The best do-it-yourself tandoor made of brick. Do-it-yourself tandoor. Drawings and step-by-step instructions (50 photos). Option #3 – roaster using a plastic barrel

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

Another important advantage of the tandoor is that it can be made of clay, i.e. “truly oven-like”, without the slightest admixture of metal in the design, and at the same time mobile. At the end of the season, you can hide it indoors or take it with you when you move. Installation will require a minimum of work, and the tandoor does not need a foundation at all.

Finally, the tandoor is economical. It was born in places that were never abundant in fuel, and the design was perfected not for centuries but for millennia. The amount of fuel in the barbecue is barely enough for a heel of kebabs, in the tandoor it is enough for a dozen of them plus flatbreads, plus the tea will boil while the flatbreads are baking.

Many people who want to own a tandoor of their own making are put off by the complexity of pottery work. But they can be simplified, see below. And the tandoor is generally unpretentious in the choice of material - you can even build an Uzbek tandoor out of brick. Ancient nomads in the vastness of Turan, Taklamakan and Tsaidam generally made tandoors out of whatever they found at their next stop, and the food was finger-licking good. 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, you first need to decide whether to make it yourself or buy a ready-made one. There is no shortage of proposals, and the quality of the products, as a rule, does not require special praise, see fig. on right.

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

Meanwhile, the price of purchased mobile tandoors, like the one shown in Fig. higher, ranges from 11,500 to 70,000 rubles. depending on size. The smallest one is the size of a large saucepan. It can be placed on a table, and can be carried without effort by one person. And the same person, if necessary, can climb into a large one, for 60-70 thousand rubles. It’s clear here that it’s better to buy: after all, the price includes a set of utensils, a lid with a hatch for the kettle and slots for skewers. Doing all this yourself will cost you more.

But if we are talking about a stationary tandoor oven, then the cheapest custom-made work of a tandoor master will cost at least 100,000 rubles, and he will not take this money in vain. At the same time, the heart of such a stove, the tandoor itself (see the figure on the left above) of a proprietary 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 actual stove that frames it (see the figure on the right) is quite capable of being built by any craftsman, even if before that he had only looked at bricks. The materials are also the most common ones, see below.

Video: basics of tandoor construction (1 channel)

About electric tandoors

Civilization and electrification have not bypassed tandoors. In the end, you simply cannot heat with 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. The finished factory-made product looks elegant (middle position), 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. The taste of dishes made from it will be distinguishable from the real thing even by an inexperienced gastronome. 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 a burnt taste is clearly felt in meat, fish and poultry. If you burn with wood, then water, along with carbon dioxide, is one of the main combustion products. 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 with water on the grill is useless. It boils away, steam flies out, at the same time spoiling the food. There is also no point in trying to saturate the tandoor with moisture during heating: in order for its vapors to penetrate into the baked clay, their temperature must be at least 350 degrees, and not 100, as when boiling.

Therefore, a real electric tandoor is a device that looks like kitchen stove(on the right in the figure), but inside it is very complex and controlled by an on-board computer. The same clay tandoor is wrapped in 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, like 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 to cook in a tandoor?

There are countless recipes for oriental dishes for tandoor. In addition, bread is baked in it and shish kebab is prepared. By removing the lid and placing a grate in the neck, the tandoor can be used as a barbecue. And by placing a teapot with a teapot neck there, or a cast iron pot, we will 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 will limit ourselves to the most general instructions.

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

Secondly, if shashlik 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 threaded, 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 an Armenian tandoor - tonir - then the skewers are hung vertically on a hanger (right position). Not every cook can cook kebab in a tonir, but in any case there is no need to turn the skewers.

Third, flatbreads can be baked in an Uzbek tandoor both inside and outside, see fig. on right. Which one depends on the recipe. In general, dinner bread is baked inside and baked goods outside.

Fourth, by hanging a grate at the mouth of the tandoor on hooks of adjustable length, you can cook everything the same as in a Russian oven. At the mouth cut, the temperature will be approximately the same as in the fire, and directly above the coals - as at the back wall of the furnace immediately after heating. An additional advantage is that you don’t have to cook in cast iron; it works just as well in regular pans.

Fifth, dishes in a 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 a pan inside filled with pieces of old, impossibly stringy beef. Close the lid tightly and 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 fuel critical. In its homeland, Central and Central Asia, it is heated mainly with saxaul. Occasionally - elm or plane tree (sycamore). Of these, in the southern regions we only have the plane tree, but here it is a valuable ornamental tree and is not allowed for firewood.

Saxaul and ready-made saxaul firewood

In our area, tandoors are heated with wood tree species, the same as barbecues. Charcoal and pellets are not suitable - they produce too much heat, an expensive tandoor can crack and cannot be repaired. Coal is absolutely no good: the tandoor will become saturated with coke gases and will forever become smelly and poisonous.

The amount of fuel 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, barbecue requires two to three times less fuel. Cooking begins when the fuel burns down to coals. A prerequisite is that the soot and soot on the walls must also burn out. With good quality fuel, this is always observed.

In tandoors with a built-in firebox, the vent is not closed after heating, so that the coals smolder without burning. And in order not to create excessive draft, 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 fire, the smaller one is removed. Its nest in a properly made tandoor is made jagged, then you can place a kettle on it without disturbing the draft.

History and evolution

So how can you build such a wonderful culinary unit yourself? In order to approach construction with knowledge of the matter, let’s dwell a little on its origin.

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

But the same terrible winds, combined with daily (!) temperature changes from +45 to –30 degrees, abundantly supply the Asian plains with loess - the smallest stone dust. She very quickly buries what the wind carrying her did not have time to wear away. Loess layers on the Asian plains reach hundreds of meters in thickness. To see any pebble, you need to climb quite high into the mountains.

Actually, dust is not loess. Loess is obtained when dust is knocked into a dense conglomerate by the wind, carrying 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, producing stable wheat yields of 40 kg/ha in monoculture and without any agricultural technology.

But it’s more important for us to know something else: loess is heat-resistant, like fireclay clay. When dry, it is as strong as cement, but is completely permeated with microscopic pores, i.e. breathable and quite easy to process. And if you soak it a little, you can sculpt it like plasticine. True, if it rains heavily, the loess gets soaked into mud, in which the tank gets stuck up to its turret. But heavy rains where there is loess occur once every 10 years, and not every decade.

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

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

Zemlyanoy

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 passage is dug from the side - an air duct. Loess tandoors are still in use; connoisseurs claim that only they produce real tandoor delicacies.

Where there is no loess, the pit is lined with bricks to dry it (see figure), 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.

You can dig a pitcher-shaped hole in the loess without the danger of it collapsing. This made it possible to significantly save fuel: due to the reflection of 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 diagram of the Uzbek tandoor is shown in Fig. The fireplace underneath is ordinary, made of masonry with slots for air access. But main secret Uzbek tandoor - in a clay top placed on the fireplace. It, as can be seen from the figure, is two-layer.

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; The wall thickness is half a span. The solution was made very thick, the consistency of plasticine. To achieve complete homogeneity, we kneaded the solution with our feet.

Then natural conditions came into force. In the center of the Asian continent, the air is constantly saturated with fine dust; The sun in a completely clear sky appears as if in a haze. Meteorologists call this phenomenon a danger. You can quite understand the degree of dust in the air there when you see a phenomenon common in those places - dry rain. Drops of water collect dust particles as they fly. Due to the extreme heat and dryness, the water evaporates and dry pellets fall to the ground.

Dust completely absorbs ultraviolet radiation, even at an absolute altitude of 1800 m. daylight almost not. Caucasian Asians come to the sea in the summer with the same “brown 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 sculpted the blank, it was exposed to the Sun. The unbearably hot light, combined with very dry air, literally drove the water out of the workpiece within 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 workpiece turned out to be microporous. The famous Bukhara sweating jugs were prepared for firing in the same way, keeping the water poured into them cool in any heat.

It is precisely because of the inability to organize such a natural technological process in cooler and/or humid places that homemade Uzbek tandoors fail. During drying, a crust forms on the workpiece, which does not release water from the solution. Gradually it still evaporates, but the workpiece goes into firing with residual stresses, which is why it cracks during firing. In mid latitudes maximum thickness walls of pottery about 13 mm; for a tandoor this is clearly not enough, and it is impossible to build up and dry in layers due to the same residual stresses.

But the tandoor cannot sweat, 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 obtained during 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 deteriorate the quality of the tandoor: outer layer– just additional thermal insulation.

Over time, small portable single-layer tandoors appeared, with their own firebox and grate. They were no longer suitable for baking baked goods, but meat cooked perfectly in them. These were more commonly used by the nobility and were richly decorated. Most of the modern tandoors available for sale (see next figure) are from the “Bai” branch.

