Pizza Stones

[KOK]

I saw the Alton Brown show about pizza again and decided it was time for a pizza stone. On the show he says to use "unfinished quarry tile" from a home store (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc). I found nothing that seemed right at Lowe's, and only some 6" x 6" kind of brick-looking tiles at Home Depot. No one at either store had any idea what I meant by unfinished quarry tile, or even unglazed tile.

Can anyone give any advice on what to buy to make a pizza stone, or even if there's a good restaurant supply house to buy one for relatively cheap?

The Pampered Chef stones and the ones at Williams Sanoma were expensive for their size and thickness.

Thanks very much,

Kevin

[mdt]

Unglazed quarry tiles are terra cotta (the stuff flower pots are made of) and are easily found at hardware stores. Not to mention that they are pretty cheap. Make sure you have your oven shelves measured so that you buy the correct amount. You will also want to keep a couple of inches of space around the edges for the heat to evenly distribute.

From your description it appears that the 6x6 tiles that you found are correct. Just make sure that they are unglazed so you are not ingesting any lead. To verify that they are not glazed just drop some water on them, if it beads up it is glazed.

[KOK]

Unglazed quarry tiles are terra cotta (the stuff flower pots are made of) and are easily found at hardware stores.  Not to mention that they are pretty cheap.  Make sure you have your oven shelves measured so that you buy the correct amount.  You will also want to keep a couple of inches of space around the edges for the heat to evenly distribute.

From your description it appears that the 6x6 tiles that you found are correct.  Just make sure that they are unglazed so you are not ingesting any lead.  To verify that they are not glazed just drop some water on them, if it beads up it is glazed.

Thanks very much, esp the tip about the water! I hope to give the tiles a go this weekend.

Kevin

[Sthitch]

I was given a crappy Pampered Chef pizza stone for Christmas a couple of years ago, and have never placed a single pizza on it. I do have a much better thicker stone that I love to use, but not all is lost with the crappy stone. I place it on the very top shelf of my oven and it helps create more of a hearth-like environment.

[Jacques Gastreaux]

I keep my pizza baking stone on thevery bottom of my oven. The theory is that it stores heat and helps maintain a more even temperature in the oven.

[giant shrimp]

i have read that even with a pizza stone in a regular home oven you will have to disable the thermal regulating mechanism, whatever that is, and try to get the heat up to 900 degrees or hotter to really come out with a professional crust, but then you have to start worrying about things melting. also, baking pizza could become your excuse for burning down the house.

[CrescentFresh]

My first pizza stones were the ones you get at Bed Bath and Beyond type places that cost about $10, are about 16 inches square and not particularly thick. They come with a peel and a cutter usually, too. I found they broke really easily. It bummed me out.

So I went to Home Depot to find these unglazed quarry tiles. Nobody there was able to help me find what I needed. And I ended up buying a handful of tiles that looked right, but I still just haven't had the balls to give them a go yet. (hell, they were probably about 20 cents each, IIRC?).

As for mdt's water trick. I dunno. It's probably true. But, then again, mdt's quirks could be the result of lead poisoning. So I'm not gonna test it out.

What I've done now is go back to the $10 tiles at Bed Bath Beyond. Usually when they break, it's clean and you can just push them together. If they break in more than a couple places, I simply put them on the bottom of the oven and put a new stone on the rack. At this point, I haven't had to buy a stone in about a year.

When I bake pizza, I crank it up all the way and let it preheat for a minimum 20 minutes at temperature to ensure the heat has thoroughly penetrated the stones. 900 degrees is unnecessary. I make great pizza at about 550 in my oven.

[erikv]

My first pizza stones were the ones you get at Bed Bath and Beyond type places that cost about $10, are about 16 inches square and not particularly thick.  They come with a peel and a cutter usually, too.  I found they broke really easily.  It bummed me out.

So I went to Home Depot to find these unglazed quarry tiles.  Nobody there was able to help me find what I needed.  And I ended up buying a handful of tiles that looked right, but I still just haven't had the balls to give them a go yet.  (hell, they were probably about 20 cents each, IIRC?).

As for mdt's water trick.  I dunno.  It's probably true.  But, then again, mdt's quirks could be the result of lead poisoning.  So I'm not gonna test it out. 

What I've done now is go back to the $10 tiles at Bed Bath Beyond.  Usually when they break, it's clean and you can just push them together.  If they break in more than a couple places, I simply put them on the bottom of the oven and put a new stone on the rack.  At this point, I haven't had to buy a stone in about a year.

