I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
bread and such. I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
quarry tile with some caveats. Most noteably, graphite is a bad idea
because it's radioactive--though I imagine that's not the least of it.

At the local Home Depot, they only had slate. It was very rough and
didn't seem suitable. Does anybody have a suggestion on a stone and of
any stores that might have it? I'm trying to get 15" tiles.

Adam Preble wrote on 07 Jan 2007 in rec.food.cooking

> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> bread and such. I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
> quarry tile with some caveats. Most noteably, graphite is a bad idea
> because it's radioactive--though I imagine that's not the least of it.
>
> At the local Home Depot, they only had slate. It was very rough and
> didn't seem suitable. Does anybody have a suggestion on a stone and of
> any stores that might have it? I'm trying to get 15" tiles.
>

soap stone. at least that you can sand smooth at home if it is too rough.

Adam Preble > wrote in news:45a1a3f3$0$18149
:

> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> bread and such. I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
> quarry tile with some caveats. Most noteably, graphite is a bad idea
> because it's radioactive--though I imagine that's not the least of it.
>
> At the local Home Depot, they only had slate. It was very rough and
> didn't seem suitable. Does anybody have a suggestion on a stone and of
> any stores that might have it? I'm trying to get 15" tiles.

I bought a large unglazed tile at my local Home Despot. It was indoors in
the flooring section. I sure has made my oven cook more evenly.



--

Charles
The significant problems we face cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking we were at when we
created them. Albert Einstein

Adam Preble wrote:
> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> bread and such. I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
> quarry tile with some caveats. Most noteably, graphite is a bad idea
> because it's radioactive--though I imagine that's not the least of it.
>
> At the local Home Depot, they only had slate. It was very rough and
> didn't seem suitable. Does anybody have a suggestion on a stone and of
> any stores that might have it? I'm trying to get 15" tiles.

Consider taking an large unglazed flower pot saucer and putting it in
the oven upside down. saw this on a food show a while back.

Adam Preble wrote:
> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> bread and such. I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
> quarry tile with some caveats. Most noteably, graphite is a bad idea
> because it's radioactive--though I imagine that's not the least of it.

Hello Adam:

I used to use unglazed quarry tiles for pizza and such. Switched to a
regular pizza stone simply because it was more convenient to have a
single piece of ceramic. Our pizza stone is used a lot for bread,
rolls, biscuits, etc. I like it for pizza; the wife and kids prefer a
soft crust.

I wasn't aware that graphite was used in unglazed quarry tiles; the
ones I had were orangish-rust colored. Graphite is black like soot, but
slightly shiny. And very, very messy to work with. I use it in hobby
work---metalworking and such.

Graphite itself is not significantly radioactive. (It's the stuff in
"lead" pencils, with a bit of clay or polymer added) About 99% is
carbon-12, 1% C-13, and both are stable isotopes. There is a tiny,
tiny trace of radioactive C-14 in graphite (and in human beings as
well, since we contain a fair bit of carbon). So small that it
requires very expensive, sophisticated instruments to measure it.

Best -- Terry

Adam Preble wrote:
> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> bread and such. I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
> quarry tile with some caveats. Most noteably, graphite is a bad idea
> because it's radioactive--though I imagine that's not the least of it.
>
> At the local Home Depot, they only had slate. It was very rough and
> didn't seem suitable. Does anybody have a suggestion on a stone and of
> any stores that might have it? I'm trying to get 15" tiles.


I line both myoven and outdoor grill with unglazed red ceramic type
floor tiles I get at Home depot for 35 cents each on sale. I think
they are 8" squire. I leave them on the bottom rack of my oven all the
time. They work great.

> soap stone. at least that you can sand smooth at home if it is too rough.

Do this carefully, many soapstones contain asbestos.

pamjd wrote:
> I line both myoven and outdoor grill with unglazed red ceramic type
> floor tiles I get at Home depot for 35 cents each on sale. I think
> they are 8" squire. I leave them on the bottom rack of my oven all the
> time. They work great.

A few people have said this. I'll add that I tried some red-orange,
unglazed ceramic tiles and they cracked apart in the middle of the
first use. Is there any further distinction I need to get ones that
won't fall apart so readily?

Adam Preble wrote:
> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> bread and such.

Why? Placing any stone into a residential oven does not a brick oven
make, in fact it does nothing whatsoever to enhance any kind of baking
and in all cases will interfere with the thermodymic convection
engineered into the oven.

> I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
> quarry tile with some caveats.

Unglazed flooring tile belongs on floors you walk on, it's not food
safe... not even safe to walk on barefoot. What you want is the type
of fire brick designed for food industry use... they're relatively
costly, but still will do absolutely nothing to enhance baking in the
typical residential oven, but will in *all* instances produce an
inferior product.

Hawking so-called pizza stones is probably the biggest fraud
perpetrated on the cooking public within the past 100 years.

Even pizzerias no longer bake directly on the floor of their commercial
brick ovens, to produce a superior product they more and more have gone
to using pizza screens.