“Bai” tandoors

Uzbek tandoor oven

There is also a class of tandoor consumers in Central Asia, from whom a very high heat capacity is required at a reasonable price. These are the dukhan-keepers (tavern-keepers) and the tea-khan-keepers. The stationary tandoor had to provide continuous preparation of food for visitors within 3-4 hours from one heating. Asians are a patient people when they have to tighten their sash, but if they have several tangas in their belts for pilaf or beshbarmak, they become very active. And firewood is expensive.

For catering tandoors of old times, craftsmen began to produce ready-made fired inserts, many of which are still exhibited 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: the brick is ordinary, the thermal insulation is self-leveling from unfired clay. A diagram of the design of such a furnace will be given below.

In areas especially poor in fuel, starting from the 18th century. Stoves with an insert in the form of a jug became widespread. The chamber was made relatively small (see 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 could be wrapped around the fingers of two hands, was enough to bake a dozen flat cakes and boil kumgan water for five; The kumgan was installed in the neck of the tandoor instead of a lid. This tandoor oven is called tandoor-nan or tandoor-non.

Video: Uzbek traditions of tandoor construction

Toner

The second trunk of the tandoor evolution tree came from Transcaucasia. It's hot here too; in Shamakhi it is perhaps 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 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 properties its body is equivalent to an Uzbek clay body with walls half opposite brick thickness. The outside of 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 be made of brick, but it would be difficult and expensive.

On Uzbek tandoors, the decorations are mostly molded and glazed: such a large “pot” without reinforcement is not very strong and may not withstand additional load. Toner is like a brick structure, much stronger. That's why external finishing tints are much more varied and richer: from simple coating with decorative colored clay with polishing and cladding with wild stone to the most complex tile compositions, see fig.

Armenian tandoors - tonirs

It is much more difficult to build a brick vessel with a complex curvilinear configuration than to fashion it from hand-thick clay sausages, pressing and pinching them. Therefore, toners are most often made in the form of a cylinder topped with a truncated cone, or even in the form of a straight pipe. In this case, IR can more freely escape outside without any use. The high heat capacity of fireclay, combined with its negligible thermal conductivity, compensates for this disadvantage to some extent, but still, a toner of the same capacity per unit of finished product consumes 15-20% more fuel than an Uzbek tandoor, not to mention a Nana stove .

Another (however, like the first, not significant) disadvantage of toner is due to its “brick” strength: it also gives “brick” weight. If mobile toners are made, they are made on a stand with wheels. And horizontal tints, embedded in the wall, are found as an exception. Almost a third of the “Uzbeks” go to walling up.

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

About the cauldron

Tandoor is made quite simply: a boiler with water is placed at the mouth or on it, depending on the size of the tandoor/boiler. If you are baking or cooking and the skewers are not sticking out, you can combine a water heater with cooking: hot air above the mouth - spent, and the body will not give off more IR than it can emit, so the product will not deteriorate. You just need to place pieces of something durable and non-flammable under the bottom of the boiler to create a gap for air to escape.

About the form and mouth

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

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

Making tandoor

From the above it is clear that making a tandoor yourself comes down to two options: a tonir made of brick or something like an “Uzbek” made from it. There is, however, a way to make a clay tandoor even in Murmansk, we will also dwell on that.

A brick tandoor can be built by anyone whose hands have not grown into their pockets, who are able to distinguish their wife’s breasts from the back of her head by touch, who can pick up an office folder with papers and bring a cup of coffee to their mouth without spilling it the morning after yesterday. The sequence of work is basically clear from the figure; we will only give some explanations.

Materials - fireclay bricks (300-1500 pieces depending on size), ready-made dry kiln masonry mixture, which is diluted with water to the desired consistency, and ordinary construction sand. There is no need for a foundation: we dig a pit two times the diameter of the base of the tandoor and as deep as the bayonet of a shovel. We fill it halfway with sand and fill it with liquid, creamy, oven mortar to ground level. We stick an even pole or rod exactly into the middle and set it vertically along a plumb line. We secure it from the wind with temporary guy ropes on pegs. We also protect from 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 takes 1-3 weeks), we prepare the main working equipment: a rotary template according to the shape of the inner surface. In order to avoid undercuts of bricks when laying, we coordinate its shape with the size of the brick and the permissible thickness of the seams - 3-13 mm.

When the fill dries, lay out the first row of bricks on a dry surface. We carry out the masonry with butts (bricks across the masonry line; if along the bricks, they are called spoon bricks, or spoons; emphasis is on the penultimate syllable) standing up. Having laid out, adjusted the width of the seams and aligned them by turning the template a full turn, take out the bricks one at a time, dip them in clean water for a second, apply the masonry (dough-like) mortar, and insert them into place. At the end of the row, we turn the template again and level it. We work slowly, the clay solution takes a long time to harden.

In the first row we leave an opening of two bricks, this will be the vent. The same brick will go onto the beam above it, see middle pos. in Fig. We lay out the arc of the row above it from halves of brick. We place it and the subsequent rows, like the first one: first on a dry basis, and double-checking it 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 with solid (solid) bricks, changing only their number in the row.

The third and all other rows will be continuous. But already from the second row, you need to try to maintain the dressing of the seams between the rows: install the first brick of each subsequent row in the middle on the seam between the bricks of the previous one, as highlighted in the right pose. 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 the bricks with the bricks tilted in vertical plane; then no internal lining is required.

Complete dressing will not work, because... The diameter of the rows 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 around the circumference; It’s convenient to navigate around the ash pit. This technique is called dressing through rows. So we bring the masonry to the top.

Video: example of building a simple brick tandoor

Video: tandoor based on a finished insert

Commissioning

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

After another 1-2 weeks we begin pre-firing. First - paper, cardboard or shavings. We set fire to a handful and throw a handful at a time through the mouth until the outer wall becomes slightly warm. Then cover with a lid and let cool completely, this will take about a day. We gradually increase the heating dose over the course of 2 weeks until the water dripped onto the outer surface begins to boil, shooting out and splashing. You can’t pour too much, half a liter can ruin a tandoor that hasn’t been fully annealed!

Now it’s time for the final firing. We fill the tandoor a quarter full with standard fuel and let it burn down to coals. Add fuel in the same portions until the tandoor is at least half filled with smoldering coals. It is better to take firewood that burns out quickly, but smolders slowly (cherry, apple) so that the level of the coals approaches the mouth. Let it cool, still under cover. In this case, you need to be careful and follow the rules fire safety: a hot stream of air from the tandoor will hit with reactive force. Once it has cooled down, unload the ash, the tandoor is ready for use.

Tandoor ovens

The best tandoor oven is made from a ready-made, purchased tandoor-hood in a brick shell with thermal insulation, which is also an additional heat accumulator. Its installation diagram is shown in Fig. The foundation is two rows of tongue-and-groove blocks (GGB) on a cement-sand mortar and a cushion of sand or crushed stone. Thermal insulation is the same crushed stone or vermiculite chips (more expensive, but better), mixed with clay oven mortar - “sour cream”. Masonry - from ceramic bricks on cement-sand mortar (walls) and clay oven (underneath and foot).

And here’s another exotic option: tandoor-barbecue oven. True, only the name is derived from the tandoor: the authors of the design honestly warn that it is not suitable 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 in a cone, but like the brick tandoor described above.

The drawing and order of the “tandoor-combi” are shown on the next page. rice. It requires a full-fledged stove foundation, so this work is not for beginners. The 31st row is reinforced with a sixty steel corner. Smoke collector - made of steel from 2 mm. Chimney diameter – from 250 mm.

And yet – clay!

Now we’ll tell you how to make a tandoor from clay 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 enemies with a dense population and poor medicine.

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

The solution was found very simply: an ordinary cucumber or cabbage barrel. Very competent engineering solution: since the issue is uneven drying across the thickness of the material, you need to make it uniform. Don't have an industrial drying chamber? We will ensure uniformity from the opposite: not by heating, but by moisture. Will the process take longer? For myself, it’s not scary.

The technology is as follows: wash the barrel and fill it with water. Let stand for 2 weeks until the wood swells completely. Then pour out the water and thoroughly coat the inside of the keg with vegetable oil. Flaxseed is best, but refined sunflower or corn will also work.

Next, we wrap the barrel tightly with rope, but so that it does not catch the hoops. We protect the coils from slipping with nails. Now we cut the hoops and remove them. We cut a hole in the bottom to the diameter of the mouth of the tandoor.

At this point, firstly, a temporary cushion must be ready, at least from bricks laid directly on the ground on dry ground. The oven solution, described above, with the consistency of plasticine, must also be prepared. Nowadays, there is no need to trample clay with your feet until exhaustion: a 1.5-2 kW hammer drill with a mixing attachment at low speeds 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. You need to work with fibrous asbestos in the open air with full protection of the respiratory organs, eyes, face and body, but those men on demobilization also took gas masks with them with them, just in case.

