How to build a brick tandoor? How to fold a brick tandoor with your own hands using the drawings Making a tandoor

08.11.2019

Tandoor (tanur - Farsi; tone - Georgian; tono - Turkic; tandoori - Hindi; tandoor - English) is today a popular trend of country-stove fashion. However, it's not just about fashion. In the tandoor, you can cook everything the same as on or in, and many other dishes of oriental cuisine. And at the same time, it is generally easier to make a good tandoor with your own hands than any other country stove.

Another important advantage of the tandoor is that it can be made of clay, i.e. "True furnace", without the slightest admixture of metal in the design, and at the same time mobile. At the end of the season, it can be hidden indoors or taken with you when moving. Installation will require a minimum of work, and the foundation as such is not needed for the tandoor at all.

Finally, the tandoor is economical. He was born in places that never abounded with fuel, and the design was worked out not for centuries - for millennia. Bookmarks of fuel, in the brazier barely enough for a heel of kebabs, in the tandoor there is enough for a dozen of them, plus cakes, and plus the tea will boil while the cakes are baked.

Many who want to get a tandoor own production, scares away the complexity of pottery. But they can be simplified, see below. And the tandoor, in general, is unpretentious in the choice of material - you can even lay out an Uzbek brick tandoor. Ancient nomads in the expanses of Turan, Takla-Makan and Tsaidam at the next parking lot generally made tandoors from anything, and the food turned out to be licking your fingers. A galaxy of Russian travelers in Central Asia in the 19th - early 20th centuries. confirms unanimously.

Make or buy?

As for the tandoor for the dacha or just for the household, here you first need to decide whether to make it yourself or buy it ready. There is no shortage of proposals, and the quality of products, as a rule, does not require separate praise, see fig. on right.

The fact is that it is difficult to make a real clay tandoor in the middle latitudes, and without special technological equipment and completely impossible. This issue will be discussed further special section, but for now, we only note that already during the initial firing, tandoors crack even from selected fireclay clay, which requires at least 1,500 rubles for each attempt, not counting work.

Meanwhile, the price of purchased mobile tandoors, such as shown in fig. above, ranges from 11,500 to 70,000 rubles. depending on the size. The smallest one is about the size of a large pot. It can be put on the table, and one person carries it without effort. And the same person, if necessary, can climb into a large one, for 60-70 thousand rubles. Here it is clear that it is better to buy: after all, the price includes a set of utensils, a lid with a hatch for a kettle and slots for skewers. Doing all this on your own will cost more.

But if we are talking about a stationary tandoor oven, then the cheapest work of a custom-made tandoor master will cost no less than 100,000 rubles, and he will not take this money in vain. At the same time, the heart of such a furnace, the actual tandoor (see the figure on the left above) of branded manufacture, properly fired and with a guarantee, will cost from 5,000 to 30,000 rubles. depending on the size and method of delivery (to the place, pickup). And the oven itself, framing it (see the figure on the right), is quite within the power of any artisan to lay down, even if before that he had only looked at the bricks. Materials are also the most common, see below.

Video: the basics of building a tandoor (1 channel)

About electric tandoors

Civilization with electrification did not bypass tandoors. In the end, it is simply impossible to heat wood in a city apartment or restaurant. The obvious solution is to place an air heating element above the hearth, left pos. in fig. below. Ready product factory-made looks elegant (middle pos.), And the price is not much higher than for wood-burning ones - from 14,500 to 80,000 rubles, again, depending on the size.

But an electric tandoor with an open heater is more of a prestigious gift than a culinary technique. Even an inexperienced grocery store will distinguish the taste of dishes from it from real ones. For the worse. The reason is that the heating element dries the air. Of course, it does not absorb moisture vapor, but as the temperature rises, the relative humidity of the air drops, the cakes dry out, and the taste of burning is clearly felt in meat, fish and poultry. If you heat with wood, then water, along with carbon dioxide, is one of the main products of combustion. It penetrates into the microporous body of the tandoor during heating, and then is gradually released, maintaining the desired microclimate inside.

Trying to humidify the air by placing a bowl or tray of water on the grate is useless. It boils away, the steam flies out, at the same time spoiling the food. Trying to saturate the tandoor with moisture during heating is also useless: in order for its vapor to penetrate the burnt clay, their temperature is needed at least 350 degrees, and not 100, as during boiling.

Therefore, a real electric tandoor is a device that looks like a cooker(on the right in the figure), but inside it is very complex and controlled by an on-board computer. The same clay tandoor is entwined with an electric spiral, coated with an additional heat-resistant dielectric lining, lined with heat-reflecting screens, and moisture is introduced into the baking chamber in precise doses using inserts made of nanomaterials, similar to those used in mobile air conditioners, only heat-resistant. The price is appropriate. Replace the above rubles with US dollars, there will be no big mistake.

What and how is cooked in the tandoor?

There are countless recipes for oriental dishes for the tandoor. In addition, bread is baked in it, barbecue is cooked. After removing the lid and placing a grate in the neck, the tandoor can be used as a barbecue. And putting there a teapot with a neck for a teapot, or a cast iron, we get tea no worse than the best samovar or daily cabbage soup without.

To describe at least the basics of tandoor cooking, you need not even a separate article, but a voluminous monograph. Therefore, we confine ourselves to the most general instructions.

First - if you cook any meat, especially lamb, you need to put a grate over the coals, and on it - a bowl into which the juice will drain. Without it, shurpa or tandoor-shurva will not work properly.

Secondly, if a barbecue or kebab is cooked in an Uzbek tandoor, the skewers are either simply inserted into its mouth (on the left in the figure), or first inserted into the slots of the lid, then the meat is strung, and the tandoor is closed with a lid. The second method is more economical (literally a handful of coals is enough) and guarantees uniform baking of pieces of any size.

If the kebab is cooked in the Armenian tandoor - tonir - then the skewers are hung vertically on the hanger (right pos.). Not every cook can cook kebab in the tonir, but in any case, you do not need to turn the skewers.

Thirdly, cakes in the Uzbek tandoor can be baked both inside and outside, see fig. on right. Which one - depending on the recipe. In general, lunch bread is baked inside, and muffins outside.

Fourth, by hanging a grate on hooks of adjustable length at the mouth of the tandoor, you can cook everything the same as in a Russian oven. At the cut of the mouth, the temperature will be approximately the same as in the filling, and right above the coals - like rear wall crucible immediately after the fire. An additional plus is that it is not necessary to cook in cast iron, it turns out just as well in ordinary pans.

Fifth, dishes in the tandoor cook much faster than similar ones in other ovens:

Beef - no more than half an hour.
Pork, lamb - 15-20 min.
Fish, poultry - 7-10 min.
Vegetables - 3-5 min.

Sixth - a little culinary secret. After cooking, when the tandoor has not yet completely cooled down (you can put your hand inside, but it burns), we put inside the pan filled with pieces of old, impossibly veiny beef. Close the lid tightly, wait until the morning. Now you can cook anything from this meat, and it will melt in your mouth.

About firewood and firebox

Tandoor is critical to fuel. At home, Central and Central Asia, it is drowned mainly with saxaul. Occasionally - elm or plane tree (sycamore). Of these, in the southern regions we have only plane tree, but here it is valuable decorative tree and they don't let him get firewood.

Saxaul and ready-made saxaul firewood

In our area, tandoors are heated with wood of tree species, the same as barbecues. Charcoal and pellets do not fit well - they give too much heat, an expensive tandoor can crack, but cannot be repaired. Coal is absolutely unsuitable: the tandoor will be saturated with coke oven gases and forever become stinking and poisonous.

