Which is better, baking steel or a pizza stone?
How much oven clearance do I need around my pizza stone or baking steel?
Can I leave my pizza stone or baking steel in the oven all the time?
Which baking steel is best for me?
Which is better, baking steel or a pizza stone?
Which is better for you, actually depends on what you are cooking. If properly preheated, you will great results with either one.
If you are getting a lot of take-and-bake pizzas, I would recommend a stone, because stones are very versatile and also make fantastic bread.
We sell three different pizza stones: a 14.5″round stone, as well as a 4-piece (12″ x 18″) and 5-piece (15″ x 18″) set.
If you are specializing in New York Style pizza, I would recommend a steel. Steels are excellent (again, proper preheating is absolutely critical) for New York Style because they transfer their heat very fast. This is important in the temperature range of about 500-600 degrees, because something that transfers its heat this quickly also gives much better oven spring, which makes for better pizza. Above or below that 500-600 degrees range, with New York Style or not, then steel is excellent but really has no advantage except slightly faster cooking.
We sell three different 15″ x 15″ steel baking sheets, in 1/4″, 3/8″, and 1/2″ thickness.
As for the life of the product, steel is superior in case you drop them. People say steel is forever, and it is if properly cared for. Our stones, however, are made of cordierite, and although they cannot handle a drop on the floor like steel, they will not break under heat stress like most stones because cordierite have a very low coefficient of thermal expansion.
How much oven clearance do I need around my pizza stone or baking steel?
We like to an average of 2 inches per side for baking steel and 1.5 inches for pizza stones. Note these are averages, so in the case of an oven where the front and back have virtually no clearance, you need to have twice the above amounts (4 inches for baking steel and 3 inches for pizza stones) on the sides.
The next consideration is whether the air above the cooking surface is hot enough that your toppings cook at the same rate as your dough. If not, you risk getting burnt crust and toppings that are barely warm on top. This is doubly important on a grill because they get much hotter and opening and closing the grill lets out a lot of heat from the dome above the cooking surface.
Can I leave my pizza stone or baking steel in the oven all the time?
Yes, because a pizza stone or baking steel adds mass that will regulate the temperature of your oven. You should allow extra time to preheat, with the amount depending on whether or not you are cooking directly on it or it is on another shelf. I’d give it 5 extra minutes if you are not cooking directly on the steel or stone, but 20 minutes if you are.
The 20 extra minutes of preheating of your pizza stone or baking steel will allow the steel or stone to absorb enough energy to start cooking whatever you have in a pan immediately (if the pan is directly on the steel/stone), rather than acting as an insulator and a barrier to the heat. Ovens will vary also, so you may need a little less or little more preheat time, depending on the oven.
Which baking steel is best for me?
As for the thickness, it really comes down to how often you will be cooking multiple pizzas.
In addition to how well a stone or steel cooks a single pizza, another true test of how effective they are is how well they handle a second or third pizza thrown on them immediately after they’ve finished cooking. This is important because cooking a pizza will drain a lot of precious heat from the cooking surface.
The big advantage for the thicker steels and stones then is they contain a lot of energy. Steel is good on any pizza, but it’s particularly great with New York Style pizza because the faster it cooks, the better the oven spring. The biggest benefit is between 525 and 600. You’d think the higher temperature was for the thicker steel (and all work wonderfully throughout this temperature range), but the thicker one will outperform the rest at 525 because here it’s storing a lot of energy (assuming a proper preheat, which will be longer for the thicker steel than the thinner) at the low end of New York Style’s temperature range, whereas at or near 600, it’s so hot that any will work wonderfully.