When I bake pizza, I crank it up all the way and let it preheat for a minimum 20 minutes at temperature to ensure the heat has thoroughly penetrated the stones.  900 degrees is unnecessary.  I make great pizza at about 550 in my oven.

I've been buying the premade pizza dough at Trader Joe's but have been having trouble getting a good outcome. Should I give up on trying to make shortcuts, and just make dough from scratch?

[JimRice]

I've been buying the premade pizza dough at Trader Joe's but have been having trouble getting a good outcome.  Should I give up on trying to make shortcuts, and just make dough from scratch?

Do not give up. My wife is a New Yorker, and my pizza satisfies her. I use the Bed Bath and Beyond stones and Trader Joes pizza dough, and do just fine. Here's how I do it. I fire up my oven to 485 degrees (your mileage may vary- this was found by trial and error from 550 to 500 to 475 to 485). I leave the dough on the counter for the 20 minutes or so I let the oven preheat. Then, with the dough relaxed, I put some flour over the dough and divide it into two halves

At this point I put some corn meal on the peel and stretch the dough gently until the edges hang over the edges of the peel. You will need to add more flour as you stretch out the dough. Once it's over the edges of the peel, I unstretch it from the peel, and it usually leaves a good-sized crust. I coat it with Trader Joe's Pizza sauce, and then add toppings. We usually use straight mozzerela or the Trader Joe's Quatro Fromaggio blend. Top it with mushrooms, or artichoke hearts. Sometimes I'll put some pre-nuked pepperoni (cuts the grease level) or some basil leaves under the cheese. This is done so they won't burn.

Slide this gently into the oven for 10-13 minutes. Cheese should be browning in spots, crust should be turning slightly crunchy on bottom and golden brown around edges.

This turns out pizza that, at its best, makes my wife say it's better than New York pizza, and even on a regular night, she compares favorably to NY pizza. Let me know if you need more details.

Edited April 7, 2006 by JimRice

[CrescentFresh]

I've been buying the premade pizza dough at Trader Joe's but have been having trouble getting a good outcome.  Should I give up on trying to make shortcuts, and just make dough from scratch?

I used to buy my pizza dough from Vace. But I've been making it from scratch for the last 8 months or so and have never had better tasting pizzas and have never looked back.

[ol_ironstomach]

Homemade dough is the way to go. It's not difficult, and requires little more than measuring ingredients if you're using your bread machine's dough cycle. The things you'll want to vary to suit your taste and pizza style are the hardness of the flour, the amount of salt, and whether or not to enrich the dough. Although traditional VPN pizza specifies a lean dough, I really prefer the results when I use a bit of olive oil in mine. Let the dough rest, covered or well-wrapped, in the fridge for a few hours to stun the yeast and let the gluten develop, or overnight if possible.

I crank my ovens up as high as they'll go (550-ish) and as the others say, give the pizza stone a good heat soak of at least 30 minutes.

A friend of mine turned me onto using coarse semolina instead of cornmeal to dust the peel. The easiest way to distribute an even layer on the peel is with a salt shaker.

Express any excess water from high-water-content toppings such as mushrooms and fresh mozzarella. Or better yet, select relatively clean fresh mushrooms to begin with, and dry brush them.

You can't really go too wrong. For instance, here's the ugliest personal pizza I've made yet...too much sauce, and this particular dough was left in the fridge too long and became a bit dry (note to self, buy a smaller peel):

lunch 15 Nov 05: truffled ricotta and oregano

[giant shrimp]

When I bake pizza, I crank it up all the way and let it preheat for a minimum 20 minutes at temperature to ensure the heat has thoroughly penetrated the stones.  900 degrees is unnecessary.  I make great pizza at about 550 in my oven.

i agree you can make great pizza at home, even without tiles or stones, and it is well worth the effort. (has anyone ever noticed that alton brown turns cooking into a science and that much of his technique is unnecessary?) i used to do it often, and people would even come to the door for a slice. however, you re not going to be able to win any world-class competitions, largely because of the deficiencies of the crust, and most home cooks make up for this by piling on too much topping (which is the way to go under the circumstances.) even marcella hazan will let you make good pizza in your own home (buffalo mozzarella provides instant absolution), but when the pizza purists enter the scene, you really need a small inferno.

[mktye]

Should I give up on trying to make shortcuts, and just make dough from scratch?

Yes.

[goldenticket]

I never had good luck with the Trader Joe's dough, but have found the Italian Store's dough to be good to work with (well, good for my +1 to work with, I still can't get it to work for me ). Be sure to ask for the fresh dough - not the frozen stuff. I've seen that Whole Foods has dough, too - and it's TWICE the price of either TJ's or the Italian Store ($3+!)