The fuel filling in the tandoor is small, about 1/5-1/6 of its height. It is specifically determined by the experience of use, so that there is enough coal for cooking. In general, a barbecue requires half or three times less fuel. Cooking begins when the fuel burns to coals. A prerequisite is that soot and soot on the walls must also burn out. With good-quality fuel, it is always respected.

In tandoors with a built-in firebox, the blower is not closed after heating, so that the coals smolder without burning. And in order not to create excessive traction, the mouth of the tandoor is not completely covered with a lid, if it is solid. In mobile Uzbek tandoors (see below), the lid is made double; at the end of the furnace, the smaller one is removed. Her nest in a properly made tandoor is made serrated, then you can put a kettle on it without disturbing the draft.

History and evolution

So how do you build such a wonderful culinary unit yourself? In order to approach construction with skill, let us dwell a little on its origin.

Initially, the tandoor is the same hearth, a fire in a fence or recess so that the wind does not blow the flame away. However, the heart of Asia, where the map is full of mountains, oddly enough, is poor not only in fuel, but also in stones. The reason is the strongest wind erosion in a sharply continental climate. N. M. Przhevalsky described how in the Gobi, right before our eyes, granite boulders were abraded to dust. The author of the article happened to be in those places, to see something himself in the summer, not in the winter, and he has not the slightest doubt about the veracity of the great researcher.

But the same terrible winds, combined with daily (!) temperature drops from +45 to -30 degrees, supply the Asian plains in abundance with loess - the smallest stone dust. She buries very quickly what the wind carrying her did not have time to abrade. Layers of loess on the plains of Asia reach a thickness of hundreds of meters. To see at least some pebble, you need to climb quite high in the mountains.

Actually, dust is not yet loess. Loess is obtained when dust is churned into a dense conglomerate by the wind that carries stones the size of a fist, periodically baked by the Sun during the day and frozen in dry air at night. Loess has incredible properties. It is exceptionally fertile, gives stable yields of wheat at 40 centners per hectare in monoculture and without any agricultural technology.

But it is more important for us to know something else: loess is heat-resistant, like fireclay clay. When dry, it is as strong as cement, but it is all riddled with microscopic pores, i.e. breathable and fairly easy to process. And if you soak it a little, then you can sculpt it like plasticine. True, if heavy rain pours, then the loess soaks into the mud, in which the tank gets stuck up the tower. But heavy rains where there is loess occur once every 10 years, and even then not every decade.

It is clear that in such conditions it is useless to simply enclose the fire with stones: they will simply be blown away along with the fire and food. But the same wind also gives a solution to the problem - loess. Ancient Asians sculpted their hearths from it 6000 years ago, and in some places they still sculpt, see fig.

The tree of the evolution of European ovens, from barbecue to Russian, is entirely made of stone. The Asians, settling outside the loess plains, everywhere looked for a replacement for such a wonderful material. They had three more allies - the hot Sun of low latitudes, the eternally cloudless sky and very dry air. As a result, various types of tandoors appeared, and culinary subtleties were added to them in the course of development.

earthy

The simplest tandoor is a hole in loess soil with a diameter of about 0.5 m and a depth of about 35 cm, to the bottom of which an inclined course is dug from the side - an air duct. Loess tandoors are still in use, connoisseurs say that only they produce real tandoor delicacies.

Where there is no loess, the pit is lined with dry bricks (see Fig.), and pipes made of fireproof materials are used to supply air. However, the same experts claim that such a tandoor is no longer a tandoor.

In the loess, you can dig a hole in the form of a jug without the danger of its collapse. This made it possible to significantly save fuel: due to the reflection of the IR, the heat was concentrated in the center of the chamber. In areas without loess (in Fergana, for example), you cannot build an earthen tandoor, but there are also many deposits of high-quality clay, and pottery has been developed since time immemorial. It was there that the Uzbek tandoor was born.

Uzbek

The scheme of the Uzbek tandoor is shown in fig. The fire under it is an ordinary one, made of masonry with slots for air access. But main secret Uzbek tandoor - in a clay top mounted on a fire. It is, as can be seen from the figure, two-layered.

The first, inner layer was made from high-quality clay with a small (1:1 or 1.5:1) admixture of sand and the addition of chopped wool; wall thickness - half a span. The solution was made very thick, the consistency of plasticine. To achieve its complete homogeneity, knead the solution with your feet.

Next came into force natural conditions. In the center of the Asian continent, the air is constantly saturated with the finest dust; The sun in a completely clear sky is seen as if in a haze. Meteorologists call this phenomenon pasnost. You can fully understand the degree of dustiness of the local air when you see a phenomenon common in those places - dry rain. Drops of water collect, flying, dust particles. The water evaporates due to the extreme heat and dryness, and dry spools fall to the ground.

Dust completely absorbs ultraviolet, even at an absolute height of 1800 m there is almost no ultraviolet in daylight. Caucasian Asians come to the sea in the summer with the same "cheese" tan as northerners from Olenegorsk, Naryan-Mar or Norilsk. But dust re-radiates all absorbed radiation (UV and upper visible spectrum to blue-green) in the IR range - the air is oversaturated with thermal rays. Asians seem to live in an annealing furnace.

Having molded the workpiece, they exposed it to the Sun. Unbearably hot light, combined with very dry air, literally expelled water from the workpiece in an hour or two in the morning, but drying (in fact, low-temperature firing; at noon, the workpiece was heated to the temperature of sand in the desert, 70-80 degrees) lasted two weeks. The preform turned out to be microporous. In the same way, the famous Bukhara sweating jugs were prepared for firing, keeping the water poured into them cool in any heat.

It is precisely because of the impossibility of organizing such a natural technological process in cooler and / or humid places that home-made Uzbek tandoors do not work out. During drying, a crust forms on the workpiece that does not release water from the solution. Gradually, it nevertheless evaporates, but the workpiece goes into firing with residual stresses, which is why it cracks during it. In middle latitudes, the maximum wall thickness of pottery is about 13 mm; for the tandoor, this is clearly not enough, and it is impossible to build up and dry in layers because of the same residual stresses.

But you can’t sweat in a tandoor, and the heat capacity of a vessel with a wall thickness of 40-50 mm is not enough for proper fuel economy. He must return the water received during the heating. Therefore, the first layer after drying was lined with a solution of ordinary white or gray clay without fibrous additives. After 2-5 days of drying, the product was fired. The top layer often cracked, see fig. higher, but this did not worsen the quality of the tandoor: the outer layer is just additional thermal insulation.

Over time, small portable single-layer tandoors appeared, with their own firebox and grate. For baking bakery products they were no longer good, but the meat in them cooked perfectly. Such were more in use among the nobility and were richly decorated. Most of the modern tandoors available for sale (see the following figure) are from the Bai branch.

“Bay” tandoors

Uzbek tandoor oven

There is also a class of tandoor consumers in Central Asia, which require a very large heat capacity at a reasonable price. These are tavern-keepers (tavern-keepers) and teahouse-keepers. The stationary tandoor was supposed to provide continuous preparation of food for visitors within 3-4 hours from one heating. Asians are patient people when they have to pull up the sash, but if a few tangas on pilav or beshbarmak are wound up in the belt, they become very active. Yes, wood is expensive.

For catering tandoors of the old times, craftsmen began to make ready-made burnt inserts, which are still exhibited quite a lot in Central Asian bazaars, see fig. Most of them are in the form of a cap, they are cheaper, and the stove is also cheaper: ordinary brick, thermal insulation - bulk from unbaked clay. The scheme of the device of such a furnace will be given below.

In areas that are especially poor in fuel, starting from the 18th century. kilns with an insert in the form of a jug became widespread. The chamber was made relatively small (see the figure on the left), lined with a thick layer of fireclay bricks. The blower air duct was made long to heat the air from the furnace body. An elbow-length bundle of saxaul, which can be clasped with the fingers of two hands, was enough to bake a dozen cakes and boil a kumgan of water for five; Kumgan was installed in the neck of the tandoor instead of the lid. Such a tandoor oven is called tandoor-nan or tandoor-non.

