Howdy all, I am cleaning out my cellar (new thermalpride oil furnace coming) and moved a bunch of junk and uncovered this “oven”.I dug it out and cleaned it up. My kids want to cook a pizza in it. I seem to recall hearing of a “beehive oven” used back in the day. enjoy the pictures -any information about it would be greatly appreciated. -Josh Spring NW MA.
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Replies
If Mike Hennesey is still visiting this forum, betcha he would know a little about such things.
It is awesome! . Not sure it looks like there has ever been a "fire: in it. Perhaps hot, burning coal was removed from the furnace...........or perhaps it burned coal? Does coal leave soot? It looks to clean.
In any case, I would thoroughly check it out or have it checked out by a pro before using it.
You never knew that was in your house?
Actually, it's the niche that
Actually, it's the niche that was intended to hold Grandma's ashes.
Don't know anything about it,
Don't know anything about it, except that it sure is cool.
Wow. What a find.
Great cooking experience for your kids.
I'm sure Google will find you lots of stuff about cooking in an authentic brick oven.
Please let us know how that pizza turns out!!
the one in my old house was run from the heat of the adjacent fireplace. It also had a connection to the flue at the very front which one could assume was used to heat it up in warm weather
If the combustion heat source for the oven uses the same chimney flue that the furnace flue has been run up through, then the oven heat source should not be used for any combustion.
Yes, due to the chimney being filled with a stainless flue for the furnace - there will be no pizza cooking in the cellar.
Hi Josh,
That is cool -- it's
Hi Josh,
That is cool -- it's a near twin of the one we have in our "summer kitchen" that sits on the oposite side of our kitchen fireplace. My understanding is that these were used especially during summer months so that you didn't have to have a fire burning in the actual kitchen heating up the whole house.
Looks like your mason and mine learned their trades in the same period. Is your brick particularly fragile like ours is? You can break them with a tap rather than whack from a trowel -- and everything above the roofline has been replaced over time.
dc
yes my bricks are very brittle.As my house is also built of the same brick
it gives me cause for alarm.
I have been wondering if there is a sealent or something I can use to keep the exterior brick of the house happy
Re your bricks - poke around in the Old House Journal website - a lot of good information about older houses and esp older brick there
While I can't add much to the
While I can't add much to the conversation, I do know how to cook in one. This is quite a find.... lol
honeymoon commented that it looked like there hadn't been a fire in the beehive oven. There's also no visible way for smoke to escape.
I'm guessing that the opening below the beehive is the firebox for it, right?
There's also some sort of hardware at the bottom left of the opening. Was that a hinge for some long gone door?
Nice find! I have built or restored many of these in historical homes here in CT.
The niche below was not the heat source and it also didn't get heated from the adjacent firebox.
The fire was built inside the oven, the coals burned down and banked against the brick walls. The smoke went up into the chimney thru a vent that should be up and behind the stone header, which connected to the fireplace throat.
The "hardware" was part of a door, usually thick wood, later metal, that would close off the oven. When the temperature reached proper cooking temps, the coals were raked out and breads and pies put in, door put back on, and they baked from the heat of the bricks.
IICRC, Yankee magazine published a very thin book on cooking from a bake oven. Or maybe some museum in your area has classes.
I know that that the Nathan Hale house in Coventry, Ct has cooking classes sometime during the year.
It's too bad the fireplace lintel has a crack in it. Beatuful find! Wish I could just "find" one in my house.
Rod
Josh, how did you insert those three pictures such that by opening any one of them I can toggle through them using right/left arrows on my keyboard?
another poster in this thread put up two pictures but they can only be opened and viewed separately.
Thanks,
Beehive oven
This is a beauty!!!! I have one also that is in very good condition. I just bought a house in the Catskill region in New York and I am wondering how to cook in this type of oven. It doesn't have an opening for a flue to connect to the fireplace it is next to it. Can anyone give me any suggestions on how to cook with this oven. I am a chef and I want to use this instead of my cooktop for all of my cooking and baking. Any information is appreciated, thank you!
http://www.fornobravo.com/pizza_oven_management/manage.html
http://www.losangelesovenworks.com/ovens/cooking.php
http://www.traditionaloven.com/