Artisanal breads, outdoor baking, and aesthetics

Hello all,

Just as I went to bake my daily sourdough, I found the electric oven to not be heating up. Standard Maytag oven, over a decade old, entire household uses it. I have some firebricks and red bricks lying around so I thought, well, now is the time to make my first wood stove. I know it's not efficient, but I'd like to base it off the simplicity, functionality and aesthetics of the stove shown in the photo below. I'd like to fit the bottom of a clay pot of beans in the slot as much as a clay comal or carbon steel pan across it. How does the photo below look to you? Concrete? Some type of stone topped by firebricks?

After I tackle the stove, I'd like to try a wood oven with extreme temperature stability for baking artisanal breads, that also looks good. Is this possible? I have considered, maybe for this item, it's best to save up for a modern machine, such as the Fontana Gusto, which has a few desirable features but is outrageously expensive. For $6,500, what would you do to bake artisanal sourdough utilizing wood?

P.S. if there are any single ladies in the Mexican or Spanish countryside PM me.

Those ovens look good, here is a link to the web site that details  the actual units
https://www.fontanaforniusa.com/products/the-gusto-wood-oven

Jeff Steez wrote: I'd like to try a wood oven with extreme temperature stability for baking artisanal breads, that also looks good. Is this possible? I have considered, maybe for this item, it's best to save up for a modern machine, such as the Fontana Gusto, which has a few desirable features but is outrageously expensive. For $6,500, what would you do to bake artisanal sourdough utilizing wood?

If I were replacing my stove, I'd look at Matt Walkers designs:


This is the thread discussing them.
https://permies.com/t/71700/Tiny-House-Cook-Stove-Heater

(ps. a lot less than $6500!)

Nancy, I have always wanted that Matt Walker Cook Stove.

Jeff, how did your bread turn out?

In a pinch bread can be baked on a campfire in a dutch oven:



That is a pretty picture of a lady making tortillas.  Tortillas are another option when the electric oven goes out.

I too love the Walker stove! Having a number of cast iron wood stoves of various sizing, I am thinking of using 2 of them to create an oven and a cook top. This is just brain storming at this point. Something like the narrow, stove for the fire box and off to one side with a bit of air circulation space, (around both stoves) then the large stove used as an oven. Adjust spacing and heights with bricks and then brick and mortar a surround. Incorporate a decent sized piece of Pyroseram for the cook top over the fire box. This would potentially simplify the oven issues of box and door. The stove pipe hole off the oven would need be dealt with too. Any thoughts or suggestions? Another idea was to incorporate the smaller skinny wood stove into a rocket stove by using the stove pipe hole as the J tube feeder for wood, take off the door and add the upright and barrel attached to where the door was removed??