Video: Uzbek traditions of building tandoors

Tonir

The second trunk of the tandoor evolution tree came from Transcaucasia. It's hot here too; in Shamakhi, perhaps, it is hotter than in Fergana. And the air is also dry, but clean and transparent. This alone was enough to prevent pottery tandoors from being made here.

But the Transcaucasian Highlands is perhaps the first region on Earth where people discovered deposits of fireclay clay and learned how to work with it. Armenians are considered jacks of all trades and the best artisans among the Caucasian peoples.

The Armenian tandoor, or tonir, is laid out of fireclay bricks on clay; in terms of properties, its body is equivalent to the Uzbek clay body with walls half as thick as bricks. Outside, the tonir is lined, like the Uzbek one, with clay, see fig. The purpose of the lining is the same - additional thermal insulation. It could also be made of brick, but it will turn out to be difficult and expensive.

On Uzbek tandoors, decorations are mostly glazed stucco: such a large “pot” without fittings is not very durable and may not withstand additional loads. Tonir, like a brick structure, is much stronger. So exterior finish toners are much more diverse and richer: from simple coating with decorative colored clay with burnishing and facing with wild stone to the most complex tiled compositions, see fig.

Armenian tandoors - tonirs

It is much more difficult to build a brick vessel of a complex curvilinear configuration than to fashion it from hand-thick clay sausages, crushing them and pinching them. Therefore, tonirs are most often made in the form of a cylinder topped with a truncated cone, or even in the form of a straight pipe. At the same time, the IR can more freely flee outward to no avail. The high heat capacity of chamotte, combined with its negligible thermal conductivity, to some extent compensates for this drawback, but still, a tonir of the same capacity per unit of finished product consumes the same fuel by 15-20% more than the Uzbek tandoor, not to mention the nan oven .

Another (however, like the first, not significant) disadvantage of tonir is due to its “brick” strength: it also gives a “brick” weight. Mobile toners, if they are made, are on a stand with wheels. And horizontal tonirs, embedded in the wall, are found as an exception. Of the "Uzbeks", almost a third goes to the bricking up.

There is also a difference in soils: in Central Asia they are more alluvial, alluvial, i.e. weak, and in Transcaucasia - volcanic, durable, waterproof. Therefore, in Armenia (more for the sake of saving space and space) earthen tonir was revived. It is made in the form of a well (see fig.), and in terms of product quality it is not inferior to the earthen tandoor in loess. But trying to build the same in the black earth or loam of the middle zone is a waste of time, soil moisture will get inside through any lining and ruin the whole gastronomy.

About the cauldron

Tandoor is done quite simply: at the mouth, or on it, depending on the size of the tandoor / boiler, they put a boiler with water. If baking or cooking is being done and the skewers do not stick out, the water heater can be combined with cooking: the hot air above the mouth is exhausted, and the body will not give off more IR than it can emit, so the product will not spoil. It is only necessary to place pieces of something durable and non-flammable under the bottom of the boiler so that a gap is formed for the air to escape.

About form and mouth

The shape of the tandoor slightly affects the fuel consumption in it, but it does not noticeably affect the quality of the prepared dishes. Tandoor can be made spherical, oval, ogive (jug), in the form of an inverted cardioid, barrel, cylindrical-conical or in the form of a straight pipe. The usual diameter of the mouth of the Uzbek tandoors is 0.35-0.7 of the inner diameter of its lower back, and for tonirs it is 0.5-1.0 of its own.

Domed with a wide mouth, cylindrical-conical and cylindrical tandoors are better for baking: lumps of dough stick more conveniently and in larger quantities on the inner surface of a large area. Other tandoors are mainly meat and fish, but in general the specialization of tandoors is relative. When used by a skilled cook, it comes down simply to the dosage of fuel.

Making a tandoor

From the foregoing, it is clear that the manufacture of a tandoor on its own boils down to two options: a brick tonir or something like “Uzbek” from it. There is, however, a way to make a clay tandoor even in Murmansk, we will also dwell on it.

A brick tandoor can be erected by anyone whose hands have not grown into their pockets, are able to distinguish their wife’s chest from her own head by touch, lift a clerical folder with papers and bring a cup of coffee to his mouth, without spilling, in the morning after yesterday. The sequence of works is basically clear from the figure, we will give only some explanations.

Materials - fireclay bricks (300-1500 pieces, depending on size), ready-made dry oven masonry mixture, which is diluted with water to the desired consistency, and ordinary building sand. The foundation is not needed: we dig a pit two diameters of the base of the tandoor and a depth of a shovel bayonet. We fill it halfway with sand, and fill it to the ground level with a liquid, creamy, furnace solution. Exactly in the middle we stick an even pole or rod and set it vertically along the plumb line. We fix it from the wind with temporary stretch marks on pegs. We also cover from the rain with a temporary canopy made of slate or galvanized steel. Film or fabric cannot be stretched for reasons that will be clear from what is described below.

While the clay dries (this is 1-3 weeks), we prepare the main working equipment: a rotary template according to the shape of the inner surface. In order to avoid undercutting of bricks during laying, we link its shape with the dimensions of the brick and the permissible thickness of the seams - 3-13 mm.

When the fill dries, we lay out the first row of bricks on a dry one. We lay the masonry with pokes (bricks across the masonry line; if along - the bricks are called spoons, or spoons; the emphasis is on the penultimate syllable) upright. Having expanded, adjusted the width of the seams and leveled by turning the template a full turn, we take out the bricks one at a time, dip them into clean water for a second, apply the masonry (dough-like) mortar, and insert them into place. At the end of the row, turn the template again and level. We work slowly, the clay solution hardens for a long time.

In the first row we leave an opening of two bricks, this will be a blower. The same brick will go to the beam above it, see the middle pos. in fig. We lay out the arc of the row above it from the halves of the brick. We put it and the subsequent rows, like the first one: first on a dry one, and with a double check with a template. If the template is calculated correctly, then by changing the width of the seams, it will be possible to lay out all the rows of full-bodied (solid) bricks, changing only their number in a row.

The third and all other rows will be solid. But already from the second row, you need to try to withstand the dressing of the seams between the rows: set the first brick of each subsequent row in the middle on the seam between the bricks of the previous one, as highlighted on the right pos. Here, at the stage of calculating the template, you also need to follow the rule: the protrusion of the row inward is no more than 1/4 of the width of the brick. The second option, but less durable, is to lay bricks with a slope of bricks in a vertical plane; then no inner lining is required.

A complete dressing will not work, because. row diameter changes smoothly. Therefore, we begin the laying of each subsequent row not from the same place as the previous one, but shifting by 1/5-1/3 along the circumference; it is convenient to navigate along the blower. This technique is called bandaging through the rows. So we bring the masonry to the top.

Video: an example of building a simple brick tandoor

Video: tandoor based on the finished insert

Commissioning

If the tandoor is also intended for baking, then after the masonry dries (2-4 weeks under a canopy), we line it from the inside with the same masonry mortar, but already with plasticine viscosity. Before lining, the tandoor is properly sprayed from the inside with a spray bottle.

After another 1-2 weeks, we begin the preliminary firing. First - paper, cardboard or shavings. We set fire to a handful and through the mouth we also toss a handful, until the outer wall becomes slightly warm. Then cover with a lid and let it cool completely, it will take about a day. We gradually increase the dose of heating for 2 weeks until the water dripped onto the outer surface begins to boil, shooting back and splashing. You can’t pour a lot, half a liter can be ruined by a tandoor that has not been annealed to the end!

