"PANIS NOSTER" bread oven/smoker with BBR firebox

We have finally finished our bread stove/smoker/cooker.
It started as a dry stacked hand made red bricks with massive gaps, no insulation and extremely quick heat loss. We had to bake on the bed of coals to eliminate soggy bottoms. However it served us for a year.
In 2024 I have poured the foundation, built the pedestal, poured perlite concrete and built 4 courses of the firebox. Then I had to focus on other projects.
In spring 2025 I have built the vaulted ceiling of the firebox and finished the smoking chamber.
In summer I have poured clay perlite on the top and welded the frame. Then in late summer the external walls were built. Then we installed the doors and my son has plastered and whitewashed the walls.

The design is an equivalent of a 20 cm BBR, but with a rectangular afterburner : 40x10 cm. It develops double vortes easily, even with the  port depth of half a brick (114 mm).
The floor is made of two layers of brick. The top layer is dry stacked in the firebox and the afterburner, so they can be replaced if needed.
The bottom is insulated with 16 cm of perlite concrete and one layer of insulating firebricks.
The sides have loose perlite - 10 cm thick and the top of the firebox clay perlite also 10 cm thick.
The ceiling of the skin is made of adobe pavers set on angle bars.
The chimney is flush with the ceiling, so I can easily protect it when it rains (no protruding object).

We have started it yesterday and since it was dry bone by the summer heat, we went full blast. It roars and burns extremely cleanly - at least for the eye.
We have burned two batches of eucalyptus. I have closed the chimney and then we baked two breads and two casseroles. In the top chamber we cooked 8 liters of potaje in cast iron pot. Yesterday the top chamber was too cold for any bakinbg operation, but in the morning the top was hotter than he bottom after the heat travelled overnight. The purpose of the top is to smoke and to cook stews/soups. I suspect that with continuous firing - at least once per two days, the top will develop pastry baking temperatures.

I have used:
120 l of 20 MPa concrete for the foundation (with 12 mm rebars)
30 adobe pavers and 25 CEB blocks for pedestal
around 220 firebricks for walls and floors
55 wedge #2 brick for vaults
1.5"x1.8" angle bar and 1.5"x1.8" flat bar for the frame
420 red bricks
10 Pacific Clay firebricks for external arches( I cut them into wedges)
12 Pacific Clay splits for the chimney
1.5"x3/16 angle bar for the ceiling
12 adobe pavers for the ceiling
Spanish thin bricks fro the cornice
0.6 mm stainless sheet and M6 stainless screws/nuts for the door brackets
2 Hubos two winged doors (needed to blacken them with linseed oil)
Almost all masonry materials were purchased used or were leftover from other projects.
For the firebrick joints I was using mesh 20 sand and local clay. For the outside bricks - the same local clay but with coarser sand. And for plastering the mortar with straw.
Limewash was prepared from high calcium putty.

There a was of cutting involved, but since I have 3 masonry saws of various sizes and multitude of grinders and diamond tools - it's always a pleasure.

Wow,  built with the strength of a Sherman tank.  Great teamwork effort, I especially like your son's limewash finish and the stylized nickname

Looks great! Have you ever measured the maximum temperature that you can achieve?

Christobal;
Excellent! A superb job!
Good things take time to complete.
You and your family will be able to enjoy this awesome bread oven / smoker for many years to come.

Super build, and love the use of arch tops.  Just outstanding!

Tyler Grace wrote:Looks great! Have you ever measured the maximum temperature that you can achieve?

Thank you! I have not measured it yet. We just fired it once.  The rainy season just started for good at night, so the oven sits covered. After 24 hours the upper chamber was still hot, it holds the heat so well with all the insulation. I will use my ceramic kiln thermometer to measure all I can measure. The firebox after the second batch got completely soot free, so I would guess it reached 300 C at least. I had a feeling that the floor did not get enough heat, but with continuous use it should get soaked thoroughly. The exhaust was rather hot, but to lower it I would have to redesign the top chamber and make it more complex and less functional (by adding vertical barrier before the chimney exit, so the hot gases would have larger surface to transfer energy to, before exiting). I'm really glad that I can cook soups/stews overnight - hard chickpeas and on the bone meat got perfectly tender.

thomas rubino wrote:Christobal;
Excellent! A superb job!
Good things take time to complete.
You and your family will be able to enjoy this awesome bread oven / smoker for many years to come.

Thank you Thomas. Next project on the horizon is the masonry heater for my house. I have all ingredients and technology. Just need to plaster the back wall.

Scott Weinberg wrote:Super build, and love the use of arch tops.  Just outstanding!

Thank you Scott. Helping my mason for a few years to build the house, barn,  gate with arches, vaults made me confident that I can do it too, so i did. Since the stove building is more precise than large masonry structures, I feel I can handle myself any project - as long as I have time and energy.

Cristobal -

Thanks for sharing your build.  The in-process photos are a great help to understand what you did.

I have a skid of salvaged red brick from my sister's house reno project, waiting for me to turn them into a bread oven.  I like the two chamber arrangement, somewhat like a Scotch oven, so that the upper chamber could be re-heated by a fire in the lower chamber, if necessary, and could allow for the upper chamber to be a smoker, as well.

Lots to think about...

Thanks again,

Kevin