Are concrete bricks safe for a brick oven?
Hi. I am in process of building a small and simple brick oven. I bought Kiko Denzer's book, and am using some of its principles, and also the lovely picture that someone on this list referred to which shows an oven of stacked bricks. So far, I've dug a hole as far down as I could before I hit ledge. Not very far. I filled the hole with small rocks that I found around, and then poured in 200 pounds of gravel on top of that. Then I put down a layer of cinder blocks, and then foot square granite slabs on top of that for the oven floor, which incidentally Denzer recommends against, but they make a very nice surface. Now it's time for the brick walls. I was shopping at home depot and found some very nice and inexpensive red bricks. They are labeled as concrete brick. Now that I'm making the part of the oven that will contain both the fire and the food, I started to wonder whether these materials, that were really made for landscaping, will be safe for food. I have no reason to think they won't be, but then on the other hand who knows how things are made these days. Does anyone have any information about this? I could try to reach Old Colony, the manufacturer, but what with liability law, I doubt I would get any real information. Incidentally, it never occured to me that the gravel could be a problem, but after dumping the third 50 lb bag of it, I read a warning that says it may contain silicon dust, which I think is only a problem until it settles, but I should have worn a mask while I was dumping it. I thought gravel was just gravel. Thanks for your help! -Varda