I'm ready to graduate to making my own dough...we'll see how that goes

Also - be sure to use the parchment paper mktye suggests in her recipe - that little tip (which came to me by way of V.H. - thanks both of you!) is a lifesaver. Pizzas slide easily off the peel into the oven - or if you don't have a peel, the parchment makes for easy transport. It also makes for an easy way to turn the pizza as it cooks - which I've found that I need to do in my oven to get it evenly cooked.

I cracked my BB&B $10 stone by cranking the heat up too fast. Now I go to 350 and then increase it to 500+.

[Jacques Gastreaux]

lunch 15 Nov 05: truffled ricotta and oregano

This is the same kind of baking stone I have. I leave it in the oven when I run the self-clean cycle and it comes out looking like new.

[V.H.]

Picture of the unglazed quarry tiles. Don't let the Home Depot folks try to tell you that you can't use these for cooking. I think they're something like 30 or 40 cents a tile, 6x6 inch.

Burnt cheese stains not included... Those were from the days before mktye told me about parchment paper, bless her...

[jparrott]

What's wrong with burnt cheese stains? My quarry tiles are littered with them, and they have absolutely no impact on the pizzas (or loaves of bread) I bake on the tiles. They cook out (to the point where they have no impact) pretty quickly.

Then again, I have a good hood that sucks out all the smoke that cooking out those stains creates .

[Pete]

Bump.

I obliterated my cheap (Bed, Bath, & Beyond) pizza stone several months ago (stupid me cranked the grill up too high and had the stone too close to the coals). Trying to decide whether to go the cheap route with unglazed, quarry tiles or buy a pizza stone for use in our home oven. Does anybody have any recommendations? I went to Home Depot and asked about unglazed, quarry tiles, but the person working there looked at me like I was from another planet.

(BTW: Thank you to Leleboo for putting together the Shopping & Cooking Forum Index. It made finding this thread easy!)

[mdt]

Bump.

I obliterated my cheap (Bed, Bath, & Beyond) pizza stone several months ago (stupid me cranked the grill up too high and had the stone too close to the coals). Trying to decide whether to go the cheap route with unglazed, quarry tiles or buy a pizza stone for use in our home oven. Does anybody have any recommendations? I went to Home Depot and asked about unglazed, quarry tiles, but the person working there looked at me like I was from another planet.

(BTW: Thank you to Leleboo for putting together the Shopping & Cooking Forum Index. It made finding this thread easy!)

After my stone died a miserable death a few weeks ago I bought quarry tiles from Home Depot. The box says Metropolitan Ceramics on it and they are clay colored are are unglazed.

Much cheaper than a stone and you can create 2 (or more) layers to hold more heat.

[porcupine]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but... I'm going to be buying a wood burning stove to place in the ridiculously large and poorly designed fireplace in the living/dining area of the house, and I was wondering how well one would work as a pizza oven. The primary use would be to heat the house in winter, of course. Anyone have experience with this?

[Pete]

After my stone died a miserable death a few weeks ago I bought quarry tiles from Home Depot. The box says Metropolitan Ceramics on it and they are clay colored are are unglazed.

Much cheaper than a stone and you can create 2 (or more) layers to hold more heat.

Thanks for the recommendation. I found them this weekend at Home Depot and bought a box. Can't wait to try them out. The tiles are about 1/2 inch thick. When you say you can create layers, do you mean that you stack the tiles on top of each other? If so, would there be any need to do more than 2 layers (i.e. 1 inch thick)?

[zoramargolis]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but... I'm going to be buying a wood burning stove to place in the ridiculously large and poorly designed fireplace in the living/dining area of the house, and I was wondering how well one would work as a pizza oven. The primary use would be to heat the house in winter, of course. Anyone have experience with this?

I have used my wood stove to grill steaks, both on a grill placed on the coals and directly on the coals, and also to roast oysters. Plus the obvious hot dogs and marshmallows. But I never tried pizza. Pizza ovens have a very different design than a fireplace stove, since you don't cook the pizza directly over the coals. You would need a very deep stove, in order to push the live coals far enough away to clear a big enough, flat space on the bottom for the pizza. Also, fireplace stoves generally have an grated opening on the bottom, so that air can enter the fire box from below and ash can fall through into a receptacle underneath. Not sure how that would work with soft pizza dough. Theoretically, you could lay a small cast iron grill pan on the coals, if it will fit, and then cook a pizza on that--maybe that would work.

[mdt]

Thanks for the recommendation. I found them this weekend at Home Depot and bought a box. Can't wait to try them out. The tiles are about 1/2 inch thick. When you say you can create layers, do you mean that you stack the tiles on top of each other? If so, would there be any need to do more than 2 layers (i.e. 1 inch thick)?

