Your Brick Oven: Building It and Baking In It

by Russell Jeavons

Since 1992 Russell Jeavons has owned and cooked at a unique restaurant in an old cottage in one of South Australia's prized wine districts. It is famous in part because it's only open on Friday nights, but moreso for its fresh, simple food cooked entirely in Russell's wood-fired brick ovens. His pizzas are renowned throughout Australia, with fine regional ingredients artfully combined atop classic, thin, wood-oven cooked crusts. Russell's Pizza is the kind of place where friends and family gather to eat within sight of the golden, glowing kitchen; where the garden is equipped with warming braziers and outdoor fire pits for chatting, relaxing, and munching. It is an atmosphere that many of us covet for our own homes—an outdoor space where we can come together on cool nights for warmth, fun, and good food. The first part of Your Brick Oven is a step-by-step guide that takes readers through the stages of building an oven, from choosing the site to firing up for the first bake. Part two explains how to cook in the oven with invaluable tips for brick oven cooks, with recipes for sour dough bread, thin-crust pizzas, traditional roasts, fruit tarts, and sinful cakes and pastries.

Genres: Cookbooks, Reference, Food

84 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2005

Reviews

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this, not closely, but I read it. This would probably be a pretty valuable resource if The Bread Builders wasn't available, but as it stands, the level of detail is rather scant. There are some interesting looking recipes, and the book is nicely styled and has good pictures. I'd recommend having this if you are creating a collection of brick oven books, but it won't get you far on your construction unless you are already a mason. I do kind of like the little insight into the Aussie side of things, and I was very interested in the restaurant that Jeavons runs. I would have rather read about the restaurant than the oven!

[Mike Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short book discussing home made pizza ovens. Something I once saw on a vacation and have had a lingering interest in ever since. While not complicated it does take skills and time to make......perhaps someday but not today.