The barrel was placed on a pillow, and the inside was coated with clay with a layer of 60-70 mm. Then they turned it upside down and placed it on 4-6 bricks so that there was a gap at the bottom. After 2 weeks, the harness was removed and they waited until the rivets began to fall off on their own. The last one fell off - it was dry enough to burn. The work began when the weather began to warm up in the spring: drying lasted for months.

Firing was carried out as the initial one described above. Upon completion, it was lined with clay without filler, like an Uzbek tandoor, dried again and finally fired. This method does not provide a 100% guarantee, but with some ingenuity and observation, 7-8 out of 10 pieces can be fired without problems.

Finally

So what, should you make a tandoor or buy it? You definitely need to buy the insert cap. It also makes sense to buy a small family tandoor for meat and fish. An Armenian tonir, built independently, 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-hood.

The classic tandoor is made from kaolin clay with the addition of camel or sheep wool. A homemade oven is a little simpler. What they have in common is that both designs allow you to cook food according to traditional Asian recipes.

What is a tandoor and how does it differ from a barbecue?

The tandoor is a ceramic oven known in Asian countries for several millennia. It is used for cooking traditional dishes and home heating. Among some peoples, this stove was considered an object of cult. Today, tandoor can be found not only in Asian villages, but also in an ordinary restaurant and even in the country.

The peculiarity of the tandoor is that the food is cooked directly inside the oven. Its main difference from a barbecue is that cooking does not take place over an open fire, but solely due to the heat given off by the heated ceramic walls of the oven.

There are other differences between the eastern stove:

• Skewers with meat or fish strung on them do not need to be rotated periodically: the heat comes from the walls and passes evenly over the entire surface.
• What happens inside the oven is not frying, but baking of the product. As a result, there is no characteristic crust that appears when frying over an open flame.
• The cooking speed does not exceed 10–15 minutes.
• The heat that the tandoor walls absorb from one load is enough for several loads of food. The oven cools down for 2–3 hours.

Principle of operation classic tandoor is as follows:

1. Firewood is loaded into the oven.
2. The fuel is ignited. After this, you need to wait for some time until the walls of the tandoor absorb a sufficient amount of heat.
3. Unburnt wood is removed from the stove.
4. Cooking products - meat, poultry, fish, etc. - are loaded inside the tandoor on special skewers.
5. Ceramic walls give off heat, resulting in uniform baking of dishes. As you know, it is precisely this kind of heat treatment that most nutritionists consider the most useful.

Types of furnaces

All known tandoor models can be divided into two main categories:

1. Stationary ovens. Before making a tandoor, the base is prepared. It is necessary to dig a hole, fill it with a layer of crushed stone and sand, lay out a foundation made of reinforcement and fill it with concrete. For concrete mortar, fireproof mixtures based on fireclay clay are used. As the base hardens (usually no more than 6 days), you can begin building the furnace.
2. Portable tandoors. This stove looks like a jug. The mobile design is based on discs made of cast iron or fire-resistant circles, to the bottom of which small transparent wheels are welded. If necessary, such a tandoor can be easily transported to any suitable place, including your home. Sometimes there are no wheels - such a stove ceases to be mobile, but remains portable.

All tandoors are based on an egg-shaped vessel with a flat bottom, made of heat-resistant clay. Stationary and portable stoves can include a variety of products, varying in execution, installation, material and design. We list some well-known varieties:

1. Ground tandoor. An ordinary clay oven placed on flat surface.

   To monitor the temperature, you can install a thermometer on the case

2. Stationary tandoor on a foundation. Can be installed indoors or outdoors. Installation takes place on a pre-equipped foundation.

   The weight of a stationary brick tandoor can reach several tons

3. Earth oven. Also belongs to the category of stationary stoves. The main feature is that the furnace is completely or partially submerged below ground level. The tandoor is equipped with a blower and a chimney. Installed outdoors or indoors.

   Similar designs can still be found in Armenia and some other countries

4. Horizontal design. In accordance with traditional technologies, a standard clay “jug” for the stove is first made, then, at the owner’s request, it can be installed vertically or horizontally.

   A horizontal furnace is built using the same technologies as a vertical one. The only difference is the location of the hole

Most modern tandoors are made from fireclay clay, which is why they are called ceramic. Among them, factory products stand out, equipped with a powerful forged frame with a lid, handles for transportation and metal legs. A rich pattern is applied to the surface of such products, emphasizing the status of the owner. A factory ceramic tandoor can be equipped with the following additional products:

• Blower.
• Skewers and a device for hanging them.
• Poker for mixing wood.
• Scoop for cleaning.
• Kolochnik.
• Mittens.

What you need to make it yourself

The classic tandoor is a traditional oriental oven. If it is made by immigrants from Asia using ancient technologies, it can be considered an example of the culinary culture of the East. At first glance, making a tandoor with your own hands is quite difficult. Certain tools, materials, and a little experience are required. But in fact, most homeowners can create such a stove.

Tools and materials

To build an oriental tandoor in the yard of your own home, you will need a certain amount Supplies. Their number depends on the planned size of the furnace.

1. A mixture of gravel and sand.
2. Cement.
3. Wire mesh.
4. Fireclay brick.
5. Fireproof paint on a water-based or acrylic basis.
6. Fiber made from asbestos.
7. Six-millimeter fiberglass reinforcement.
8. Steel wire. Basic requirements: diameter - 3 mm, should bend easily when twisted.
9. Fireproof mixture for masonry.

We should also talk about tools. Making a tandoor does not require professional installations or complex machines. A few products that are in every home are enough:

1. Plastering rule.
2. Paint brush 10 centimeters wide.
3. Spatula 12 centimeters wide.
4. A container (for example, a trough) for batches.
5. Bulgarian. The package should include a diamond cutting wheel for ceramics.

The main material for making a tandoor is fireclay brick. These building materials can withstand prolonged exposure to high temperatures (up to 1 thousand degrees). Due to the low thermal conductivity of the products, the heat remains inside the tandoor.

High-quality fireclay bricks have two important characteristics:

• High heat capacity. Kiln walls accumulate a lot of heat.
• Increased thermal inertia. Fireclay bricks heat up for a long time and thoroughly and cool very slowly, which allows you to cook several servings of food.

Calculations

Tandoor is a hemisphere made of clay or ceramics with a round top or side opening. The working volume of the furnace is in the range of 0.25 – 1 m³.

The upper part of the tandoor oven tapers. If the bottom diameter equal to a meter, then the same top figure can be 0.7 m.

The traditional size of a tandoor is as follows:

• Height - 1–1.5 meters.
• The diameter of the base and body of the boiler is 1 meter.
• The diameter of the top or side (depending on the type of tandoor) is 0.6–0.7 meters.

When choosing a place for a tandoor oven, you need to take into account some nuances. The size of the area for the base should be at least a meter, ideally one and a half. The distance from buildings, especially wooden ones, is 3–5 meters: a self-made stove can be a fire hazard.

In addition to firewood, the tandoor can also run on electricity

Instructions for creating a tandoor

The process of making a stationary tandoor occurs in several successive stages.

Making the foundation

For any building that is being built under open air, a fairly strong foundation is required.

First of all, you need to decide on the type of soil. For heaving, clayey, low-lying soils, a reinforced columnar foundation is required. For light soil made of sandy loam or sand, a monolithic concrete slab is suitable.

A traditional tandoor has a base of 100 x 100 cm. With these dimensions, the thickness of the concrete slab is limited to 10 cm. Laying occurs as follows:

The minimum setting time for concrete is about three days. During this period, fire bricks can be prepared a certain form and building regulations.

Laying the base and molding bricks

The base of the tandoor oven is a perfect circle. To form it correctly, the circle is drawn according to the pattern.

Making rules

A rule may be needed to ensure that walls are built to specifications. It is made from several planks. The length of the vertical pole is about a meter. The dimensions of the horizontal strips depend on the internal diameters of the furnace.

The length of the first level (base) of the rule corresponds to the radius of the bottom of the tandoor. The third (upper) level should be 1/3 less than the initial one. Between them there can be another, central, crossbar. For example, if the length of the bottom bar is 30 cm, then the same indicator for the second and third levels is 25 and 20 cm, respectively.

Brickwork is guided by the shape of the rule

Laying walls

Fireclay bricks are laid on top of each other vertically. For the stability of the entire stove structure, the quality of laying the first row is critical.

1. The bricks are installed on the base of the tandoor. Their inner edges are in close contact with each other, the outer seam is coated with a fireproof solution.

   All external seams are coated with a fire-resistant mixture

2. After laying the first row, it is tied together with steel wire. The ends are twisted and hidden in the interbrick seam. In the future, the wire will remain on the finished tandoor.
3. The second row is being laid. Starting from this stage, the fireclay bricks are cut into a wedge. The remaining work is carried out similarly to the previous stage: the external seams are coated with a fire-resistant solution, the internal edges are in close contact with each other. At the same time, at the level of the second row, a blower is equipped and a damper is installed.

