fun is coming if it will only stop raining!

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
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Location: Burton, Ohio
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The base for this oven and comal (tortilla maker) are being built from gabions (stones in a steel cage) because they are cheap, quick and sturdy, plus they match the existing gabion walls on the patio.

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
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Location: Burton, Ohio
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One of the challenges working with mud in Ohio is that it NEVER STOPS RAINING for long enough for anything to dry out. So we fight rain with fire.

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
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Location: Burton, Ohio
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More progress today between the raindrops. The Rocket Comal gabion is almost ready for its cob cap that will accept two 24" ceramic griddles (comal) for making tortillas or bog pots for cooking soup. Thank you for watching.

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Gerry Parent
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Great job Chris!  Look forward to the next instalment.

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Chris McClellan
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Our earthen oven form is set with a fire going in it and the first layer of cob is in place starting to dry. Now its starting to look like an oven!

You can follow my latest adventures at
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https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
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A traditional barbacoa oven is a pit you burn a fire in for a day before burying your meat and nopales cactus in and letting it all cook over night. BUT the local health department said "No Cooking Things in Pits!" so instead we have built this giant above ground earthen oven (horno) with 1500 pounds (so far) of cob to hold the heat so our barbacoa will cook overnight. There's a lot more cob coming, but right now we just want to get a bunch of cob on the form and drying and hardening so we can take out the form and keep sculpting. More to come tomorrow. Thank you for supporting us at https:\\patreon.com\unclemud

You can follow my latest adventures at
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https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
William Bronson
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I was expecting a form that was either leave in or or burn out, a removable form will be interesting.

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Luke Mitchell
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William Bronson wrote:I was expecting a form that was either leave in or or burn out, a removable form will be interesting.



+1, I can't imagine it will be easy to remove it. I think I'd have been tempted to use a piece of ply or similar. I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Small-holding, coppice and grassland management on a 16-acre site.

 
Chris McClellan
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Here's a quick video of the first firing or our Rocket Stove version of the traditional Comal or Tortilla Cooker. The ceramic griddle is still on order so we are using steel drum lids to test it WE WILL NOT BE COOKING TORTILLAS ON A RUSTY BARREL LID! More videos coming including a longer test run of this rocket cooker.

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
gardener
Posts: 672
Location: Burton, Ohio
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posted 4 years ago
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Here's the part I know I've been waiting for: We started the oven arch with a form made from half of a 50 gallon steel drum, then covered it with wet cob and lit a fire under it. That hardened the sandy clay so that it wouldn't collapse when we put more cob on it. Stay tuned to see how it looks inside after we clean out all the ash.

You can follow my latest adventures at
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https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
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Location: Burton, Ohio
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We've got the cob oven all cleaned out now so you can see the arch shape and the inside of the stainless steel exhaust and the space up top where all the hottest gasses will mix with air and catch on fire. Stay tuned for the sculpting of the front door arch and more cob up on top.

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
Chris McClellan
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Location: Burton, Ohio
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We finished closing in the wood fired earthen oven at the Battleground Restaurant in Kent, Ohio today with lots more cob mass and a galvanized steel roof and hand made doors for firing and baking. The burners in our rocket stove tortilla cookers (Comal) are also ready for making tortillas or boiling up some soup stock--just in time for a fancy cooking class. After it dries for a few weeks we will be back to finish up some detail work and make it pretty.

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
William Bronson
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It occurs to me that the oven isnt a rocket at all.
It does seem to be something of a bell.

Obviously you could have exhausted a rocket stove into the oven, but decided not to.
Can you tell us about why?

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Chris McClellan
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William,
The oven is not a rocket. It is a rather large, fairly traditional cob oven. I could have built it as a rocket but constant attention a rocket requires for the time necessary to heat the mass for overnight cooking of the barbacoa is not compatible with this restaurant's needs. The tortilla cooker is a rocket because someone is there cooking tortillas the whole time it needs to be hot.
--Mud
https://www.unclemud.com

You can follow my latest adventures at
https://www.unclemud.com
https://www.youtube.com/unclemud
https://permies.com/u/164246/Chris-McClellan
Buy my stuff at https://unclemud.com/store/

 
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