"Kenneth" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 17:05:20 -0700, Eric Jorgensen
> > wrote:
>
>>On 6 Jan 2005 15:07:13 -0800
>>"Peter" > wrote:
>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I'm shopping around for a good baking stone for making bread. I'v found
>>> several types, made from ceramics, marble, limestone, granite; someone
>>> even suggested cast iron
>>>
>>> What's your experience from these types?
>>
>>
>> www.bakingstone.com sells what is supposed to be the elite stone. I
>>don't have one yet. More of a concrete than any of the above.
>
> Hello again,
>
> "Supposed" by whom...? <g>
>
> At only 3/4" thick they can't possibly have sufficient mass
> to really do the job.
>
> For years, I used a piece of soapstone that fit the bottom
> of my oven. The stone was 2" thick, and weighed about 80
> pounds. It took more than an hour to bring it up to baking
> temperature.
>
> The whole idea of a baking stone is to increase the heated
> mass. Then, when the (relatively) cool dough is put in the
> oven, the mass of heated material radiates its heat to the
> dough. That makes for better pizza, bread crusts, etc.
>
> Home ovens are (typically) little more than heated sheet
> metal boxes. When the dough goes in, the ovens cool
> significantly.
>
> That's the reason that commercial bakers' ovens are so
> massive. When we designed our newly built home about five
> years ago, I decided to put in a Bongard M2FE. (It's a
> French deck oven.) It weighs about 1200 pounds...
>
> To get a result with the FibraMent similar to my soapstone,
> one would have to use 'em two at a time, stacked.
>
> Of course, the manufacturers know more about this than I,
> but they are constrained by the desire to market these
> things. They know that if they made them heavy enough to do
> the job well, customers would be complaining "that it took
> over an hour to get my oven hot enough to bake."
>
> Also, the FibraMent stones are rather costly. My slab of
> soapstone cost me only a few bucks...

I don't think I have the FibraMent stone, but I'm using one (abt 14x14x3/4")
that I've had for probably 18 years. But I always (well - almost always!)
heat it for an hour, sometimes 45 minutes, and sometimes over and hour if
I'm late on bread rising.

You say,
"The whole idea of a baking stone is to increase the heated
> mass.."
Regarding the above sentence, do you think that it is a waste of electricity
to heat a stone (even a FibraMent stone) for an hour?

Thanks,
Dee