Now it's time for the final firing. We fill the tandoor by a quarter with regular fuel, let it burn out to coals. We add fuel in the same portions until the tandoor is at least half full of embers. It is better to take firewood that burns quickly, but smolders slowly (cherry, apple), so that the level of coals approaches the mouth. Let cool, still covered. In this case, care must be taken and fire safety rules: a hot stream of air from the tandoor will beat with reactive force. Cooled down - we unload the ash, the tandoor is ready for work.

Tandoor ovens

The best tandoor oven is from a ready-made purchased tandoor-hood in a brick shell with thermal insulation, it is also an additional heat storage device. The scheme of its installation is shown in fig. Foundation - two rows of tongue-and-groove blocks (PGB) on cement-sand mortar and a pillow of sand or gravel. Thermal insulation - the same crushed stone or vermiculite chips (more expensive, but better), mixed with clay oven mortar - "sour cream". Masonry - from ceramic bricks on a cement-sand mortar (walls) and clay oven (under and foot).

And here is another exotic option: a tandoor-barbecue oven. True, only the name comes from the tandoor: the authors of the design honestly warn that it is unsuitable for baking. However, this product has an undoubted advantage: a chimney, and it is suitable for installation not only outside, but also indoors. Therefore, it would make sense to lay out the firebox not with a cone, but as the brick tandoor described above.

The drawing and ordering of the "tandoor-combi" are given on the next. rice. Under it, you need a full-fledged furnace foundation, so this work is not for beginners. The 31st row is reinforced with a sixty steel corner. The smoke collector is made of steel from 2 mm. Chimney diameter - from 250 mm.

And yet - clay!

And now we will tell you how to make the clay tandoor yourself. They say that this method was invented by specialists from military-chemical and bacteriological enterprises of the USSR. This extremely dangerous production was concentrated in Central Asia - away from the center, closer to the then potential opponents with a dense population and poor medicine.

Already in the 70s, the production of this muck was completely discontinued, enterprises were redeveloped for agricultural chemistry, insecticides, and plant protection products. Specialists who served 8 years (the year there went for 2.5) received a severance pay, which allowed them to immediately buy a cooperative apartment in a regional city and, whoever wanted, resign. Of course, they immediately pulled away from the terrible climate, deadly poison and plague at hand. But they missed the dishes from the tandoor in new places.

The way out was found very simply: the usual, from under cucumbers or cabbage, a barrel. A very competent engineering solution: since the matter is in the unevenness of drying over the thickness of the material, it is necessary to make it uniform. Industrial drying chamber No? We will ensure uniformity from the opposite: not by heating, but by moisture. Will the process take longer? For myself, don't worry.

The technology is as follows: wash the barrel and fill it with water. We withstand 2 weeks until the wood swells completely. Then we pour out the water, we thoroughly coat the barrel from the inside with kvass vegetable oil. Linen is best, but refined sunflower or corn will also do.

Next, we tightly wrap the barrel with a rope, but so that it does not grab the hoops. We protect the coils from slipping with carnations. Now we cut the hoops, remove them. In the bottom we cut a hole along the diameter of the mouth of the tandoor.

By this moment, firstly, a temporary cushion should be ready, at least from bricks laid directly on the ground on a dry one. The furnace solution, which is described above, must also be ready, the consistency of plasticine. Nowadays, there is no need to trample clay with your feet to exhaustion: a 1.5-2 kW perforator with a mixing nozzle at low speed will bring the solution to the desired homogeneity in an hour and a half.

Instead of wool, 25% by volume of fluffed asbestos was added to the solution for strength. It is necessary to work with fibrous asbestos in the open air with full protection of the respiratory organs, eyes, face and body, but those men for demobilization, just in case, dragged gas masks with OVZK with them.

The barrel was placed on a pillow, and from the inside it was covered with clay with a layer of 60-70 mm. Then they turned it upside down and put it on 4-6 bricks so that there was a gap at the bottom. After 2 weeks, the strapping was removed and waited until the rivets began to fall off on their own. The last one fell off - it dried out enough, you can burn it. Work began, a little warmer in the spring: drying continued for months.

Roasting was carried out as described above initial. Upon its completion, they were lined with clay without filler, like the Uzbek tandoor, dried again and finally fired. This method does not give a 100% guarantee, but with some ingenuity and observation, out of 10 blanks, 7-8 are fired without problems.

Finally

So what, do tandoor or buy? The cap insert is definitely a must buy. It also makes sense to buy a small family tandoor for meat and fish. An Armenian self-built tonir can be a source of pride, but in terms of time and labor it will cost more than a stove with a ready-made ceramic tandoor-cap.

Staying in the country is a unity with nature. I want to cook food on the fire, sit by the fire, listening to the twilight rustles. For cooking on fire, a barbecue or barbecue is most often used, and we suggest you make a tandoor with your own hands. What it is? This is an oriental oven-brazier, which allows you to cook a lot of delicious dishes that are simply impossible to cook otherwise. Samsa, pita bread, oriental meat - all this can be done in the tandoor. Moreover, the meat turns out to be very tasty, because it is suspended in a horizontal position, as a result, the fat does not drip onto the coals, but flows down the pieces of meat, making it juicy and soft.

Barbecue in the tandoor is much tastier because of the vertically arranged skewers. On the grill, the meat needs to be poured with marinade or sprinkled with water, but here it turns out tender and juicy

It is very interesting, in the opinion of a European, tortillas and samsa are prepared in the tandoor - they are attached directly to the walls of the oven and baked in this way.

Oriental cakes and samsa are baked in the tandoor, stuck to the walls of the oven. This bread has a special taste. Having made a tandoor, you can bake samsa, pita bread and delicious cakes

The traditional shape of such a furnace is round. It can be located both above ground and underground. Today, many summer residents build a brick tandoor, it is not so difficult to make it, but oriental cuisine will bring a lot of pleasure to both family members and guests.

In the East, the tandoor can also be located in the house, it is installed in the center of the room to warm the air in the room during the cold season.

A small tandoor can be made on a platform with wheels, you can transport it to any place in the garden.

You can also buy a tandoor if funds allow. Here is a ready-made tandoor with a platform on wheels that can be installed anywhere in the garden or in the house

If the stove is stationary, it is better to place it on rocky or sandy soil, away from buildings and green spaces. The ground under the tandoor must be dry.

How to make a tandoor? Stone blocks, ceramic clay bricks, or white refractory bricks can be used for construction. The base is laid out first. The brick tandoor is quite heavy, so the base must be strong. The base of the furnace is like a foundation in which an opening is made where fuel is laid.

You can build a tandoor directly on the ground, in which case you need to dig a hole in the shape of a circle under the base, with a diameter of 120-130 cm. We fill the bottom with sand (a layer of 15-20 cm), and begin to lay out a brick well.

The base for the tandoor - a sand cushion is made at the bottom of the base, the area around is also covered with sand. At the bottom it is convenient to place the grate under the coals

As a mortar for masonry, you can use a ready-made oven mixture. It consists of a plasticizer, red clay and quartz sand. The masonry can be both horizontal and vertical, in the first case the stove will keep heat longer, the second is more economical - much less bricks will be needed.

Tandoor, lined with vertical masonry with a pipe for venting gases. Material for the manufacture of such a furnace consumes less

Brick tandoor, lined with horizontal masonry - the thickness of the wall is greater, so it keeps the heat inside longer. In any tandoor, there should be a hole for flue gases from below

To visually see the dimensions of the future furnace, you can first make an order - masonry without mortar. We work with a brick with a grinder with a cutting diamond wheel for ceramics.

Ordering is done for a visual representation of how your tandoor will look like. After such a calculation, you can start working with the solution. Tandoor can be built on the ground or on a brick base

It is not easy to make round masonry, a full-size drawing made with a protractor and a compass will help you, and the ability to handle a grinder is also important.