Yes, stack them on top of each other. I am using 2 layers and that seems to work well with my bread baking. Although the thicker it is the more heat it will hold if you plan to do a lot of baking. Of course the more tiles the more time it will take to heat.

[DonRocks]

Can you actually roll the dough on these?

If so, then ...

[Pool Boy]

Been using the grill to complete my pizza a few times in the last couple of weeks (too hot to heat up the ovens in the house). Works great as I am sure many of you know -- I get the temp around 550 to 600 at times if I am lucky.

Now, I prefer to make my own dough, but ended up buying some of Vace's dough (from the Bethesda location) and, although it is not my absolute preferred dough, it is pretty darn fine when I have a craving and I'm only a 12 minute walk away (to get the stuff and bring it home to make dinner).

[Pat]

I used to make pizza more than I do now, but I usually keep a pizza stone in the oven (for convenience and lack of easy storage). I baked off a gorgeous half sheet pan full of chicken thighs, but the chicken fat spilled out onto the pizza stone and the oven floor. The oven floor I'll deal with, but I have no idea what to do about chicken fat on a pizza stone. I waited 1/2 hour after the oven was off and cooling before putting toweling in to soak up the liquid, but the stone had already completely absorbed it.

Other than making my kitchen smell like chicken every time I turn the oven on, does this damage the stone and is there anything I can do about it?

[B.A.R.]

I bought a scrap piece of granite from a granite store in Chantilly for about 10 bucks. Fits perfectly on my grill, which gets considerably hotter than my home oven. Works great for pizza.

[mdt]

I used to make pizza more than I do now, but I usually keep a pizza stone in the oven (for convenience and lack of easy storage). I baked off a gorgeous half sheet pan full of chicken thighs, but the chicken fat spilled out onto the pizza stone and the oven floor. The oven floor I'll deal with, but I have no idea what to do about chicken fat on a pizza stone. I waited 1/2 hour after the oven was off and cooling before putting toweling in to soak up the liquid, but the stone had already completely absorbed it.

Other than making my kitchen smell like chicken every time I turn the oven on, does this damage the stone and is there anything I can do about it?

It might cause it to break at some point, but mine was pretty stained for a long time before that happened. With due respect to Charlie Papazian, relax, don't worry and bake a pizza.

[zoramargolis]

Other than making my kitchen smell like chicken every time I turn the oven on, does this damage the stone and is there anything I can do about it?

Leave the pizza stone in the oven next time you run the clean cycle.

[Pete]

Anybody need a Pizza Oven?

[Sundae in the Park]

OK, I'd been reading through this article at Serious Eats and decided that we need to get a Lodge pizza pan over stacking cheap quarry tiles, and then this article came out about pizza steels which caused intense desire to spend ridiculous $ on a steel. Anybody have any comments or suggestions for cheaper alternatives to the steel? Or the best solution for making some NY-style pizza at home? That's all we want.

[Rovers2000]

I have one of the steels and think its worth the money. I've been really pleased with the results from it vs. the old pizza stone I'd had.

[Anna Blume]

Since I plan to make naan this week, I am heading to Home Depot soon to buy a couple of $4 marble tiles measuring about 10" x 10". Reading through these comments, I will be sure not to purchase anything glazed. What I've read online suggests soapstone, granite, marble and terra cotta are all recommended, though concern about food safety factor into questions about finishes and the exact nature of minerals in tiles intended for construction vs. cooking. One comment indicated that marble tiles might explode in oven, yet most cautionary remarks are about cracking. Two pizza stones I've bought cracked, though, so I prefer to spend less than I have in the past.

[Rhone1998]

OK, I'd been reading through this article at Serious Eats and decided that we need to get a Lodge pizza pan over stacking cheap quarry tiles, and then this article came out about pizza steels which caused intense desire to spend ridiculous $ on a steel. Anybody have any comments or suggestions for cheaper alternatives to the steel? Or the best solution for making some NY-style pizza at home? That's all we want.

Have people who have bought pizza steels been happy with the results? Do they hold up well over time? How does what you bought compare to this one?

[Sundae in the Park]

Have people who have bought pizza steels been happy with the results? Do they hold up well over time? How does what you bought compare to this one?

The Modernist version, according to Serious Eats, only differs from the original by its "Battlestar Galactica edges, 1/8", and 7 lbs", plus the Modernist logo. We're really happy with the original baking steel. 15 pounds is already quite heavy, thankyouverymuch so we don't have any plans to upgrade. I can't compare with a baking stone, since we never had one, but I have gotten a lot of mileage about the all-American origins of my steel (then again, my FIL works in a steel mill, so YMMV). We've also only had it for a couple months so can't really tell how it performs over time, but I can't think of any reason it wouldn't keep performing as expected.

