How to make a tandoor from a barrel with your own hands?

Tandoor is a convenient pitcher-shaped clay oriental oven for cooking a variety of dishes. Anyone who wishes has the opportunity to make such a structure at their dacha. The design has a circular configuration and is mounted directly on the ground, without preliminary preparatory work. You will learn how to make a tandoor from an iron, plastic or wooden barrel with your own hands from this publication.

Nowadays, Asian cuisine is quite popular. The list of dishes includes the well-known lavash, shashlik, shurpa, pilaf. If you love to cook the delicacies of the cuisine of the peoples of the East, then you cannot do without a tandoor.

Tandoor is a variation of a stove or brazier, which has a special jug-like shape. Tandoor is characterized by the fact that it has a good heat capacity and, at the same time, has a very low consumption of solid fuel - firewood. This is an extremely fundamental quality when cooking in the steppe, where it is very difficult to get firewood.

This oven has a very simple construction. It is realized in the form of a large earthenware jug with an opening at the bottom that allows air to flow. The top of the device is covered by a lid, usually wooden.

The structure of the classic tandoor is as follows:

• the tandoor itself is a round ceramic container;
• thermal filler to maintain high temperature conditions;
• the grate on which the coals are located;
• blower to keep the flame burning;
• external cladding.

An Asian brazier can be made from a variety of materials. Tandoor from a barrel is considered the easiest solution to create.

A tandoor is a device that does not have a chimney. The barrel is used in the form of a base, which is lined with clay or brick from the inside.

The structure of the tandoor contains the following elements:

• foundation;
• blew;
• lattice;
• brickwork;
• thermal insulating materials;
• barrel.

To make an Asian brazier from a two-hundred-liter barrel yourself, you will need the following materials:

• iron barrel;
• bricks - their number depends on the wall thickness (as a rule, you need from 50 to 80 pieces);
• clay;
• sand;
• water;
• reinforcing bars;
• board;
• white clay (kaolin);
• camel / sheep wool (for the inner insert);
• any of the vegetable oils.

The following tools will be needed:

• scissors for cutting sheet metal;
• grinder;
• electric drill;
• trowel;
• putty spatula.

It will not be difficult to make a tandoor from a 200-liter barrel on your own. Below is a detailed guide.

As we said, creating a tandoor based on a barrel is considered simple. At the same time, this concerns exclusively the observance of proportions: the barrel serves as a template, the builder does not need to deal with additional measurements, make drawings or search the Web for a layout, ready-made blueprints with orders.

In other respects, the requirements for a homemade brazier are the same as for an Asian one. Correct mixing of the clay is one of the key points. This procedure is never short-lived. If you treat it with disdain, cracks and quick damage to the tandoor are ensured.

The best choice is ocher kaolin or light yellow clay. If it is absent, you will have to work with what is available. The clay is soaked in a barrel and allowed to settle for a week. Impurities and pebbles settle to the bottom. You don't need to add sand to this mixture, but you can mix in a little soda.

Close attention is required to be paid to the construction of the foundation, where the stove will be installed. The tandoor is placed on the ground separately from residential buildings, make sure that there are no trees or shrubs nearby that can easily catch fire.

The first step is to build a subgrade without clay and other organic elements. On top, an approximately 15-20-centimeter pillow is arranged from a mixture of pebbles and pebbles or gravel. The foundation should rise above the ground by at least 10-15 centimeters, and go deeper by another 25-30 centimeters. It is imperative to lay waterproofing materials around the base.

We are starting to manufacture the oven.

1. Barrel preparation. Upon completion of the preparation of all the required consumables and tools, the foundation device can be set to work. The first step is to prepare the barrel. First, it is cleaned out. For this purpose, experienced craftsmen advise using a powerful jet of water. Using a grinder, a side wall is made, on which the bay window will be located. A blower window is formed at the bottom of the tank.
2. The walls in the barrel cavity are lined with bricks. The sander is configured to create a minimum gap between the bricks.
3. In the form of a binder, you can use a chamotte-clay solution or clay. The surface in the tandoor cavity is covered with this composition 2-3 cm thick.
4. The blower must be decorated with bricks and given a trapezoidal configuration. The outside of the trapezoid should be smaller than the inside.
5. A plug with a handle is created from a brick, which will closely cover the window.