The diagram clearly demonstrates the device of a brick tandoor. Features of the manufacture of the furnace may differ, but the basic principle of construction is always the same - a base with a hole for fuel and a body that is rounded up

A pattern of bricks is the basis for forming a circle. Do not spare the mortar when laying, and use a level to check the horizontal position.

Oriental craftsmen used a similar pattern to make the tandoor. Laying bricks according to the pattern, the oven will gradually acquire a rounded shape tapering upwards

The tandoor is narrowed up - this is done so that the heat is kept inside. In order to achieve this effect, the bottom layer of the brick must be cut off; when laying, the shape will resemble a vault. After the masonry is ready, the interior of the furnace should be cleaned of traces of mortar. We use dry clay to fill the seams from the outside. The inner surface is also coated with clay, which is mixed with finely chopped grass.

When the kiln dries, it is first heated with paper, and then the firing temperature is increased. This is the easiest way to make a tandoor, and if you want to ennoble it, you can coat the structure with clay. In the east, stoves are decorated with mosaic tiles, sandstone, and ceramics.

The video demonstrates how to make a brick tandoor using a template:

Option # 2 - tandoor from a wooden barrel

Of course, a brick tandoor is the most durable and practical, but if you wish, you can use other methods, which we will now discuss. Here you need the skill of working with clay.

You need to find a small barrel with ill-fitting hoops. The barrel is impregnated from the inside with refined sunflower oil, for impregnation we leave it overnight.

Then we prepare a solution - sheep wool for reinforcement (length up to 15 cm), fireclay clay, fireclay sand. The ratio, respectively, is 0.05 - 1 - 2. We make a thick solution and fashion the furnace body on the inner surface of the barrel (thickness - 20-30 cm). The solution is smoothed and dried for a week using incandescent lamps. Then the hoops can be removed, and the barrel disassembled. After that, the product is subjected to secondary firing.

Option #3 - Brazier using a plastic barrel

You will need plastic barrel classical form. We fill it with water, after filling the barrel slightly increases in size, its outer surface is coated with fireclay solution, it is compacted, smoothed until the furnace contour is formed. The product is also dried for a week, and then the water must be drained. The barrel will become smaller and can be removed from the new tandoor.

A cauldron can also be placed on top of the stove for cooking pilaf and other dishes, but for this you need to adjust the crown to the volume of the cauldron, the crown is coated with clay.

Building the oven is the highlight, but you will also need to make the metal skewers. For example - these are three brackets with a metal hoop in the center. The easiest option is to use a strong rod, laying it along the crown, and attach skewers to it

If you have the skills of pottery, the tandoor can also be made a decoration on the site. For example, create such a “house” for cooking delicious oriental dishes

We examined several simple ways to make a tandoor in the country. These are the simplest answers to the question of how you can make a tandoor with your own hands. More complex options offer the manufacture of a structure resembling a Russian stove, but this is a bulky structure and it is quite troublesome and difficult to build it, and a simple tandoor is quite suitable for giving and the dishes in it are very tasty, try it and you will see for yourself.

Recently, in private areas, you can increasingly find oriental stoves with an exotic name - tandoor. They are great for outdoor cooking and are sure to impress your guests. What is especially nice - such a device can be done with your own hands. How? Let's take a closer look at this issue!

The principle of operation of the tandoor

To understand how the tandoor works, we will describe the process of its operation using the clay version as an example. This is one of the most popular variations of oriental stoves that are found in our area.

Air circulates thanks to the blower - a special hole in the lower part that supports combustion. It is in the Uzbek variety that the clay bowl is lined with refractory bricks. The main secret is filling the voids between the brick and the walls of the clay bowl using sand or salt - this allows you to maintain the temperature for the longest possible time.

Coal or wood is used as fuel. They are placed on the bottom of the boiler through the top, and then kindled. Dishes are prepared using a grill or skewers.

The tandoor is made only from materials that have a high ability to retain heat. After heating, depending on the selected fuel, the temperature can reach 250-400 degrees Celsius. Thanks to the right materials this oven is able to maintain the temperature for 5-7 hours.

Do-it-yourself brick tandoor

In this section, we will look at how to build a tandoor using bricks. This is a very simple option that does not require unconventional materials and skills.

Training

Any kind of construction work begins with careful preparation, as this is the key to a successful result. If you have experience laying bricks, then the whole process will be quite simple for you. It's pretty simple design, but if this is your first time encountering masonry, then you should carefully read the construction algorithm and prepare everything necessary materials.

First of all, you need to calculate the required amount of material or use ready-made schemes that are accompanied by estimates. We have prepared for you a standard instruction and a list of required materials. So, to get started you will need:

1. About 100-150 kg of a mixture of sand and gravel;
2. Mesh for reinforcement - approximately 2 sq.m.;
3. 7 kg of cement (use better);
4. 60–70 pieces of fireclay bricks;
5. Fire-resistant mixture for laying fireplaces or stoves - 10–15 kg;
6. If you are going to paint the tandoor, purchase fireproof paint.

When all the necessary materials have already been prepared, make sure you have the necessary set of tools. Most likely, most of the items from the list presented can be found in your country house or asked from your neighbors, but even if you have to purchase something, this will not ruin you. To build a brick tandoor with your own hands, you need the following tools:

- Plaster rule (preferably along the length of the base);
- A bucket or other container to mix concrete;
- Putty knife;
- Paint brush and paint container;
- Bulgarian, as well as circles on the stone.

As you can see, the list is not too big or exotic. Preparing all the fixtures will not be too difficult for you.

Foundation

For a long service life, the tandoor needs a very reliable foundation. It is he who will give a stable position to the entire building. Despite the fact that this is not a very heavy structure, it still depends a lot on the soil. For example, if it contains a lot of clay, then the base needs to be strengthened.

If the ground cover on your site is heavy, then use pillar-based supports. In the case of lighter soil, for example, sandy, it is necessary to first pour a concrete slab on which the furnace itself will be located.

Based on our scheme and prepared materials, the area of \u200b\u200bthe entire tandoor will be 100x100 cm. To maintain a structure with such an area, it will be enough concrete pad with a thickness of at least 10 cm.

Proper and good concrete looks like thick gray sour cream. To prepare it, you must adhere to the following proportions: 3 shares of sand, 1 share of gravel with a fraction of not more than 1 cm, 1 share of cement. If you follow these recommendations, you will get an excellent mixture.

Try to calculate the right amount concrete mix, for this you can navigate by the size of the pit for pouring the slab. Build timber formwork for a level base. Cover the bottom of the hole with a layer of sand about 5 cm, then pour water over it. Sand serves as a damper cushion, which has a positive effect on the durability of the building. Follow all the recommendations, and you will get an even and correct concrete slab for the foundation. Remember to use a level so that the base of your structure is as even as possible.

Concrete sets not earlier than three days after pouring. The correct decision is to let it brew for about a week, and only then continue the construction of the tandoor. If the weather is hot and dry during the laying of the foundation, then be sure to periodically treat the concrete with water so that it does not dry out and crack.

The base of the tandoor

Refractory (chamotte) brick is an option that should be preferred, it does not absorb liquid, and also withstands very high temperatures. In turn, the density of this material allows not to collapse under the weight of the entire structure.

Another advantage of choosing this brick is its resistance to sudden changes in temperature. That is why you should use it to build a tandoor on the street. This species copes with frost, and it is also quite safe to light it in winter and use it for its intended purpose without fear of the integrity of the building.