[Rovers2000]

I get pretty solid use with the pizza steel. It has held up well, is easy to clean, and basically stays in my oven like a pizza stone (and has proven to be awesome at finishing off roasted veg, in their roasting pan, for the last 5 minutes of cooking).

If I had a yard I would totally put together the steel / weber kit that Kenji wrote about recently.

[Sthitch]

You can count me as another person who loves the steel. I am thinking about buying a second one to put on a rack above it to radiate heat onto the surface.

[DanCole42]

I got a half inch, custom-cut steel slab from a local metal shop, unfortunately I am blanking on the name. Cost less than $50.

[DanCole42]

I got a half inch, custom-cut steel slab from a local metal shop, unfortunately I am blanking on the name. Cost less than $50.

It's this place, dummy: http://www.bmgmetals.com/contact_Manassas.php

[DrXmus]

It's this place, dummy: http://www.bmgmetals.com/contact_Manassas.php

Cool. There are too many options for a steel noob like me to know what to get. Can you spell out what you got from them? Is there any reason to be concerned about food safety if it's not being made for cooking?

[DanCole42]

Cool. There are too many options for a steel noob like me to know what to get. Can you spell out what you got from them? Is there any reason to be concerned about food safety if it's not being made for cooking?

Measure your oven (width/length of shelf) so you know how big to get. You definitely don't want to get something too big for your oven! In terms of thickness, you can go 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch. The 1/2 inch will cook better, but it's heavy (40+ lbs), which is a consideration of your ability to lift and your oven shelf's ability to hold it. So you ask for a custom cut sheet of steel that's, for example, 18"x16"x0.5".

I'd wash it before you use it, but other than that there's no more of a food safety issue than from using a cast-iron pan. It's just steel.

You can even use it on top of your range (it even works with induction!) as a griddle, or freeze it and use it almost like an anti-griddle. Mine has even become seasoned just like a cast iron pan.

[JuneBacon]

Woah woah woah, there are many different grades of steel. Cast iron is not the same as many grades of steel you may be looking at. For $50, this was most likely not stainless steel. Heating galvanized steel and food can be very dangerous. I believe heating galvanized metals causes zinc vapor to be produced.

[JuneBacon]

So I tried to find some better evidence, I'm still having trouble finding a food grade of steel that isn't stainless steel. Obviously cast iron and blue/black/carbon steel used in cookware are safe, but I still don't really know what grades represent the food safe ones.

I am thinking that maybe Dan's steel plate is not cast iron, because cast iron is just that, poured into a mold to produce a shape such as a skillet. A plate of steel is rolled out and cut. (Doesn't preclude them from being the same molten steel I suppose?)

I found some interesting links that may be useful:

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/09/the-pizza-lab-the-baking-steel-delivers.html

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bakingsteel/baking-steel-create-the-crust-you-crave

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/17enby/is_a36_steel_food_safe_and_can_it_be_seasoned/

I would just caution anyone to do some research before skipping down to the ole steel mill.

[DanCole42]

Woah woah woah, there are many different grades of steel. Cast iron is not the same as many grades of steel you may be looking at. For $50, this was most likely not stainless steel. Heating galvanized steel and food can be very dangerous. I believe heating galvanized metals causes zinc vapor to be produced.

Okay, fair point, buuuuuuuuut...

Cast iron is not a grade of steel, it's a method.

I didn't say "galvanized steel," i just said "steel." As long as what you get is *just steel* you'll be fine. Galvanized steel is steel that's been coated in zinc, you'd probably have to specifically say "galvanized steel," and you probably can't even get it custom cut. They'd have to cut it, then galvanize it. Sheet steel. Easy peasy. Ask for SHEET STEEL.

I also never said that my steel was stainless. Just a big ol' plate of steel. And no, it's not "food grade," but then technically neither is raw cheese or serrano ham.

Stainless doesn't make it "food grade," either - just means it won't rust.

[Rhone1998]

I get pretty solid use with the pizza steel. It has held up well, is easy to clean, and basically stays in my oven like a pizza stone (and has proven to be awesome at finishing off roasted veg, in their roasting pan, for the last 5 minutes of cooking).

If I had a yard I would totally put together the steel / weber kit that Kenji wrote about recently.

I bought one and am enjoying it a lot. I do find that the recipes that call for heating up the steel under the broiler work best, no surprise. The only problem is keeping my overly sensitive smoke detector from going off.