   The pipe can also be laid directly into the foundation of the structure

4. In the same way, according to the rule, the third and subsequent rows are displayed, depending on the planned sizes.

   The bricks fit tightly together. Gaps are not allowed

5. After laying the top row, you can begin finishing works. The surface of the tandoor is carefully plastered with a stove mixture. The layer of the mixture is at least a centimeter. The top edge can be shaped like a roller so that there are no sharp corners.
6. After plastering, you need to cover the tandoor with moisture-proof cellophane film. This will protect the surface of the oven from rain. The film must be shaded so that the tandoor does not fade or dry out when exposed to direct sunlight. The structure remains in this form for several days until the plaster dries.
7. In the East, a plastered tandoor is treated with whitewash. Alternatively, you can use acrylic-based fireproof paint.
8. After the solution has completely dried (after about three days), the inside of the tandoor is thoroughly cleaned of dirt, deposits and other inclusions. To do this, you can use a regular hard broom.

   A classic tandoor has certain requirements for fuel. In Asian countries, saxaul is mainly used to kindle the stove; in rare cases, plane tree or elm is used.

   In general, a tandoor can be heated with the same wood as a barbecue. You should not use pallets and charcoal: they generate excessive heat, which can cause the stove to crack. Also, you cannot use coal, which emits large amounts of coke gases.

   Firewood is placed in the tandoor at approximately 1/5 - 1/6 of the height. Much depends on the type of food: cooking shashlik requires half as much wood as flatbread. Cooking begins after the fuel burns out. Soot and soot remaining on the walls should also burn out.

   Photo gallery: ready-made tandoors

   Building an Asian tandoor oven yourself requires some construction skills. Before cutting expensive fireclay bricks, it’s worth practicing on cheap ones and moving on to construction, having already gotten your hands on it.

To diversify your country menu, you can build a tandoor out of brick with your own hands, spending very little time on setting up this unusual stove. The design of the tandoor developed historically among steppe nomadic peoples who were forced to conserve fuel. To fire such a fireplace, very little firewood is required, after which you can bake bread or cook food in the heat provided by the heated walls. In a dome-shaped oven, the required temperature is maintained for quite a long time without fire, and if necessary, it can be maintained by adding wood chips or dry plant branches.

Currently, Asian hearths are one of the types of exotic stoves. Traditional methods making them from clay is quite complex and labor-intensive. Therefore, you can increasingly find country mini-ovens made of brick. There are both electric and gas industrial models.

But anyone who is a little familiar with masonry techniques can make a tandoor out of brick with their own hands. There are several types of homemade fireplaces:

• vertical square;
• vertical cylindrical;
• horizontal (Central Asian).

Cylindrical vertical models are especially popular. They are made both immersed in the ground, and above ground, and even mobile. This design allows you to use the hearth for different purposes: bake flatbreads or samsa, fry shish kebab, cook pilaf or other dish in a cauldron, and even just boil water in a kettle.

The vertical square tandoor is also quite versatile, but its design is less perfect, because the interior of the oven will not warm up as well in the corners. But you can bake bread in such a fireplace, although you will have to place the cakes closer to the middle of each side. In all other cases, the simple design fully justifies itself, allowing you to bake meat or cook something in the same way. kitchen utensils installed over the hole.

A horizontal tandoor is traditionally sculpted from clay, which allows you to make arched vault without much effort. But it’s quite possible to make a front-loading brick tandoor yourself. When cooking food in a container, you will need to place it inside the firebox. This gives the horizontal hearth a vague resemblance to a Russian stove. In this case, flat cakes or samsa in Central Asia are still baked, attaching them to the walls of the firebox.

Preparatory stage

Before making a brick tandoor, you need to complete a series preliminary work. They depend on the design of the fireplace, but in general they come down to preparing the base and selecting materials. An important point in making a mini-stove cylindrical is making a template. It is needed to ensure that the round arch is smooth.

You can take an ordinary brick for a tandoor: red solid or even facing. But the best choice would be fireproof fireclay stone, which is designed to withstand high temperatures. The heating and cooling times for all brands of brick are approximately the same.

In addition to building stone, a number of additional materials will be required:

• cement, sand and crushed stone - for the foundation of the above-ground variation;
• masonry mortar for stoves and fireplaces (dry mixture);
• pipe with a diameter of 10 cm (asbestos cement, sandwich, tin) - for some tandoor models;
• grate;
• clay;
• reinforcing mesh, wire;
• cutting boards and plywood;
• grinder and disc for ceramics;
• measuring instruments.

If you add decorative elements to the structure, you can even decorate the site with a tandoor. In this case, it is best to sketch the building in color, and then make drawings according to the desired dimensions of the hearth.

The location for the mini-oven should be chosen so that the building is flooded with water as little as possible during the spring melting of snow. If necessary, you can build a raised platform for its installation. For a ground model, you will have to pour a foundation, and for an in-depth model, you will have to dig a hole.

How to make a ground tandoor

For oven similar design a foundation is definitely needed. Even a small tandoor will weigh quite a lot, so during the period of thawing and freezing of the soil it can move and the masonry will simply crumble. But since the building is still not very large, you can get by slab foundation, the dimensions of which must exceed the diameter of the oven by at least 20 cm around the entire perimeter.

Under the foundation you need to dig a pit up to 50 cm deep. A layer of sand or ASG should be laid at the bottom of the hole, leveled and compacted. The thickness of the cushion is 10-15 cm. After this, mix a solution of 1 part M400-M500 cement, 3 parts fine sand and 4 parts crushed stone, adding water until a plastic mass is obtained.

Concrete must be poured into the pit, filling it to the soil level. Then install formwork from boards along the contour of the pit and raise the concrete level by another 5 cm. If you want to protect your homemade brick tandoor from melt water, the platform can be made higher. After preparing the base, work will have to be interrupted for 7-10 days until the concrete gains strength.

Laying a cylindrical tandoor

Before you build a brick tandoor, you need to make a template. Traditionally, a construction made of boards and plywood is used:

1. Choose a pole no less than the height of the future tandoor (about 1.2 m).
2. Attach slats to it in increments of 30 cm (along the height of the pole). The length of the bottom one and the next one after it is 30 cm. Then you need to make smaller planks, forming a bend: the length of 3 supports is 25 cm, and the length of 4 bars is 20 cm.
3. Attach a strip of plywood to the free ends of the slats, bending it in accordance with the profile formed by the shortening parts. The length of the slats can be chosen arbitrarily, depending on the size of the fireplace, and be half its diameter at the base and at the top. A convenient stove height is about 1 m.

The laying of a tandoor of a vertical configuration begins with the formation of its bottom. To do this, several fireclay bricks need to be laid on the foundation without mortar. Draw a circle on them with a diameter equal to the future building. Taking out 1 piece at a time, cut off the excess parts of the stone using a grinder with a ceramic disc. After cutting, the bricks need to be placed in their places. In the end it will work out round base. In order not to confuse the parts during laying, they should be numbered.

Remove the base parts from the foundation and prepare the solution. A fireproof mixture will be required for laying stoves and fireplaces. You need to add water to the dry composition according to the instructions on the package, kneading a viscous clay dough. Apply the mortar to the foundation, lay out the numbered bricks, pressing and lightly rubbing them against the base.

The construction of walls can be done in different ways:

• install the brick vertically, with the long narrow edge facing outwards;
• perform the usual masonry of 1 brick around the circumference;
• place the stones with the butt side facing out (for this method, you usually take half bricks).

If masonry elements are installed vertically, you need to slightly trim the ends (butt sides) of each brick. This way they will easily form a vault.

Install the template on the bottom of the future tandoor. In this case, the pole should be located in the center of the brick circle, and the plywood strip should be 12.5 cm from its edge. A bed of mortar should be applied to the free space.

After this, the laying is carried out by pressing the inner edge of each brick against the plywood template. Turning the pole, lay out 1 row around the circumference. At this level you need to leave a small hole for ventilation. Therefore, 1-2 bricks are not installed in the masonry.

The next level is raised using the same principle, pressing the edge of the stone against the template. The masonry parts must be shifted in relation to the lower ones in order to obtain a bandage of the seams. Close the blower hole, completely closing the fireclay brick ring. Tie and tighten the row with thin steel wire or reinforcing mesh.

Continue raising the walls of the tandoor, orienting the narrowing of each circle according to the template. When laying bricks vertically or side by side, you must ensure that the inner edges of each of them are in contact with the adjacent ones. As a result, small gaps are formed between the outer sides. You can fill the space between the parts with the same masonry mixture as you work.

After the construction of the brick tandoor is completed, the template must be taken out through the top hole. Level the internal surfaces by applying clay mortar or fireproof mixture to them. Cover the outer surface with clay, finishing it to your liking: stone or tile cladding, decorative mosaic or some other way.