Lay the base in a circle, first laying roofing material under it. Lay out the bricks, then mark them out and cut them with a grinder to the desired shape. Use only fire resistant brick laying mix.

masonry rule

When following the rule to start laying walls, you need to take into account a number of features. The correct solution would be for the base to be equal to the height of the entire tandoor, and the ratio of the base and the upper neck to be 1 to 3. If you are making an oven based on our size recommendations, then use a wooden plank with a height of at least 1 m to make the rule, because the length of the base of the rule will be 30 cm.

For the production of patterns for the rule, use plywood. Painted or varnished plywood is ideal.

Tandoor walls

In our example, the bricks are stacked vertically, so you will need quite a lot of mortar. Install the inner edges of the tandoor as tightly as possible so that the walls hold on as best as possible. Do not forget to thoroughly work out all the seams with a solution, you do not need to save on strength.

To strengthen the entire structure, use steel wire or reinforced mesh. If you use wire, then strengthen each row. In the case of reinforced mesh, you can get by with just one turn of it in a circle.

When you have completed the main structure, you can proceed to the plaster. This must be done using the same oven mixture. Try to make thicknesses of at least 10 mm.

Wait until the plaster is completely dry, for safe drying, you can wrap the structure with a film.

The dried structure can be painted. You can use fireproof acrylic paint or whitewash. You can also use to decorate the tandoor decorative plaster, and only then - paint.

DIY clay tandoor

Next, we will describe step-by-step instructions for building a tandoor using clay. This is a more complex and time-consuming method of making a furnace. Before proceeding to its construction, try to study the issue and think about whether you need a clay specimen. It is worth noting that the main and, perhaps, the only difference from the brick version is the ability to bake cakes on clay walls.

The classic dimensions of a clay tandoor are: height from 1 to 1.5 m, diameter - about 1 m, top - 50 cm. Forming a clay bowl, a mixture of kaolin clay and camel or sheep wool is used. When all the materials are ready - go to work.

clay mix

Cut wool into 1-1.5 cm and mix with clay. You need to knead it to the consistency of thick gray sour cream. To keep the clay strong and durable, leave it in a dark place for about a week. During the entire exposure time, remove excess moisture from the surface of the clay, but at the same time it should remain moist. Otherwise, during the operation of the tandoor, it will crack.

blanks

To form a tandoor, it is necessary to prepare sheets of clay mixture with a thickness of about 5–10 cm. Further, in the traditional manufacture, a furnace bowl is molded from them, but this method requires skills and considerable skills. If you are not ready to take risks and do everything traditionally, a barrel can help you.

When using it, you need to loosen the hoops and pour water. Leave for a week to swell. This will give it the necessary shape for making a tandoor. Drain the water, dry the barrel completely, and treat the walls with butter from the inside. When it has absorbed a little, you can move on to using the mold. We advise you to prepare the mold and the clay mixture at the same time.

Making a tandoor from clay

At this stage, it is already possible to begin to form a tandoor in a mold, or roll sausages with a diameter of no more than 5–7 cm and a length of up to 1 m from a mixture of clay, and form an oven from them. It does not play a big role, the main thing is to understand how it is more convenient for you.

Lay the clay firmly against the walls of the barrel, then coat and join the seams with your hands or a trowel. Gather all the walls of the stove, but don't cover the bottom. The narrowing of the upper part should reach ½ of the entire diameter of the barrel.

When you have fully formed the shape of the oven, smooth the clay all over the inside. It should be as smooth as possible. Now leave the oven to dry.

As soon as the clay has dried, it will calmly lag behind the walls of the barrel. Remove the hoops, disassemble the barrel and take out the tandoor.

Installation

Place the oven on a prepared area of clay, concrete, or refractory bricks. It must have a hole for air circulation, the so-called "blower". Connect the oven and the base using the same clay and let dry.

Already in this form, your personal tandoor is ready for use, but if you want it to keep the temperature as long as possible, you should overlay it with bricks, and fill the resulting gap with sand or clay. This design will be able to maintain the temperature for 5-7 hours.

Tandoor - photo

Tandoor is a stove with a long history, which is reflected in its appearance. You have unique opportunity create it yourself, and therefore you would probably like to get acquainted with the variety in design and be inspired by traditional or modern variations of the tandoor. We have prepared beautiful photos to help you do this. Happy viewing!

Many peoples have their own types of ovens for cooking everyday and festive meals. The most famous of these fixtures - barbecue, grill, barbecues, but not many people still know such a stove as tandoor, which is used for cooking national dishes in Central Asia.

Build a tandoor with your own hands on suburban area or in the courtyard of a private house - it is quite possible if you know what it is and step by step follow all the stages of its construction.

What is a tandoor, and what can be cooked in it?

The tandoor oven in Asian countries is used for cooking, one might say, literally everything, from baking bread to roasting meat. Therefore, this building can be found, probably, in every courtyard of a private house in those parts. The amazing taste of dishes cooked in the tandoor was also appreciated by Russian lovers of oriental cuisine, so more and more often such stoves appear in the territories of suburban areas and in Russia.

From the point of view of cooking, the functionality of the tandoor is huge.

Fragrant Uzbek flatbreads of various kinds, baked vegetables, barbecue, fried chicken - all this can be cooked in this relatively small but very versatile oven.

In the Central Asian countries, firewood for firewood has always been in short supply, since these territories do not have significant forest areas and even rare plantings. Mostly grow low shrubs, solitary trees and herbs that do not require a lot of moisture. It was they who were traditionally used to fire the tandoor. It has a design that can be heated with a bunch of simple saxaul - a shrub that grows on sandy soils and, when burned, gives a short-term strong heat. The oven stays hot for a long time, which allows you to bake a large number of bread products, and therefore it can be called a very economical device for cooking.

Flatbreads baked in a tandoor are called "tandoor-nan" in Asian countries, which means tandoor bread in Turkic.

Tandoor design

The design of the tandoor is quite simple. The task of building it is quite feasible for a beginner, and having instructions for completing each step in the construction will not allow you to make any mistakes.

In order not to think about the correct composition of the mortar for laying the walls, you can purchase a special heat-resistant mixture for the construction of stoves and fireplaces at a hardware store. Instructions for preparation can be found on the package, and if you follow the manufacturer's recommendations, the solution will turn out to be plastic, and when dried, it will not give tons of cracks.

It should be immediately noted that this model is designed for cooking meat, fish and vegetable dishes, but it will not work to bake bread on its walls. If you are thinking about baking cakes, then the walls from the inside must be coated with clay, and the surface should be well smoothed.

When erecting this option, work also begins with the preparation of the foundation. But in this case, according to the builders, three layers of silicate bricks laid in a dug pit can be used as a foundation. And, the laying of the first layer is carried out along the pit, the second across, and the third - again along.

The first row of masonry of the tandoor itself should be continuous, and in the second layer, from the middle to one of the sides of the resulting platform, a horizontal channel is left, which will serve as a blowing chamber. The third row is laid out completely, blocking the blower channel, but a hole is left in the middle of the site, around which a tandoor will be installed.

The lower rows of bricks in the foundation are laid without mortar, but tightly pressed against each other, the pit will not allow the rows to move in one direction or the other. In the upper layer, it is better to fasten the brick together with a mixture of clay and fix it on all sides with pieces of reinforcement, 400 ÷ 500 mm in size. The reinforcement rods are driven into the ground, and on top there is a section equal in height to the top row of masonry.

If the base for the tandoor is laid out from only one layer of brick (as shown in these photos), then a hole is dug under it, approximately 200 × 200 mm in size, and a pipe is installed in it. But, it should be noted that this method of blowing the device is not very reliable, since during the rains the earthen chamber will be washed away by water and over time the structure may sag.

A circle is marked on the site around the blower hole, within which a tandoor will be installed.

Having installed the first row of bricks, it is tied with two rows of steel wire, the ends of which are twisted and hidden in the gaps.

