[Cob] Cleaner cob oven, Kennedy

[Monica Proulx]

Bravo, great ideas!  I too started feeling conflicted about all the CO2 and
smoke our oven puts out (not to mention how quickly that half cord of wood
went $$).  A year ago we also switched to shorter burns, skipping the
soaking, leaving the coals in, raising pans on bricks and always cooking
something over the chimney (a fairly short, flat topped chimney helps).
Makes the bottom of your pot black, but if you crack the lid it seems to
make food slightly smoky (maybe it's my imagination).  For pizza we push
coals to the sides and use a rectangular cookie sheet on the floor (round or
rectangular, tastes the same). Our crust tends to burn cooked over coals.

Made me feel heretical and lazy to switch, but it makes $ense and saves
time.  Going to switch to burning free juniper stumps from desert, not sure
how that will taste/smell though.

Would love to try your barrel oven, (or solar oven) but I guess you'd really
want to make sure you have a "clean" barrel, one that wasn't used for
chemicals?  Sure would miss that smoky flavor though, my son got really good
at whole meals over coals and in chimney pots, (including dessert, pies
taste great smoky crusted).

Thanks for sharing.