The edge of the hole on top should be carefully coated with clay dough, giving it a roundness. Very often at this moment, supports for suspensions are formed. To do this, you just need to make 4 cross-shaped notches in the upper edge of the tandoor. They can be used to place sticks on which skewers with meat, a grill for roasting vegetables, etc. will be hung.

Square tandoor

Very simple model The hearth can be made with your own hands even without a template. To build a square tandoor oven made of brick, a rough order of 2.5x2.5 masonry stones can be used. If desired, you can choose other sizes, the construction principle will not change. The coarse layout has a hole for the combustion door. Since the vertical tandoor does not have this part, you need to lay bricks where the door opening is marked.

The slab under the foundation must be poured into the appropriate shape, and after the concrete has hardened, bricks must be laid on it, forming a base in the form of a square. Elements of the next level should overlap the joints of the lower bricks. You need to leave a small hole in the middle for blowing, leading it to one side of the square. Raise 1 more row, install the grate.

At the next level, cover the blower channel by laying out a solid floor with a hole above the grate. For the walls of the oven, several rows should be laid around the perimeter of the square, carefully checking the verticals of the sides and the horizontality of the upper edge. At a comfortable height you need to start narrowing the canopy.

To create a kind of furnace roof, you need to move each masonry element slightly inward. In this case, you will have to cut the bricks so that they fit on the ever-shortening sides of the square. When the top hole reaches a size of 20x20 cm, you need to raise the side slightly. Clean the internal surfaces from mortar deposits; if desired, the stove can be plastered on the outside.

How to make a tandoor in the ground?

In a dry and elevated area, you can make a stove, completely or partially immersed in the ground. Such a building can become the center of a recreation area, replacing a Scandinavian hearth. Before you make a tandoor from brick with your own hands, for such a design you must find a sufficiently long asbestos-cement pipe to make the blower channel.

Considering that the height of the tandoor is about 1.2 m, you need to be prepared to dig a pit of the specified depth. With partial deepening, the hole may be smaller. Its width is chosen arbitrarily. You need to lay a layer of ASG at the bottom, compact it and pave the pit with bricks.

1 row of masonry is laid on this improvised foundation. The shape of the stove can be round or square, and the building stone can be placed either on a spoon or vertically. After 1 tier has been formed, a blower pipe should be installed. To do this, a trench must be dug with a slope that will allow the other end of the pipe to be brought to the ground surface. To fill the gap between the pit wall and the masonry, you can use excavated soil or ordinary clay, sand, or crushed stone.

At subsequent levels, the firebox walls simply need to be raised to the desired height above the ground. If the building will have to perform decorative functions, trim the edge to your own taste. To prevent the tandoor from cooling down too quickly, you need to select a lid that fits the diameter of the top hole.

What is a horizontal tandoor?

The Central Asian stove, in which there is no top hole, is also very interesting. Its throat is located on the side, which makes this design similar to the Russian or Pompeii oven. A tandoor of this design is traditionally made from clay mixed with straw or sheep wool. It is convenient to warm up near such a fireplace in the winter cold; it is often installed under a roof, indoors. But building a brick tandoor is possible in this case too.

To create it you will need a circle, or a template made of plywood and boards. It will help you quickly build a tandoor with your own hands, ensure ease of laying the vault and provide support for the bricks until the mortar sets. A template is made in the form of 2 connected arches, the width of which is equal to their height. You can draw a circle of the required size, draw a horizontal diameter and drop 2 straight lines from the points of intersection of it with the circle. Transfer the resulting figure to plywood and cut out 2 identical parts.

Connect them with bars along the top edge. The length of the slats is equal to the desired depth of the oven. Cover the top edge with thin plywood, bending the sheet along the contour of the arch and attaching it to the bars.

Prepare the oven base. Traditionally, it is built in the form of a table about 1 m high. For the base, you can use cinder block, brick, or natural stone. You can weld a structure from a steel corner and put a metal tabletop on top.

A layer of bricks with clay mortar is placed on the finished base, forming a furnace with a channel for blowing. On the next row you need to block the channel, leaving a hole in the center.

After this, place the circle on bars 3-5 cm thick and level it horizontally and vertically. For masonry, it is best to use wedge-shaped bricks, specially designed for making vaults and arches. If they are absent, cut off part of the ordinary masonry stone, giving it the desired shape.

Spoon uncut stone along 1 row to the left and right of the template, close to its plywood arch. Shifting the bricks to bandage the seams, raise both sides evenly to the beginning of the arch. After this, use only cut or wedge-shaped stones, gradually closing the arch in the middle. Leave a small hole for the chimney. Dry the masonry for 4-5 days.

Carefully knock the bars out from under the circle. At the same time, it will lower slightly, which will allow you to freely remove the template from the firebox. Place the grate.

Cover the open back of the arch with bricks. You can make a damper or decorative doors on the facade. Seal the chimney pipe and lead it outside if the stove is located indoors. For outdoor stove chimney is optional.

Preparing the tandoor for use

But the work on the made tandoor is not finished: the hearth you have laid out with your own hands must first be burned. This is done only after the clay has dried, that is, a few days after the construction of the building itself is completed.

Build a fire using paper and small wood chips. Heat the oven until the outer surface reaches +350°C (warm to the touch). Turn off the fire and let the stones cool completely. Next time, bring the oven temperature to approximately +700°C (hot). It can cool for several hours, or you can leave it overnight.

The last heating should warm up the tandoor to operating temperature (+1500°C or more). After this, it is completely ready for use.

To bake bread and samsa, you need to heat the oven well and let the wood burn down to coals. Dough products are glued directly to the walls. The cauldron can be placed on a round hole on top, and skewers with meat are hung on sticks in a vertical position. There is no need to turn them, as they heat up evenly on all sides.

The tandoor is a multifunctional oven in which you can cook any dish of oriental cuisine, using a minimum amount of fuel. The structure can be stationary or portable, made of clay or brick. Hardwood is used as fuel for the tandoor. Such a stove can be purchased ready-made or you can make a tandoor with your own hands, following certain steps technological process.

What is tandoor? This is a special type of roasting oven in which food is cooked due to heat transfer from the walls of the structure. The food cooks slowly as the heat is introduced gradually. Its uniform distribution helps preserve the juiciness of products and all useful qualities food.

In appearance, a tandoor looks like a large clay cauldron with holes that is turned upside down. The height of the product is 1-1.5 m, the diameter of the bottom is 1 m. The thicker the walls of the structure, the more heat the stove will give off. At the bottom of the tandoor there is a channel for supplying fresh air, which helps maintain the combustion process. Classic design has a round shape, but there are rectangular and square tandoors made of brick.

To improve the thermal insulation properties, the outside of the stove is lined with brick. The special shape of the tandoor promotes the accumulation of heat in the walls of the structure, which is slowly released inside. This helps maintain a constant high temperature inside the product for a long time.

Important! To create the optimal amount of heat in a tandoor, you will need half as much firewood as you would need for a classic barbecue.

The main advantages of tandoor are the following characteristics:

• long-term preservation of high temperature inside the structure;
• no need for constant monitoring of the cooking process;
• economical fuel consumption;
• the ability to prepare several dishes during one heating of the structure;
• ease of operation;
• the design does not require special care;
• unpretentiousness of the stove in relation to the type, quality and quantity of fuel;
• simplicity of design.

The disadvantages of the stove include:

• the presence of one common hole for firewood and food;
• lack of chimney;
• formation of soot deposits on the walls of the product after ignition;
• the need to use fire-resistant gloves to prevent burns.

Tandoor structure, operating principle and operating features

The Uzbek tandoor in the form of a clay jug-shaped cauldron turned upside down is installed on a foundation that rises 20 cm above the ground and goes just as deep into it. The structure is mainly located in the open area of ​​the yard. Above the foundation there is a built-in ash pit closed by a door. A cast iron grate is installed above the opening. Next, a chamber is placed in the form of a dome with a smooth inner surface covered with a layer of clay.

The structure is covered with brick, creating a small air gap, which is filled with salt or sand, due to which the temperature inside the tandoor remains high for six hours.

Firewood or coal is placed through the top hole. After the fuel burns out completely, the soot that covers the inner surface falls off, leaving the coating clean. This means that you can load food into the oven. Before baking, the resulting ash is removed. In the case of meat, this is not necessary. Pieces of dough are glued to the inner surface of the oven.

In a barbecue tandoor, skewers with meat are hung vertically on a special rack, point down. A cauldron with pilaf is placed on the neck of the structure. Next, the tandoor is covered with a lid on top, and the vent is closed. Cooking time depends on the dish and is 15-45 minutes.

Helpful advice! To remove baked goods from the tandoor, use a hook or ladle.

