Anyone built thier own Tandoor oven

Seen a few plans on the internet for the dustbin and plantpot tandoor. Anyone had any experience and able to give some feedback?

Have a dustbin/flowerpot one, you are a bit limited in size but naan bread cooks pretty quickly so easy to cook batches. Chicken I have done comes out very nice too 🙂

Any gothchas on the contruction front?

Not really it takes a bit of time if you are cutting the brick to fit the bottom of the bin. Flowerpot bottom cut ok as did the hole in the side of the bin. Doesn’t take much fuel to get it going either and sort of self ‘draughts’ and creates major furnace heat. Gloves and a wet cloth for sticking the naan on.

links??

Here is one, i think this one is not using a dustbin though. Clicky
Andy with. Clicky[/url]

I didn’t need to see this, now I can’t unsee it, I can see a costly home-build project coming up! Thanks everyone, really, thanks!

😉

This guy’s ovens look good – uses a pot as an outdoor casing rather than a bin.

Tandoor Oven

i’m tempted to build one too

Going ahead this weekend. Naan bread and kebaab. Mmmmmmmm………

Keep an eye on the nanns as the moment between perfectly cooked and fallen into the charcoal is around 2 nanoseconds but a bit of work on the dough mix and that gets better. Ironbridge make some nice ones you could template from.

Long BBQ tongs are my tool of choice for naan removal, from the side or indeed from the charcoal!

I’ve done an Indian cooking course in Bangalore, including how to cook nan without a Tandoor.

Use a deep sided metal based saucepan, like a big pasta pan or pressure cooker.
Heat it very hot, somany water immediately beads and sizzles.
Slap the raw nan on the inside base, so it sticks.
Turn the saucepan upside down over the gas. Cook for 45 seconds
The heat of the pan cooks the nan through, the flames brown the top.
Remove, and butter/herbs.

But I don’t have a gas hob…

It lives… Just built one and having a test firing now. Pics to follow.

I’m cursing uphillcursing! I do not need to see any pics.

I haven’t even built my outdoor pizza/bread oven yet!

Took about 2 hours including the trip to the DIY store. Vaguely followed the link in the pot from mic8. I had to drill a hole in the base of my big pot with a hole saw and had to go buy a ceramic cutting disk for the grinder.
Quick test firing and now making Kebaab and Naan dough. Will report on scale of catastrophe later on.

Here it is on the shed veranda. Food about to go on……Will report back.

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not Sharing.

Chicken and Naan now consumed. No Photos as the bloody stuff did not last long enough.
Things learnt: Longer skewers a must. You really need them to go all the way to the bottom of the tandoor. I had only 30cm ones and was a ball ache to put more than four in at a time.
Naan turned out fine but I think I had to leave them on longer than optimum. Conclude need higher temperature so either more fuel or oxygen required. Suspect I need to increase or more likely diffuse the airflow into the inner chamber. Having a think about this now.

Is there a side opening low down on the outside to let air in through and up/out through the inner pot?

Not on the side. There is a few of 40mm holes in the base of the outer pot. Only one in the inner and here is my issue I think. Going to be easy to remedy one it has cooled i think.

what did you use for the insulating material OP? some videos i’ve seen recommend vermiculite.

The Jamie/Jimmy one that I followed:

tandoor linky

I used vermiculite as per the online guides. Seems to work very well as an insulator as the outside pot does not seem to warm up at all. Weighs bugger all too so device remains pretty easy to manhandle around.

I used vermiculite as per the online guides. Seems to work very well as an insulator as the outside pot does not seem to warm up at all. Weighs bugger all too so device remains pretty easy to manhandle around.

cool.
i saw one video where the guy used normal gravel 😯

i mentioned the tandoor oven to the missus last night….went down like a lead balloon…still going to do it though

Mine stands me at about 100 pounds. Twenty of that was a diamond cutting disc for the grinder. I would think that it would be much less in UK. Here in Aus terracotta pots a much more expensive than there.

I made one like the Jamie / Jimmy idea last year. This:

Conclude need higher temperature so either more fuel or oxygen required.

was my problem. It just didn’t get hot and cooking a chicken was more like singing one corner and warming the rest up.

My theory was that the intake at the bottom was too big therefore lack of suction. e.g. purse your lips and suck in vs open your mouth wide and do the same. The resulting pressure of air hitting the wood / coals wasn’t enough to whip it into a frenzy. I also used half bricks for the base, filled in with sand. I wonder if that loses further suction, but don’t know.

The upside down plant pot has since cracked when just having a burn so it needs completely redoing but now I’m reluctant as the same could just happen again. But I want home-cooked kebabs and Naan…

Actually, maybe just more wood.

Mine runs pretty hot and can BBQ the kebabs over the top of the pot. I use the cut off pot bottom as a lid to try and keep it from burning out too quickly.

Mine was working fine for the kebabs. The naan were lovely too, I just felt that the two minutes needed seemed longer than I was led to believe.
Seems I cant be too far away from optimum I am going to try adding a few 6mm holes in the base of the inner pot and try again.

I am off to the family home in India in November. First stop out side of Delhi is my favourite Dhaba/truck stop. Tandoor roti and palak paneer for breakfast washed down with a glass of chai.
What you need is a long hook to lift them out. Turn the volume up on this vid.

^^ bloody hell…sounds like a 70’s porn movie… 😆

Not made one but got quite a few scars from working in an Indian Restaurant years ago.
And forget tongs imagine skewers about 1mt long with one hammered into a hook and the other into a kind of scraper about 25mm across.
And just so you know – you slap the Naan on to the sides with your hand – hence the scars on my forearm.

I made one from the metal bin & plantpot method, however i used fire-rated concrete repair mortar instead fo the bricks for the bottom.
For the insulation around the pot, i went to b&Q and picked up bags of sand that had split. Paid about 25p per bag.

Firing up the tandoori oven. Thai chicken kebabs for tea. by Dave Aspinall[/url], on Flickr

Only problem i have is it takes a good 2-4hrs to heat up properly, all for for 10 mins of cooking!!

The food is still amazing and well worth building.