For reliability - fixed with wire

Next, two more rows are installed on the first row in the same way. AT total for the construction, you will need to find 57 bricks. Each of the rows is fixed, like the first, with wire ties. The total height of the tandoor, after its installation, will be 750 mm.

The next step is to cover all the gaps between the bricks with a mortar made from a fire-resistant mixture. Before applying the mortar, it is recommended to moisten the brick so that the water from the mixture does not soak into the dry bricks too quickly, and the drying takes place evenly and gradually.

After all the gaps are sealed and the mortar in them has dried, the structure is “plastered” over its entire surface.

Next, you need to coat the entire structure with a layer of clay, to which finely chopped straw is added. There should be two such layers with a thickness of 15 ÷ 20 mm, and the second is applied after the first has dried, approximately two to three days later. They should dry evenly, without rapid evaporation of moisture, and for this, the structure is covered with plastic wrap.

These layers should be applied evenly, but it is not necessary to smooth their surface, as they will still be covered from above.

Then, the clay walls are wrapped with a reinforcing layer consisting of a metal mesh with cells of approximately 50 × 50 mm.

Then the structure is reinforced with a mesh ...

A metal ring is installed around the furnace opening, which will separate the cover installation area from the rest of the surface. This part should have a height of 30 ÷ 50 mm. From its outer side to the edges of the walls, a layer of clay is applied, equal to the height of the hoop.

... once again coated with clay with the installation of a hoop on the inlet ...

After that metal grid on the walls is completely covered with another layer of clay and left to dry.

... and after drying, it is plastered with cement mortar.

Further, when the surface is ready, a layer of concrete mortar is applied to it, consisting of sand and cement, in a ratio of 3: 1. Masters who build tandoors recommend adding one or one and a half teaspoons of detergent to the concrete intended for coating - it will not allow the solution to shrink when dried.

Drying of the surface of the structure takes place within a week. During this time, you need to make a wooden lid with handle will allow for long time keep warm inside the tandoor when it is fired.

In addition, to hang the skewers, you will need to make a metal crossbar, which is placed on the sides of the tandoor hole under a wooden cover.

It must be said that, if desired, the entire surface of the tandoor can be decorated with a decorative coating - for example, mosaic-laid flat natural stones. This layer, by the way, will become an additional insulation for the stove, which will help keep the heat inside it.

Video: building a tandoor according to a simplified scheme

Refractory brick prices

Refractory brick

Finished tandoors

On sale you can find ready-made tandoors of various sizes, and in order not to do unfamiliar work, you can simply buy such a stove and even firewood specially designed for its firebox.

In addition to the wood-burning tandoor, even electric models are sold that do not require fuel, since heating is carried out by a heating element installed at the bottom of the furnace.

Any of the ready-made factory products will allow a variety of any dishes, from baking cakes and pizza to roasting vegetables and roast meat. However, it must be warned that the taste of dishes cooked in electric ovens is significantly different from those fried or baked in a wood-fired tandoor. This is because the TEN , although and heats the surface, but it dries the air very much, and therefore the products that are in the heated space. Firewood, by heating the walls and giving off its own moisture, which is absorbed into the porous clay surface, creates the necessary balance of heat and humidity. In this favorable microclimate, products remain juicy, well fried and baked.

How is it prepared in a tandoor?

In addition to cakes and shish kebab, barbecue and pizza are baked in the tandoor. But for the preparation of these dishes it is necessary additional element- this is a grate, which is fixed on the neck of the furnace on special fasteners and falls approximately to the middle of the tandoor.

On the same grate, you can put a cast iron or a saucepan with the necessary products and get fragrant pilaf or stewed cabbage soup.
When cooking fatty meat, for example, lamb, a grate is installed over the coals, and a container is placed on it, into which juice and fat will drain from a piece suspended above it - these components are necessary for making shurpa.
When cooking kebab or barbecue in the Uzbek version of the tandoor small size, skewers are simply installed in the oven opening or hung on an iron cross rod. At the same time, the neck is closed with a lid from above.
All dishes are cooked in the tandoor much faster than in ovens or on. For example, lamb and pork will require 18 ÷ 25, beef 30 ÷ 35, fish or poultry 8 ÷ 12, and vegetables altogether 5 ÷ 7 minutes.
Oriental culinary specialists advise: in a not completely cooled down tandoor, place a pot with hard meat, which has many veins and, during normal cooking, will be cooked until soft for several hours. The pot, covered with a lid, is left inside the tandoor until the next morning, and then any dish can be prepared from this meat in which it will “melt” in the mouth.

In addition to the stove models presented above, there are other options, but the most affordable design for construction is the modern simplified tandoor. Such an oriental stove can be made even by an inexperienced builder, if he makes the foundation correctly, calculating the load, and follows the instructions for construction.

Having a tandoor in the country, you don’t have to worry that someone will remain hungry, since almost all dishes can be cooked in it. And most importantly, you don't have to stand above them. Having heated the tandoor and put prepared products in it, you can go about your business, periodically checking the readiness of the dishes, and then it remains to serve them hot to the table at the right time.

Such stoves are widespread among the peoples of Central Asia. They differ from other designs in shape: outwardly, they resemble a jug with a wide bottom and smooth walls, tapering at the top.

Unusual geometry and special properties of the material allow the accumulation of heat in the walls of the oven, which is used to prepare various dishes. Most often, meat dishes (kebabs) are fried in it, baked different kind cakes, prepare pilaf. The walls have the same temperature over the entire height, so there are no such troubles as an unevenly baked dish.

The original oven, made according to ancient technologies, is made only of clay dried in the sun and burned on a fire of saxaul firewood. It is easily built in Central Asia, but it is impossible to create it in our latitudes. The reason is the lack of conditions for dehydration of the material.

In order for the furnace walls to acquire the necessary qualities, very low humidity, a certain light spectrum, and a high firing temperature are required. Under such conditions, there are no internal stresses and cracks in them. It is impossible to completely remove moisture from clay in our conditions, it remains in in large numbers even in a dry wall. Water begins to evaporate intensively during firing, which leads to the appearance of cracks on the surface, which worsen the heat-accumulating properties of the structure.

Therefore, far from Central Asia, modified tandoors are built, for example, from bricks, which are covered from the inside with clay mortar. They are much thicker than traditional clay ones and require more fuel to heat up, but in mid-latitudes there are no problems with firewood. Of all types of brick tandoors, the best are those built from fireclay blocks, which, after heat treatment, acquire the properties of ceramics.

Brick tandoor is used as follows:

Light a fire inside the oven and keep it warm until the walls are heated to a high temperature. All this time it accumulates heat.
After burning the firewood, wait until the walls have cooled to a temperature of 250 degrees.
Put food inside and cover the mouth with a lid. Clay bricks hold heat for a long time and ensure the preparation of several bookmarks of dishes.

How to make a brick tandoor

To build a furnace with heat-concentrating qualities, perform the work in a certain sequence and choose the right construction material. Let's take a closer look at each stage.

Material selection

To build a brick tandoor with your own hands, you will need special refractory fireclay materials - brick and clay.

Chamotte blocks are made from a clay-chamotte mixture. There are several types of this building material, differing in density and fire resistance. For our case, samples marked ShA, ShB are suitable. Bricks are produced in three sizes: 230:113:65 mm, 250:123:65 mm and 300:150:65 mm. Due to the large dimensions of the blocks, there are fewer gaps in the walls, which makes it easy to obtain a smooth surface.

Fireclay blocks are more expensive than ordinary silicate blocks, therefore, in order not to overpay, make a drawing of a brick tandoor, by which you can determine their exact number.

Choose a material for the stove good quality paying attention to some points. Suitable samples have an attractive appearance sandy color and grainy base. When tapped, they make a metallic sound, and upon impact they break into large pieces. Unfired bricks crumble into crumbs, and the sound after tapping on them is deaf, it is impossible to build furnaces from such blocks - they do not retain heat, have low strength, so the structure can simply fall apart.