The kindling process depends on the time of year. In winter, the temperature should gradually increase, so wood chips are lit first, and then the main fuel is added. In summer you can do without pre-ignition. After the tandoor has cooled completely, it is recommended to completely clear it of ash. Fat deposited on the inner surface of the structure will burn off during subsequent use of the product.

Types of designs depending on installation option: photos of tandoors

A tandoor in the form of a ceramic hemisphere with a round hole can be above ground, underground or portable. The first design option is installed on a flat surface horizontally or vertically, depending on the orientation of the tandoor. Fuel is loaded through the side or top opening, respectively. The draft occurs through a blower located in the lower part of the furnace. According to reviews from owners, ground-type tandoor is the most popular among other options.

An earthen or pit tandoor is partially or completely submerged underground. Kindling is carried out through the top hole, which also serves to load products. To maintain the necessary traction, a pipe is connected to the bottom of the product, which is buried in the ground at an angle of 450.

Helpful advice! In stationary tandoors you can cook several dishes at the same time.

A portable tandoor can be installed anywhere. The product is made of fireclay clay in the form of a barrel or jug. Depending on the weight of the oven, tandoor comes in four types: small (up to 50 kg), medium (50-79 kg), large (80-100 kg), very large (over 100 kg). This design is additionally equipped with carrying handles and legs on which it is installed. Also included with the product are skewers, racks, hooks and attachments.

Mobile tandoors have thick walls (up to 70 mm), additionally reinforced with steel strips. For such structures it is necessary to ensure proper protection from moisture during storage, so it is recommended to purchase special covers.

What type of fuel can be used for tandoors

Traditional tandoors use hardwood or charcoal as fuel. The product is a thick-walled pot with a lid, made of refractory clay. For air flow and ash removal, there is a special hole at the bottom of the product. Firewood is loaded through the top opening. After they are completely burned, you can start cooking. Such products are characterized by the lowest price. You can buy a tandoor from 5,500 rubles.

Helpful advice! The amount of fuel is determined by the volume of the furnace and is 2/3 of this value. Excessive use of fuel will not increase the temperature inside the tandoor.

There are tandoors that use gas as fuel. Such designs are usually used in cafes, bakeries and restaurants. You can install such a tandoor in your home kitchen, but in this case you should worry about purchasing a good hood to remove exhaust air.

The jug is made from baked white clay and placed inside metal case. To preserve heat for a long time, the voids are filled with heat-insulating material in the form of sand, fine expanded clay or salt. Gas ovens are easy to use and do not emit harmful substances and economical. However, the dishes do not have the characteristic smoke smell.

For home cooking You can purchase an electric tandoor, for which heating elements serve as the heat source. They are located around the perimeter of the lower part of the structure. These are convenient and compact products that do not require firewood and do not emit soot or smoke. The electric tandoor for flatbreads is made of metal. The inside of the product has a ceramic coating. The design of such braziers is varied, which allows you to choose a product for a specific interior style.

Electric tandoors are equipped with mini-computers that control the cooking process by regulating temperature and humidity. You can also buy a tandoor for barbecue and baking, where firewood can be used along with electricity.

How much does a tandoor cost depending on the type and type of fuel

The cost of tandoors is influenced by many factors: material of manufacture, type of firebox, design, dimensions of the product and availability additional accessories. The products are presented in a wide price range, so any buyer can choose an option to suit their budget.

A large family tandoor can be chosen from a number of wood-fueled household products, such as: Hunter, Nomad, Big Sarmatian and Middle. The height of the structure is in the range of 63-105 cm. Such clay products surprise with their interesting design. Used as cladding broken glass, brick, natural and artificial stone, which allows you to create original patterns and ornaments on the surface. The average price of a tandoor is 8,500-20,000 rubles.

Electric tandoors are very popular today. Customer reviews of such products are positive. Advantage electric models is the possibility of installing them not only on the street, but also in the apartment. The structures are made of refractory clay and heated by heating elements. You can buy an electric tandoor for an average of 15,000-80,000 rubles.

To produce large quantities of bread and flatbreads, you can choose electrical products from fireclay clay in the Pro category. Such ovens are designed for preparing baked goods in quantities of 60-120 pcs. You can buy a tandoor for flatbreads from 145,000 rubles. Gas stoves are also very popular, the cost of which depends on the type of device and ranges from 75,000-135,000 rubles. You can buy an Uzbek tandoor on wood for industrial needs at a price of 50,000 rubles.

Related article:

Advantages of products, types of models, installation of the structure, recommendations for manufacturing and selection of materials for creating with your own hands.

What can you cook in a tandoor? Almost any dish. This oven is used for cooking flatbreads, samsa, vegetables, fish and various meat dishes. It does not use open fire, but heat coming from the walls of the structure. This is ideal for obtaining the best quality baked goods. Many recipes for dishes cooked in tandoor can be found on the Internet.

Helpful advice! Before starting the first fire, the inner surface of the tandoor is lubricated with cotton-based oil. Then the oven is heated throughout the day, so that the dough cakes will not stick to the clay surface.

Flatbreads should be moistened before baking in the tandoor to ensure better adhesion of the dough to the surface. To collect the fat dripping from meat dishes, a special bowl is used, which is located under the meat.

You can cook barbecue and pizza in the tandoor. However, to do this, you should purchase an additional element in the form of a grate, which is attached to the neck of the structure using special fasteners and lowered to the middle of the stove. In a large tandoor, you can place a pan or kettle on the grill to prepare aromatic pilaf or shurpa.

When preparing shashlik or kebab, skewers are placed in the opening of the tandoor or can be hung on a transverse iron rod. In this case, the neck is covered with a lid. The time spent preparing dishes is much less than when using a barbecue or oven. For pork or lamb it will take 18-25 minutes, for beef - 30-35 minutes, for fish and poultry - 8-15 minutes, for vegetables - 5-7 minutes.

Helpful advice! You can place a pan with tough, sinewy meat in a half-cooled tandoor and leave it until the morning. The next day, this product in any dish will melt in your mouth.

Preparing the composition for making a clay tandoor with your own hands

The traditional Uzbek clay tandoor is not built with your own hands, but is molded from clay. A special composition of the material is used here. You will need kaolin clay, which has good plasticity and high thermal insulation properties. To prevent the body of the tandoor from cracking under the influence of high temperatures, camel or sheep wool with a fiber length of 1-1.5 cm is added to the clay mixture. Before making a tandoor, you should prepare a molding mixture, which consists of clay, salt, sand and wool, in a ratio of 4:1:1:2.

The clay is first cleaned of foreign impurities, rubbed through a sieve, mixed and soaked for 48 hours. The remaining elements are added to the prepared substance. The mixture is thoroughly mixed until a viscous state is formed, reminiscent of the consistency of sour cream. Next, the prepared composition should be left for 7 days so that it dries and acquires the necessary condition. During given period The mixture should be stirred periodically to ensure it dries evenly. Any water that collects on top must be drained.

The less moisture remains in the molding composition, the lower the risk of cracking of the tandoor during firing. The mixture is suitable for further use when the consistency resembles plasticine.

How to make a tandoor with your own hands: the traditional version

The method of making a tandoor from clay is called the strip method, since long strips about 2-3 cm thick, 20-25 cm wide and 2 m long are made from the material.

Helpful advice! The manufacture of the oven should be carried out in the shade under a canopy so that the clay does not lose its elasticity when it dries quickly under the influence of sunlight.

The prepared strips must be left to dry for some time under sun rays. Next, a bowl without a bottom is formed from them. The product is placed in a ring with smooth walls. It is recommended to use a metal barrel as a frame for forming the lower part of the product, which will need to be removed immediately. To prevent the clay from sticking to the metal, it should be lubricated with sunflower oil.

Then one or two strips need to be attached to the bottom of the product to form a part of the jug that tapers towards the top, which looks like a dome. Next, the process of compacting the walls is carried out. For this, two tools are used: a metal or wooden trowel in the shape of a disk with smooth rounded edges and a wooden spatula with embossed diagonal stripes.

You need to hold the trowel in one hand and press it against the inner surface of the product, and from the outside through the clay wall you should gently tap it with a spatula. This process helps compact the clay and form a pattern on the surface in the form of diagonal stripes.
The final stage is to form the upper part of the tandoor neck with your own hands. The oven narrows at the top. The diameter of the neck should be two times smaller than the bottom of the jug. The clay is compacted and leveled in the same way as for the main part of the tandoor.

The finished product is transferred to the shade for final drying for 30 days. After the product is completely dry, its inner surface should be lubricated with a generous layer of sunflower oil.

Preparing a site for installing a finished clay inlay

There are two options for installing a clay tandoor: on a foundation followed by brick lining and underground. The location for installation of the product is selected in advance.

If the finished clay insert will be located in a recess, it is necessary to prepare a foundation pit, the depth of which is determined by the height of the product. Its upper part should protrude 7-10 cm from the ground. Thus, the earth performs the function of preserving heat. An additional blower should be installed at the bottom of the tandoor.

