Horno
Encyclopedia
Horno is a mud adobe
-built outdoor oven
used by Native Americans and early settlers of North America. Originally introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors, it was quickly adopted and carried to all Spanish-occupied lands. The horno has a beehive shape and uses wood as the only heat source. The procedure still used in parts of New Mexico
and Arizona
is to build a fire inside the Horno and, when the proper amount of time has passed, remove the embers and ashes and insert the bread to be cooked. After the right amount of time, the cooked loaf of bread can be removed. In the case of corn, the embers are doused with water and the corn is then inserted into the horno to be "steam"-cooked. When cooking meats, the oven is fired to a "white hot" temperature (approximately 650 degrees Fahrenheit), the coals are moved to the back of the oven, and the meats placed inside. The smoke-hole and door are sealed with mud. A twenty-one-pound turkey will take 2½ to 3 hours to cook. It comes out very succulent. Since the horno is made of adobe, it wicks the moisture into the food in a natural convection.
Horno is the usual Spanish
word for "oven" or "furnace", and derives from the Latin word furnus.
This kind of oven was very common in Central Europe, especially in Hungary, and in these days is becoming trendy once again. The Hungarian name for the horno is kemence.
It is quite common in Argentina
and Uruguay
rural areas, from colonial times to our days, and it is called horno de barro, literally "mud oven".
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
-built outdoor oven
Oven
An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...
used by Native Americans and early settlers of North America. Originally introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors, it was quickly adopted and carried to all Spanish-occupied lands. The horno has a beehive shape and uses wood as the only heat source. The procedure still used in parts of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
is to build a fire inside the Horno and, when the proper amount of time has passed, remove the embers and ashes and insert the bread to be cooked. After the right amount of time, the cooked loaf of bread can be removed. In the case of corn, the embers are doused with water and the corn is then inserted into the horno to be "steam"-cooked. When cooking meats, the oven is fired to a "white hot" temperature (approximately 650 degrees Fahrenheit), the coals are moved to the back of the oven, and the meats placed inside. The smoke-hole and door are sealed with mud. A twenty-one-pound turkey will take 2½ to 3 hours to cook. It comes out very succulent. Since the horno is made of adobe, it wicks the moisture into the food in a natural convection.
Horno is the usual Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
word for "oven" or "furnace", and derives from the Latin word furnus.
This kind of oven was very common in Central Europe, especially in Hungary, and in these days is becoming trendy once again. The Hungarian name for the horno is kemence.
It is quite common in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
rural areas, from colonial times to our days, and it is called horno de barro, literally "mud oven".
See also
- Adobe breadAdobe breadAdobe bread is a type of bread typical of the Puebloan peoples of the Southwestern United States. The bread is often shaped like animals typical of the region. The dough often contains meat, vegetables, seeds, or nuts. The bread is baked in a beehive-shaped outdoor adobe oven known as an horno....
- Masonry ovenMasonry ovenA masonry oven, colloquially known as a brick oven or stone oven, is an oven consisting of a baking chamber made of fireproof brick, concrete, stone, or clay. Though traditionally wood-fired, coal-fired ovens were common in the 19th century, modern masonry ovens are often fired with natural gas or...
- Article on the kemence in the Hungarian Wikipedia