Before buying, make sure that the material has been stored in a dry place, because. it absorbs moisture well, after which it loses 75 percent of its qualities. When using outdoors, take measures to protect the structure from precipitation.

Fireclay bricks can withstand high temperatures, so silicate or ceramic samples should not be placed with them. Over time, the wall of the combined material will simply collapse.

For the same reason, do not use ordinary sand-cement mix to fasten the elements. For such purposes, a special heat-resistant solution - martel is intended. It is made from crushed fireclay bricks and clay. The mixture has increased strength and adhesion, which will allow it to be applied with a thickness of not more than 1 mm.

The masonry mortar can be prepared independently from fireclay clay, which is sold dry in hardware stores. Sold in 20 kg bags. One package is enough for laying 20-30 bricks. To build 1 m 3 of a wall, you will need 5 bags of material. When buying, make sure that the powder has not yet expired, and that it has been stored in a dry place. Wet material loses its qualities.

Other substances that change its properties are also added to the mixture. For example, to reduce setting time, add special means that are combined with fireclay - cement, salt or liquid glass. Quartz sand is introduced into the solution if it is too liquid.

Preparation of mortar for masonry and plastering

For self-preparation of the solution, you will need fireclay clay, salt and quartz sand in a ratio of 4: 1: 1. The usual mixture based on clay and sand quickly cracks and does not adhere well to brick. The prepared composition is very plastic and sets quickly, does not peel off during operation.

The solution is mixed as follows:

Pour a bag of fireclay powder and all components into a deep container and fill with water so that it covers the substance.
Leave the solution for 2-3 days (check the instructions attached to the substance), stirring occasionally.
At the end of the period, mix everything again and check the viscosity of the contents of the container. It should resemble thick sour cream. If the mixture is too thin, add sand, if thick, add water.
To reduce the hardening time, add cement to it, no more than 2 kg per 20 kg of powder. Instead of cement, you can add ordinary salt at the rate of 100-150 g per bucket of mortar or liquid glass in an amount of 1-3 percent of the volume of the mixture.
The amount of solution must be calculated in advance in order to use it up before hardening.

Construction of the base of the tandoor

The furnace is built on a solid foundation, which eliminates the appearance of cracks on the walls during seasonal soil movement. Therefore, before building a brick tandoor, study its composition. Rocky and sandy soil is considered the most favorable. For safety reasons, the structure must be located at a distance of at least 3 m from buildings and plants.

On heaving and clayey soils for a tandoor oven, it is necessary to cast a reinforced foundation, for example, a columnar one. In other cases, you can get by with a light base in the form monolithic slab.

To make a foundation, perform operations in the following sequence:

Draw a square 120x120 cm on the ground, it will fit a standard size oven. Inside, dig a hole 10 cm deep, and around the perimeter, select soil to a depth of 15 cm. In the corners of the pit, dig holes with a drill 70 cm deep, 12-15 cm in diameter. Pour sand into the recesses with a layer of 10-15 cm.
Install reinforcement welded into a quadrangle in the holes and fill it with concrete, while it should rise 5 cm above the bottom. Concrete protrusion can be ensured using formwork. The solution is prepared from sand, cement and gravel, which are taken in a ratio of 3: 1: 1. Gravel fractions should not exceed 1 cm. Choose cement not lower than PC-400. After the concrete has hardened, remove the formwork and fill the bottom with sand flush with the concrete belt around the perimeter of the pit. Compact the loose mass and fill it with water.
Prepare formwork for a monolithic slab, ensuring that it protrudes 10-15 cm above the ground.
Weld a reinforcing mesh with cells of 15-20 cm, put it in the pit. It is made from bars with a diameter of 10-12 mm. The rods can not be welded, but tied at the intersection with annealed wire. It would be ideal if it is at a depth of 5 cm from the surface of the plate.
Fill the hole with concrete and check the levelness of the surface, wait 2-3 weeks for the mortar to harden.
The base of the product is a circle, so on the prepared site, apply a circle with a diameter of 75 cm, this is the most popular size of a brick tandoor.
Fill in the breadboard inner part circles in blocks, cutting off the excess from the blanks with a grinder with diamond disc or a special disk for sawing stones. Number each brick and write down their location on paper.
Free the area from the material, apply a layer of mortar to the entire surface and lay the blocks according to the sketch.

The foundation is not required. Instead, a solid reinforced concrete slab can be used as a reliable foundation.

The erection of the walls of the tandoor

In order for all elements of the furnace to correspond to the brick tandoor scheme developed in advance, we recommend using a special template in the form of a frame. Without it, it is difficult to lay the material around a circle with the same radius.

The dimensions of the fixture depend on the height and diameter of the furnace. As a rule, the height of the tandoor is equal to its diameter, and the neck is 1/3 of this size. Make one side of the template, which is installed in the center of the base, from a pole 1 m high. Attach 3 planks perpendicularly to it, in 25 cm increments: at the bottom - 30 cm long, in the middle - 25 cm, at the top - 20 cm. When rotating, it will show deviation of the wall from a given shape at a given level.

You will also need a pattern on which you can lay bricks. For this purpose, a lamella from the bed under the mattress is suitable.

Build the wall in the following order:

To make the construction stable and have an attractive appearance, draw the order of the brick tandoor.
Apply a layer of mortar on the outside of the circle with a width equal to the smaller side of the brick. Place blocks on it in a circle, placing them on edge, standing up. Set the inner edge without clearance. Seal the seams with mortar. After laying out the first row, pull it together with wire, and hide the ends between the bricks.
In the second row, leave a small window through which air will flow into the structure. It can be closed with an iron door. It is also allowed to install a chimney in the opening.
Upon reaching a height of 100-120, begin to form a neck, the height of which is 25-30 cm. To do this, slightly tilt all the bricks of the higher rows inward. Often a hole is made not from above, but from the side, but in the classic version, the tab is made from above.
After reaching the desired shape, leave the building for 2 days for the mortar to harden. If you plan to cook cakes in the oven, cover the inside of the brick tandoor with a mixture of fireclay clay. The layer must be thick enough - at least 10 mm. For cooking kebabs or pilaf, the walls inside can be left unfinished.
Outside, cover the oven with mortar, and then finish with stone to give the structure an aesthetic appearance. Wait 2 days for the clay to dry.

Kindle a fire inside the building to bake the clay. After heating to a temperature of 400 degrees and gradual cooling, the walls acquire high strength and hardness.

Often, poles with hooks are attached inside the oven, on which meat can be hung. In the Uzbek version, a lattice is provided. On it you can, in addition to meat, cook fish and vegetables. All foods will be evenly fried on all sides.

Rules for operating the tandoor

When using the oven, you must follow some rules that will extend its service life and facilitate operation:

Raise the temperature in the tandoor gradually. Burn first in winter a small amount of wood chips, and then add the main fuel. In the summer, this procedure can be skipped.
Filling fuel is allowed to a height of no more than 2/3 of the structure. It’s not worth laying more, the heat will simply evaporate through the top.
The type of fuel doesn't matter. You can use firewood, coal, brushwood, there are no temperature restrictions.
If there is grease on the walls, do not remove it. It will just burn out the next time you use it.
Remove the ashes with a shovel and a poker through the hole on top. This is the only drawback of the device due to the obvious inconvenience of the operation.

In some designs, a blower is provided, from where ash can be removed through the door, but this option complicates the device.

How to make a brick tandoor - look at the video:

For the manufacture of such a furnace, construction experience is not needed, all operations are quite simple. The main condition for obtaining a good result is the execution of the technological process in a given sequence. The material used and the deadlines between stages are also important.