For better functioning of the tandoor, he needs to make a lid. It is advised to be made from 3 mm sheet steel. A handle is made on the cover, for example, made of wood. All kinds of wood can be used, but oak is more suitable. It is characterized by high strength and excellent heat retention. The top of the lid will need to be covered with thermal insulation. The handle should be fitted at a level that does not allow hands to come into contact with the surface.

After the tandoor is ready, it needs to be calcined 3 times for 2-3 hours. For calcination, small firewoods or chips are used. The temperature level in the stove is brought to the limit. Before lighting, the walls in the brazier are covered with vegetable oil. Cottonseed oil is best, but sunflower seed oil will also work. A piece of paper is placed in the hole in the tandoor. The wood is added gradually until the temperature reaches 1000 ° C.

The main difficulty in creating a round stove is to maintain the desired cylindrical configuration of the clay base. Although some people manage to create square-shaped tandoors, only the temperature regime in these stoves differs greatly from round designs. In this regard, for convenience, the most finished cylinder in the form of a barrel is used. There are several options for creating tandoors using a barrel.

For this, the walls of the barrels are lubricated inside with vegetable oil (preferably cotton). A from the mixed clay solution, flat sheets of 3-4 centimeters thick are created. They cover the barrel from the inside, filling up the gaps with plastic clay and thoroughly leveling the plane. No clay is placed on the bottom of the barrel. The neck of the tandoor is made thicker, giving the inner profile a roundness. Leave a window for a blower.

After the clay has dried, the hoops on the barrel are relaxed and the cauldron is removed from the clay. While it dries up, you can build a foundation and a shell for the tandoor made of brick and clay. A half-meter hole is dug under the base with a diameter of 10 centimeters larger than the outer diameter of the base.

After that, the first layer of cement-sand mortar with a thickness of 10 centimeters is poured. As it dries up, a steel mesh is laid on it and the 2nd layer of mortar is poured. The base for the tandoor must be massive, since the entire structure will have a large mass. The top of the foundation is leveled.

As soon as the solution hardens, you can start building a brick shell. It is advisable to use red brick. The diameter inside the shell should be approximately 2-3 centimeters larger than the limiting outer diameter of the clay boiler. A window for the blower is made at the bottom. The clay pot is inserted into the brick cladding, joining the duct with the hole at the bottom of the shell. The space between the clay base and the shell is sealed with a thermal filler (salt or sand).

For this purpose you will need:

• barrel with a capacity of 100-150 liters;
• White clay;
• sand;
• a little camel or sheep wool;
• bricks.

Masonry mortar from clay is prepared first. By kneading and stirring the mixture, they achieve elasticity and pliable density of the mixture.

After that, the barrel is filled with water so that it increases in volume. The finished solution is coated on the barrel with an outwardly even layer of 5 cm thickness. At the bottom of the tandoor, a window with a diameter of about 15 centimeters is created for air draft.

Then the hood is formed. To do this, you can use a piece of plastic pipe of the same diameter and a length of about 10 centimeters. It is inserted into an already formed layer and covered with clay from the outside. All joints and corners are thoroughly covered. Excess clay is removed from the inside of the pipe.

In order for a homemade tandoor to justify the effort, time and money spent on it, you need to be able to use it correctly.

1. It is necessary to correctly select the fuel for it. Coal should not be used in this capacity. It creates a powerful heat that destroys the structure of the clay. Soot and plaque can form on the walls inside the stove, which have a bad odor. It will no longer be possible to delete this.
2. Also, do not use pellets and charcoal. When heated, they give a high temperature, and this threatens the appearance of cracking in the walls and non-observance of the cooking technique.
3. It is worth using in the form of fuel leaves and branches of trees that do not contain resin. The wood must be dried well before the firebox. Thus, you can exclude the occurrence of creosote on the walls.
4. Firewood is placed in the tandoor approximately 1 / 5-1 / 6 of the height. Until coals are formed, intensive combustion must be maintained. Then you can slightly close the blower window. This will enable the wood to burn for a long time. The oven will maintain the desired temperature for a number of hours.
5. It is advisable to cook baked goods in the cavity of the oven and on its outer part. The scones are cooked on the interior walls. Outside you can bake rolls. Meat dishes are cooked on skewers or a wire rack. On the bottom of the combustion chamber, it is necessary to install a grate and place a clay basin on it. It will collect juice, which may be useful when preparing various dishes.

How to make a tandoor from a barrel with your own hands, see the video below.