These ovens are made of adobe and are used to bake the most wonderful bread you have ever tasted.
It takes a special gift to bake in a horno. First you have to collect firewood and build a fire inside the oven. Small twigs of Juniper are traditional and the scent of the Juniper add to the magic of this process. Allow the fire to burn boldly and then die down to coals. Ashes are then swept out of the front of the oven. A towel is secured to the end of a pole and dipped in water to swab down the oven floor. A rough wood or metal "door" leaning against the opening helps regulate the heat.
Now here's the real trick; toss a crumpled piece of newspaper into the oven. If the paper burns up the oven is too hot and needs to be swabbed out again with cold water. But when the paper burns slowly and turns a light brown the oven is the right temperature to bake your bread.
The dough is shaped into a round loaf and slid inside the oven with a large wooden paddle. It's common for several dozen loaves to be baked at once.
I have been told that once the bread is done the oven will have cooled to the right temperature to bake cakes and cookies. Then a brisket, pork roast or maybe a turkey can go in next and left in over night for slow roasting
If I close my eyes I can almost smell the bread...
If you enlarge the photo you can see the straw mixed into the mud (and the cemetery in the back ground). You can buy Indian Bread anytime of year but for reasons I can't explain I tend to identify them with fall.
Ah, fall in New Mexico. Golden leaves, cool days, turquoise skies, the smell of green chile roasting, bread baking and juniper smoke....these are the things of home.
