March 15, 2024 - 12:31pm
Pizza stone kapow!
My ceramic pizza stone broke in the oven. Fortunately, I was able to slide the pie over enough to keep the toppings in place. Turns out, max temp should be 450° and mine was 550°. I might have known that at one time, hard to say.
Time to look for another stone that will withstand 550°. I can't justify the price of steel for an occasional pizza, and the days of having a handy hubby with connections to metalworkers & scrap dealers are long gone. I'll have to work something out, because 550° makes a darn fine pizza in a kitchen oven.
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Although 550° doesn't seem too high for a good stone, I guess things happen.
I haven't bought from these two vendors, but I know people who have and they are very happy with them. Check them out.
I got my stone in 1980 from the TV show "The Pizza Gourmet". Still going strong. I've always kept it in the oven. I don't know if that helps it but I do it to keep the heat stable (thermal mass) when I open the oven to check on baked goods.
https://fibrament.com/shop
https://www.californiapizzastones.com/
Dave
Thanks, Dave, I'll check them out. Hmm, thermal mass. I learned something else today.
Dave wrote
A long time ago I had a pizza stone. Then I lined it with a layer of quarry tiles. I compared baking bread with and without the second layer. The crust (and expansion too, if I remember) came out better with the two layers.
Years later I received a King Arthur's steel as a gift. I compared it with the two-stone layer and it was a little better. So that's what I use now.
TomP
Thanks Tom. Good information to have if the unthinkable ever happens and my 40+ year old stone breaks.
Dave
custom-cut a piece of refractory lining to fit my oven rack.
Similar to this. Mine is very thick and probably weighs 25 pounds. Cost me $20 USD.
Best wishes. Dave
I used to use unglazed quarry tiles as a second layer on my pizza stone. I was lucky and got a box cheap at a flooring store where they were discontinued. Otherwise the cost of getting enough to cover an oven rack will probably be more than for a regular pizza stone.
TomP
Aldi Food stores periodically have pizza stones as a sale item,under $10 US. Our stone has survived 500+ temps for 3 years without incident.
Alas, we are not blessed with Aldis up here in the Great White Expensive North, but thank you for mentioning that.
I have decided to go with a cheap stone for the simple reason that it could very well outlast me. Ha!
Thanks to all who made suggestions.
Got my new stone today. It's a 14" Cast Elegance, made in Boulder. Chose it because it was on sale, but it's got good reviews online. It was only $12.88Cdn which is less than $10US. Checking prices online, that's almost unbelievable. Even came with a bench scraper and recipe book. It's a tad smaller than my last stone, but I can never get my pizzas to come out as big as I intend anyway, so it'll do fine. At least, it's in one piece.
Don’t you love a good buy! Wonderful price plus bench scraper….enjoy!