To create a foundation, you need to dig a pit. It may have a round or square shape. This depends on the configuration of the thermal casing in the form of a brick wall around the tandoor. The second option is more preferable, since a sufficient gap is formed between the inlay and the wall, which is filled with a heat-accumulating or heat-insulating composition. The size of the pit should exceed the dimensions of the bottom part of the insert by 10-15 cm. The depth of the pit is 15-17 cm.

The pit is filled with sand in a layer of 5 cm and compacted well. Next, crushed stone of the middle fraction is added with reinforcement mesh laid, which makes it possible to obtain an additional reinforcing layer. Then formwork is performed with a height of 10-15 cm. The foundation should rise above ground level by 5-7 cm to eliminate the possibility of the masonry being washed away by storm water. A concrete solution consisting of gravel, cement and sand is poured into the formwork. The surface is leveled according to the rule. You can study the installation process in more detail in the video “Do-It-Yourself Tandoor”.

Installation of a clay inlay with the construction of a brick wall

After completely dry The formwork is removed from the concrete base. The surface is marked according to the dimensions of the clay insert for the construction of a brick wall. First, a brick platform is made with open area for arranging a channel for the blower chamber, which is closed with a special door. Can be mounted in a brick tab metal pipe. It is recommended to install a damper in it, thanks to which the amount of incoming air can be adjusted. The damper can close completely.

A cast iron grate is placed on the ash chamber, where fuel combustion occurs. The ash enters the ash pit, from which it is easily removed through the open door. A clay tab is installed on top of the grate on the platform. For reliability and sealing, the joint between the lower edge of the jug and the brick base is covered with a clay solution. Then a brick wall is erected around the entire perimeter of the tab. The gap between the structure and the tandoor is filled with expanded clay, sand or salt. The brick wall reaches the height of the insert.

Making a tandoor with your own hands from a barrel

The traditional version of making a tandoor from clay requires special knowledge, skills and abilities. The surface is often crooked, and the clay can subsequently crack. To avoid such troubles, a simplified technology was developed. It is based on making your own tandoor from a 200 liter barrel. The essence of the method is to create clay walls around a wooden product.

To build a tandoor with your own hands, you will need kaolin clay, vegetable oil, fine fireclay sand, a wooden barrel with iron hoops and sheep or camel's wool. The first step is to fill the barrel to the top with water for 24 hours. This is necessary for impregnation and swelling of the wood. Next, you should prepare a molding mixture of clay, sand and wool in a ratio of 2:4:1, which should dry and become plastic.

All the water is drained from the barrel. It must dry completely, after which its inner surface is soaked in sunflower oil for 24 hours. Then the inside of the barrel is covered with a clay mixture 4-5 cm thick. The composition should be well leveled, wetting your hands with water, so that the result is the maximum smooth surface. Moving up to the neck, the layer of clay must be increased, due to which the upper part of the oven narrows. At the bottom of the structure there is a small hole for free passage of air.

The structure must dry completely in a dry, dark and ventilated place for 3-4 weeks. After this, the iron hoops are removed and the wooden barrel is dismantled, leaving the clay structure intact. The finished frame is installed on a thick sand cushion, where it is fired. To improve the thermal insulation qualities, you can make a brick wall around the stove.

Do-it-yourself brick tandoor: step-by-step instructions, drawings and photos of the process stages

The traditional version of the tandoor is made from kaolin clay. This is a rather labor-intensive and expensive process that requires the involvement of a specialist or requires a high level of skill. To simplify the task, but still get the desired result, you can make a tandoor with your own hands from brick. The simplest option for making a home stove consists of several processes, each of which will be described in detail in this article.

For construction you will need the following list of building materials:

• kiln brick;
• wooden template;
• masonry sand mixture;
• cement;
• sand;
• kaolin;
• reinforcing mesh.

To finish the stove, a solution consisting of clay, salt, sand and wool in a ratio of 4:1:1:2 is used. Sheep or camel wool acts as a reinforcing element and contributes to good thermal insulation. The mortar for laying brick rows is prepared in the same way (with the exception of wool). The brick for the tandoor should be silicate or red heat-resistant, which can withstand high temperatures for a long time.

Before building a tandoor, it is necessary to prepare the foundation. To do this, prepare a round pit with a diameter several centimeters larger than the size future design. A sand cushion 10 cm thick is created at the bottom, which is covered with a metal mesh made from thick wire or reinforcement rods. Next, the hole is filled with concrete mortar, which is carefully leveled using an iron rule. Be sure to check the horizontalness of the surface by using a level. Then the lower part of the future dome-shaped chamber is marked, defining the outer boundaries of the walls.

Helpful advice! To ensure reliable waterproofing concrete foundation must be covered with a sheet of roofing material.

Before making a tandoor yourself, it is prepared on the foundation brick base. On concrete surface Three rows of fireclay bricks are laid: the first is placed along the pit, the second - across, the third - along. The elements of the two lower layers are laid tightly together without the use of mortar. For the top row, a clay mixture is used. The created foundation must be fixed with pieces of reinforcement on all sides. The rods are driven into the ground. Their height above the ground is equal to the mark of the top row of masonry.

How to make a tandoor from brick: step-by-step instructions

After the concrete base has gained the necessary strength, you can begin to build a brick tandoor. Photos that can be found on the Internet clearly display the sequence of actions. The diameter of the bottom part will be 1 m, and the height of the structure will be 130 cm. At the first stage, markings for the future furnace are carried out. The first row of the foundation is laid with an opening for the blower chamber. Clay mortar is used for masonry. The second row covers the chamber, leaving a window in its central part, where a cast-iron grate is mounted.

Starting from the third row, the wall of the structure is erected around the circumference. The bricks are laid in the traditional way. From the inside, the surface is coated with a thick layer of clay, which should be as smooth as possible. Twelve rows are built in this way. Next, you should begin to form the tandoor dome. To do this, each subsequent row is shifted towards the center by a certain distance, which is calculated in advance.

Knowing that the diameter of the oven is 1 m, it is necessary to take into account that the neck should be twice as narrow. This value should be achieved after 10 rows, which will correspond to a structure height of 130 cm. Having performed a simple arithmetic calculation, we come to the conclusion that each subsequent row should be shifted 5 cm to the center.

In order to make a tandoor with a smooth inner surface, the edges of the bricks that will be turned inward should be processed with a grinder. The surface can also be leveled using a clay mixture, constantly moistening it with water. After completion of the masonry process, a jug-shaped structure with a smooth inner surface is obtained.

Next, the exterior of the tandoor is finished using clay mortar. All seams must be well sealed. The steps that were formed during the construction of the dome must be completely hidden. After the stove has dried, which will happen in 2-3 days, you can make the first kindling.
Then they begin to build the outer wall of the tandoor, which comes close to the brick dome-shaped structure. The height of the structure is equal to the height of the inner chamber. The wall is made whole, except for the area opposite the blower hole, where a window is left. For better thermal insulation the space between the outer wall and the inside of the furnace is filled with fine-grained expanded clay, sand or salt.

Helpful advice! The upper part of the tandoor can be finished with stone or brick bonded with clay, which will provide a complete structure.

Building a brick tandoor with your own hands: a simplified version

The previous option requires some skill to create an arched brick vault. You can build a tandoor at your dacha with your own hands using a simplified method. For this it is recommended to use old brick. As a masonry mortar, you can purchase a ready-made heat-resistant mixture at a hardware store, intended for the construction of fireplaces and stoves. To prepare the solution, you must strictly follow the instructions written on the product packaging.

According to the do-it-yourself tandoor drawing, the brick is laid in a circle, the diameter of which is determined at the planning stage. Usually it is 50-70 cm. Using a wooden frame, the brick is placed on the end, forming a circle. Can be used for installation sand mortar, which consists of fireclay clay, the necessary plasticizers and quartz sand. This composition is very plastic, sets quickly and will not crack when fired.

The first row is laid without breaks. A small hole should be left in the second row, which will be used as a blower in the future. This could be a small window with an iron door or a chimney. The third row is laid out completely. If the height of a brick tandoor is 100-120 cm, four rows of bricks are sufficient, the horizontality of each of which is controlled using a level.

When constructing each new row, it should be tied with steel wire. Its ends are twisted and hidden in the gaps between the bricks. When creating the last row, you need to form a tapering neck. For this purpose, the brick should be laid with some inclination inside the tandoor. The video shows the entire construction process in more detail.

Do-it-yourself tandoor made of brick: coating and cladding the structure

Upon completion of construction work, the process of coating and lining the tandoor with bricks is carried out. Fireproof clay is applied to the internal and external surfaces of the structure. The thickness of the layer is at least 1.5-2 cm. There must be at least two such layers. The second is applied 2-3 days after the first has dried. To ensure uniform drying, the structure should be covered with plastic film.

