[Cob] earth ovens & stoves - combined?

[Monica Proulx]

That's a good question.  My son dug and used a Bengali pit stove this summer
(similar innards to a Lorena stove) and it worked so well that I wanted to
put a one burner Lorena off the back of the cob oven he was building, but
couldn't convince him that it wouldn't look strange. (he's an artist and
concerned about aesthetics). I thought incorporating it part way into the
wall of the oven would be good for insulation properties.  It's amazing what
a nice hot fire you can get with a Bengali pit stove with just a few twigs,
and I'm sure the thermal mass of the ground helps a lot.

Anyway, I think it's an excellent idea to do pot cooking outside (keeps the
house cooler) and was going to bump the oven foundation out to support it
when I was working on that part but got vetoed. We may build one on to the
side of the oven this next summer, but will have to add more foundation and
another layer of plaster to seal where the two join, so it is better to do
it all at the beginning, plus you can make the pit go into the wall of the
oven some.  Please post a link to some pictures if you do it.