On 8 Jan 2007 10:41:02 -0800, "Sheldon" > wrote:

>
>Adam Preble wrote:
>> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
>> bread and such.
>
>Why? Placing any stone into a residential oven does not a brick oven
>make, in fact it does nothing whatsoever to enhance any kind of baking
>and in all cases will interfere with the thermodymic convection
>engineered into the oven.
-snip-

It doesn't make a brick oven-- and it might affect the thermodynamics.
.. . but I think you've never baked a pizza crust or breadsticks on a
stone if you poopoo the idea of baking on stone.

I used unglazed tile during my 'bread phase' a couple years ago and it
indeed lends a special texture to the bottom crust.

Jim

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> pamjd wrote:
> > I line both myoven and outdoor grill with unglazed red ceramic type
> > floor tiles I get at Home depot for 35 cents each on sale. I think
> > they are 8" squire. I leave them on the bottom rack of my oven all the
> > time. They work great.
>
> A few people have said this. I'll add that I tried some red-orange,
> unglazed ceramic tiles and they cracked apart in the middle of the
> first use. Is there any further distinction I need to get ones that
> won't fall apart so readily?

thinking out loud ---

There are tiles which use clays and firing such that they are rated for
the repeated stress of heat and no heat - common firebrick comes to mind.
However, common firebrick is thicker than most "floor tile", thicker in
order to handle the stress of repeated heating and cooling, of being bumped
when hot, etc.

-- A word of caution - fired tile is like glass, so when a tile cracks,
especially thin ones from heat, the possibility exists that a piece of the
"glass" will come flying off the tile at a pretty good speed. (The crack is
the release of stored energy, and defective heated tile can and does propel
shards with enough force to stick them through the skin.)
Using floor tile in an oven may not be the best idea, given that many of
them are cheaply made. Some might work fine in some situations, but...

Thoughts about why your tiles cracked -

Since tiles have been fired to a thousand plus degrees to "become tile", it
is not the heat stress per se that causes the crack.

It is more likely that

a) firing crack - the tile had a small crack (even unseen or internal) from
handling, poor firing, cheap clay mixtures, etc., before being put in the
heat of your oven, and that crack propagated with the added heat stress,
which split the tile -- and/or

b) moisture - the tile took on moisture from the air and was heated faster
than the trapped moisture in the center could escape, building up internal
pressure - or in the same vein, the tile was sealed on one side, and
moisture was trapped under the sealer (sealer is common in cheap -read
"porous" - floor tiles and travertine-type stone flooring) and that
pressure caused the tile to crack and/or.

c) uneven heating - your oven has an automatic preheat or is defective in
the starting cycle, such that all available oven heat sources are on until
the oven reaches temperature, the resulting uneven heat transfer internal to
the tile caused stress in the tile; or the tiles cover the oven rack such
that the air cannot circulate, and the heat below the tile is
trapped -leaving the upper part of the tile cool while the bottom of the
tile is very very hot, so that the bottom of the tile expands while the top
stays relatively cool, and the uneven heating bows the tile -cracking it.

To minimize cracking in a tile used in the oven, I would get a top quality
unsealed tile rather than the cheapest one, make sure there is at least 3
inches all around the tiles when on the rack, store it in a dry place, and
don't use preheat.
I would say use firebrick as it's cheap, but I have no experience cooking
directly on brick - all I can say about cooking properties of brick is that
the brick I see in the "wood-fired " pizza oven bottoms looks just like
firebrick.

fwiw...

>

Jim Elbrecht wrote:
>"Sheldon" wrote:
> >Adam Preble wrote:
> >> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> >> bread and such.
> >
> >Why? Placing any stone into a residential oven does not a brick oven
> >make, in fact it does nothing whatsoever to enhance any kind of baking
> >and in all cases will interfere with the thermodynamic convection
> >engineered into the oven.
>
> It doesn't make a brick oven-- and it might affect the thermodynamics.
> . . but I think you've never baked a pizza crust or breadsticks on a
> stone if you poopoo the idea of baking on stone.
>
> I used unglazed tile during my 'bread phase' a couple years ago

What the phuk is a bread phase... whaddaya the pillsbury dough boy.

> and it indeed lends a special texture to the bottom crust.

Special texture... real descriptive... like you're a special kind of
asshole.
What a moroon!

Adam Preble wrote:
> I wanted two cheap pizza stones that I could double up and use to bake
> bread and such. I've seen suggestions online to look into unglazed
> quarry tile with some caveats. Most noteably, graphite is a bad idea
> because it's radioactive--though I imagine that's not the least of it.
>
> At the local Home Depot, they only had slate. It was very rough and
> didn't seem suitable. Does anybody have a suggestion on a stone and of
> any stores that might have it? I'm trying to get 15" tiles.

Test

hob wrote:
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> >
> > pamjd wrote:
> > > I line both myoven and outdoor grill with unglazed red ceramic type
> > > floor tiles I get at Home depot for 35 cents each on sale. I think
> > > they are 8" squire. I leave them on the bottom rack of my oven all the
> > > time. They work great.
> >
> > A few people have said this. I'll add that I tried some red-orange,
> > unglazed ceramic tiles and they cracked apart in the middle of the
> > first use. Is there any further distinction I need to get ones that
> > won't fall apart so readily?
>
I have only had them crack in the grill when I use very high heat
repeatedly.

I have never had them crack in kitchen oven.