"brooklyn1" > wrote in message
...
> How many times do you open your oven while cooking... I rarely open my
> oven other than to put something in or take something out, maybe to baste
> a holiday turkey a couple three times, and that perhaps once a year, maybe
> twice, and then there's no room for any stinkin' stone anyway... and to
> just take a peek that's why most every oven nowadays has a glass door.
> You're defeating your own argument... if it takes 30 minutes more to heat
> your oven with the stone then you'd have be opening your oven many times
> over a long time to break even on energy costs, or so you'd think... and
> those silly stones do absolutely nothing to improve baking in a
> residential oven, and in fact they are not good heat sinks because they
> are porous.. ordinary glass ovenware makes a better heatsink, which is why
> one needs to use lower temperature for baking in glass. Actually those
> stones cause an oven to bake improperly because they inhibit the normal
> convection that was designed into residential ovens... many manufacture's
> add a warning in their user's manual that use of an oven stone voids the
> warranty. Because of major design differences it's not possible to turn a
> residential oven into a commercial brick oven by placing anything in it.
> Those so-called pizza stones are a slick sales gimmick aimed at those with
> more dollars than brain cells, anyone who passed Physics 1 should know
> that.
>

Well brooklyn, I passed physics, I even taught it for a while.
Any thermal mass will keep the oven at a more constant temperature while
peeking.
I agree on these things:
You don't really need to be opening and closing the door often.
The stones can inhibit (or at least change) normal convection.
I wouldn't put one in other than for the intended purpose, to cook pizza.

But the OP wasn't talking about trying to improve the oven, the OP left the
stone in by mistake.

As for their use for pizza, I totally disagree with you. I have been making
pizza since the 1960's. The stone was the best product I have seen to come
close to a pizza oven.
No it can't compare but I don't have a pizza oven in my ( uh.. or my
wife's ) kitchen.

Why such hostility toward a stone? Did you drop one on your toe one time?

Regards,
Tom