How to Build a Rudimentary Mud Stove
A mud stove is an excellent way to efficiently cook food. A good stove won’t require a lot of fuel to generate heat, and it also won’t produce a lot of smoke. Best of all, the walls of the stove provide insulation that traps heat and helps to maintain temperatures. You can build your own out in the field in a few steps with some basic materials. Take a look at the following example to get a sense of the process, and see how developing this skill can make cooking a lot easier out in the field.
Getting Started
The first step is to make mud. You need mud to create the base as well as the walls of the stove. However, the soil that you are working with needs clay in order cure properly. This isn’t a problem in many areas as various clays are found in the soil. If you are working with soil that doesn’t have clay, you can try and offset this deficiency by using brick-making material such as twigs and forest debris. It won’t be as good as the clay variant, but it will get the job done.
You want the soil to be just wet enough to form and mold, so make sure that you are adding water judiciously. If the soil is too runny, it won’t retain its shape. If it is too dry, then the dirt will just crumble off. Wait until the soil is at the right consistency before starting to build your oven.
Start by making a base that resembles a horseshoe that creates an internal space of about a foot. You also want the mound to be around two inches high and three inches wide. This will provide you with a good and firm foundation as you build the rest of the oven. However, you can scale up or down according to your preferences once you get the hang of the process.
The next step is to find a cooking rack or piece of sheet metal that you can use for the cooking surface. Place it across the horseshoe around center of the legs. This will create space for your chimney as well as to stoke the fire from the other end. Pack some mud around the cooking surface to hold it in place.
Building the Frame
Take some of the freshest branches you can find on the ground and make a tepee style frame around the top portion of the horseshoe in front of the cooking surface. This conical chimney will promote airflow through the system that will maximize temperatures and efficiency. Using freshly-fallen branches cause them to burn more slowly due to their moisture content, and this can help to fortify the chimney as it cures.
Pack a thick layer of mud around the frame, starting from the bottom and working your way up. Keep adding as necessary, and try to pack it from the inside by going through the top as well.
You want to make sure that you leave a space at the top of the chimney that’s a few inches in diameter for the exhaust vent. The easiest thing to do is use your hands to compress the mud and adjust the branches as you finish packing the material.
All you need to do now is add fuel to the fire underneath the cooking plate, ignite and let it burn. As the dirt cures, it will harden and should retain its shape. The bottom of the sticks of the tepee that are in front of the cooking plate will burn away, leaving you with a nice and sturdy oven that has good ventilation.
Try this out for yourself, and see how easy it is to create a stove that burns minimal fuel while producing maximum heat. While this won’t work in every survival situation, it is a very useful trick to know if you’re in an area with that has a lot of clay, clay-based soil or suitable alternatives.