Helpful advice! It is recommended to moisten the brick before applying the coating layer. This will promote uniform and gradual drying of the clay solution.

The inner surface must be perfectly smooth, so the clay mixture is leveled by constantly wetting it with water. In the upper part of the oven, a metal ring 30-50 mm high is mounted around the hole, thanks to which the area where the lid is installed is separated from the rest of the surface. The space from its outer side to the edge of the wall is filled with clay.

Next, the furnace body can be lined natural stone, this will give the structure an attractive and aesthetic appearance, which is clearly shown in the photo of the tandoor. Price finished design will average 4500-5000 rubles.

Helpful advice! To coat the brickwork, you can use finely ground fireclay mortar.

The final stage of tandoor production is its firing, which can be performed 3-4 hours after completion of the coating and finishing work. The structure is completely filled with firewood, a fire is lit inside the stove, which gradually heats the walls of the structure to 400°C. It is necessary that the fuel burns completely, after which the stove must cool slowly. This process contributes not only to the drying of the structure, but also to the firing and hardening of the clay.

After all work is completed, the tandoor should be left for 7 days. During this time you can do wooden cover, thanks to which heat will be retained inside the structure. You can watch the process of constructing the structure in more detail in the video “Do-it-yourself tandoor made of brick.”

Since ancient times, the tandoor has served as an indispensable attribute of the national Uzbek cuisine. Today it is widely used in private households. You can cook any dish in such an oven. Thanks to the special operating principle, it is possible to create not only a real masterpiece of culinary art, but also significantly save on fuel.

The structure can be made from clay or brick yourself, having mastered certain requirements, or you can buy a stove. Tandoor in specialized stores is presented in a wide range of varieties. Thanks to original finish finished product This traditional Uzbek stove will become a real decoration of the yard.

How to make a brick tandoor with your own hands: video

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

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

The original stove, made using ancient technologies, is made only from clay, dried in the sun and fired over a fire of saxaul wood. It can be 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 or cracks in them. It is impossible to completely remove moisture from clay in our conditions; it remains in large quantities even in a dry wall. Water begins to evaporate intensively during firing, which leads to the appearance of cracks on the surface, worsening the heat-storing 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 the types of brick tandoors, the best are those built from fireclay blocks, which after heat treatment acquire the properties of ceramics.

A brick tandoor is used as follows:

• Light a fire inside the oven and maintain it until the walls reach a high temperature. All this time it accumulates heat.
• After burning the wood, wait until the walls have cooled to a temperature of 250 degrees.
• Place the food inside and cover the opening with a lid. Clay bricks hold high temperatures for a long time and ensure the preparation of several batches of dishes.

How to make a tandoor from brick

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

Selection of materials

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

Fireclay blocks are made from a clay-fireclay mixture. There are several types of this building material, differing in density and fire resistance. For our case, samples marked ША, ШБ are suitable. Bricks are produced in three standard 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 ones, so in order not to overpay, make a drawing of a brick tandoor, from which you can determine their exact quantity.

For the stove, choose good quality material, paying attention to some points. Suitable specimens have an attractive sand-colored appearance and a grainy base. When tapped, they make a metallic sound, and after impact they break into large pieces. Unfired bricks crumble into crumbs, and the sound after tapping on them is dull; it is impossible to build stoves from such blocks - they do not retain heat, have low strength, so the structure may simply fall apart.

Before purchasing, make sure that the material was stored in a dry place, as... 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 cannot be placed together with them. Over time, a wall made of a combined material will simply collapse.

For the same reason, do not use a regular sand-cement mixture to fasten the elements. For such purposes, a special heat-resistant solution is intended - martel. 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 no more than 1 mm.

You can prepare the masonry mortar yourself from fireclay clay, which is sold dry in hardware stores. Available for sale in 20 kg bags. One package is enough to lay 20-30 bricks. To build 1 m 3 of wall you will need 5 bags of material. When purchasing, make sure that the powder has not yet expired and that it was stored in a dry place. Wet material loses its quality.

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

Preparation of mortar for masonry and plastering

To prepare the solution yourself, you will need fireclay clay, salt and quartz sand in a ratio of 4:1:1. An ordinary mixture based on clay and sand quickly becomes covered with cracks and does not adhere well to the brick. The prepared composition is very plastic and sets quickly and 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 until it covers the substance.
• Leave the solution for 2-3 days (check the instructions included with 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 before hardening.

Construction of the tandoor base

The stove is built on a solid foundation, which prevents cracks from appearing on the walls during seasonal soil movement. Therefore, before building a brick tandoor, study its composition. Rocky and sandy soil. 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 the operations in the following sequence:

1. Draw a 120x120 cm square on the ground to fit the oven standard sizes. Inside, dig a hole 10 cm deep, and along the perimeter select soil to a depth of 15 cm. In the corners of the pit, use a drill to dig holes 70 cm deep, 12-15 cm in diameter. Pour sand into the holes in a layer of 10-15 cm.
2. Install reinforcement welded into a quadrangle into 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 no lower than PC-400. After the concrete has hardened, remove the formwork and fill the bottom with sand flush with concrete belt along the perimeter of the pit. Compact the loose mass and fill it with water.
3. Prepare the formwork for the monolithic slab, ensuring that it protrudes 10-15 cm above the ground.
4. Weld a reinforcing mesh with 15-20 cm cells and place it in the pit. It is made from rods with a diameter of 10-12 mm. The rods do not need to be welded, but tied together at the intersections with annealed wire. It will be ideal if it is at a depth of 5 cm from the surface of the slab.
5. Fill the hole with concrete and check the levelness of the surface, wait 2-3 weeks for the solution to harden.
6. The base of the product is a circle, so on the prepared area, draw a circle with a diameter of 75 cm, this is the most popular size of a brick tandoor.
7. Fill in layout inner part circles in blocks, cutting off the excess from the workpieces with a grinder with a diamond blade or a special disk for cutting stones. Number each brick and record their location on paper.
8. Free the site from the material, apply a layer of mortar to the entire surface and lay the blocks according to the sketch.

It is not necessary to fill the foundation. Instead, you can use a strong reinforced concrete slab as a reliable base.

Construction of tandoor walls

In order for all the elements of the stove to correspond to the pre-designed brick tandoor pattern, we recommend using a special template in the form of a frame. Without it, it is difficult to lay material around a circle with the same radius.

The dimensions of the device depend on the height and diameter of the oven. As a rule, the height of a 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 increments of 25 cm: at the bottom - 30 cm long, in the middle - 25 cm, at the top - 20 cm. When rotated, it will show deviation of the wall from a given shape at a given level.

You will also need a pattern along which you can lay the bricks. A lamella from a bed under a mattress is suitable for this purpose.

Build the wall in the following sequence:

• To make the structure stable and have attractive appearance, draw the order of a 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 the blocks on it in a circle, placing them on edge, standing up. Align the inner edge without any gaps. Seal the seams with mortar. After laying out the first row, tie it 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 possible to install a chimney pipe in the opening.
• When you reach a height of 100-120, begin to form a neck, the height of which is 25-30 cm. To do this, tilt all the bricks of the higher rows slightly inward. Often the hole is made not from above, but from the side, but in classic version the bookmark is made from the top.
• After achieving the required shape, leave the structure for 2 days to allow the solution to harden. If you plan to cook flatbreads in the oven, cover the inside of the brick tandoor with a mixture of fireclay clay. The layer should be thick enough - at least 10 mm. To prepare kebabs or pilaf, the inside walls can be left unfinished.
• Cover the outside of the stove with mortar and then finish it with stone to give the structure an aesthetic appearance. Wait 2 days for the clay to dry.

Light a fire inside the building to fire the clay. After heating to a temperature of 400 degrees and gradually 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 grille is provided. In addition to meat, you can cook fish and vegetables on it. All products will be evenly fried on all sides.

Rules for operating a tandoor

When using the stove, you must adhere to some rules that will extend its service life and facilitate operation:

1. Raise the temperature in the tandoor gradually. In winter, burn a small amount of wood chips first and then add the main fuel. In summer, you can skip this procedure.
2. It is allowed to fill fuel to a height of no more than 2/3 of the structure. There is no need to lay more, the heat will simply evaporate through the top.
3. The type of fuel doesn't matter. You can use firewood, coal, brushwood; there are no temperature restrictions.
4. If grease gets on the walls, do not remove it. It will simply burn out the next time you use it.
5. Remove the ash with a scoop and poker through the hole on top. This is the only drawback of the device due to the obvious inconvenience of the operation.

Some designs provide a blower from where ash can be removed through the door, but this option complicates the device.

How to make a tandoor from brick - watch the video:

To manufacture such a stove, you do not need experience in construction work; all operations are quite simple. The main condition for obtaining a good result is the implementation of the technological process in a given sequence. Important also has the material used and timing between stages.