Tabun oven

A tabun oven, or simply tabun (also transliterated taboon, from the Arabic: طابون), is a portable clay oven, shaped like a truncated cone. While all were made with a top opening, which could be used as a small stove top, some were made with an opening at the bottom from which to stoke the fire. Built and used even before biblical times as the family, neighbourhood, or village oven, tabun ovens continue to be built and used in parts of the Middle East today. Tabun ovens are distinct from tandoors, but are often mistaken for tandoors. Unlike a tandoor, bread inside the oven is placed on a bed of hot stones, rather than being slapped into walls of the oven. In modern times, this form of oven is common in Jordan and Palestine.

The tabūn oven has historically been used to bake flatbreads, and has been in widespread use in the greater Middle East for centuries. References to ṭawābīn (طوابين) can be found in the writings of medieval Arab geographer al-Maqdisi, which is described as an oven buried into the ground and spread with pebbles, where bread as by placing dough on the pebbles.

Unlike other ovens, the tabūn is a large, overturned earthenware bowl and covers over completely the heated place (usually a bed of smooth stones, upon which a fire is built). After dying out, the ashes are removed and dough is spread out over the smooth stones. Since the tabūn is built with an opening at its top that can be sealed with a ceramic lid, allowing it to be completely smothered over in ashes, dough that is spread out over the stone-lined bottom is quickly baked into bread. When the top ashes are cleared away and the lid removed, a cooking pot can also be laid on top of the tabūn oven for heating and used as a small stove. In some cases, in addition to the hole at the top, there is a second side opening called the "eye of the oven", used for stoking the fire and clearing away the ashes, and which is closed by a detachable door.

Bread dough was spread out on the pebbled floor of the tabun oven's interior, with hot coals and embers scattered with ash piled on top of the exterior shell, along with dried cattle dung.

Many types of fuel or a combination of fuels can be used to heat a tabun. Dried animal dung, dried bird droppings, chopped and dried tree branches or tree trimmings, wood chips, charcoal, dried tree leaves, fabrics, and other materials are potential fuels.

The top opening is covered and a layer of fuel (usually dried manure) is spread on the outside of the shell and lid. Once the fire takes hold, the fuel is covered with a layer of ash. The fuel will smolder for hours, usually all night long. The smoke also helps in repelling insects and mosquitoes. In the process the heat gets stored in the foundation. The amount of fuel varies depending on the amount of baking needed.

When the smoke stops, the lid is removed and chunks of dough are hand flattened and placed directly on the limestones. In most ovens, 4 to 5 loaves can be baked at the same time. Then the opening is sealed and the fire stoked using the hot embers and ashes. When the bread is ready, the lid is removed and the bread taken out. The process can be repeated, or other dishes can be baked using metal or pottery trays. The bottom of the bread will take the shape of the pebbles or other materials used in constructing the oven floor. This baking process is unique and economical and produces aromatic and flavorful food.^{[citation needed]}

In the larger, fixed baking ovens (tannūr), the flattened dough is applied to the inner-wall of the oven, after the wall is dampened with a wet cloth, allowing for adhesion. After baking, the bread is removed.^{[citation needed]}