pizza stone snob
"Eric Jorgensen" > wrote in message
news:20050325220743.63989d18@wafer...
> On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 04:25:09 GMT
> "jimmyjames" > wrote:
>
> > I have an "unglazed ceramic tile" 5/8ths 14x14 (Sq.)
> > It works every bit as good as my 18" round pizza pan with the "holes".
> > Except when I use the stone, I have to not only have to heat up the
> > oven, I have to heat up the stinkin stone. The people at "bed, bath and
> > beyond" really wanted me to buy a pizza stone... I asked what the
> > advantage was and they said " well, alls ya gotta do is heat the stone,
> > take the pizza out of the box, and slide the pizza on to the stone"
> > I'll put my pizza up to anyones! Stinkin' "pizza stone snobs"!
>
>
> Aight. You're on. Come on over any time.
>
> I upgraded from five 7" unglazed ceramic tiles to a 20x15x.75 Fibrament
> stone this week. I have one of those perforated pans, too.
>
> The difference is more than noticeable.
>
> The perforated pans trap too much moisture, and the bottom of the crust
> ends up being slightly gelled by the steam. Also, cheese gets stuck in the
> holes and i hate cleaning it.
>
> The ceramic tile transfers heat very quickly, and the bottom of the
> crust is very well seared, but then it's pretty much done. The bottom of
> the pizza ends up being over-hard and the quality of the crumb suffers
> because of the drop in the rate of thermal transfer. The only way to
> compensate is to use a lower oven temperature, and then the quality of the
> browning on the top side suffers.
>
> I get a more uniform bake with the fibrament stone. With the oven at
> 500f the bottom of the crust is not over hard, the crumb is well
developed,
> and if i use the old tiles to lower the ceiling over the pizza, the top is
> very well browned.
>
> I'm still experimenting with it. Made my third pizza tonight. I'm sure
> i'll get sick of pizza at some point and have to start making breads on
it.
>
> Do i have to preheat it? You betcha. It takes like an hour for my 70's
> vintage crappy Whirlpool oven to get it to 500f. But it's worth it.
>
> As for BB&B, I've seen their pizza stone, and it's best used as a clay
> pigeon.
>
> Someone here mentioned having a great deal of success with a slab of
> soapstone, and i imagine that works quite well. More likely to break than
> the fibrament stone, but way cheaper if you buy it as a scrap -- stone
> vendors often have likely shaped chunks left over after cutting out a hole
> for a sink in a counter top, for example.
>