Off Topic: Pizza stone vs iron plate

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Bill D

Diamond

Joined

Apr 1, 2004

Location

Modesto, CA USA

• Jul 21, 2018

• #1

OT: I bought a 12x16 marble tile to use on the propane barbecue. It has worked fairly well for pizza, and pans of lasagna, etc.
It was only $3.00 closeout at Hoe Depot and quarried in China with obvious lines. It is cracking along those lines which I kind of expected. I wonder if a piece of say 1/4-1/2" steel plate would spread the heat evenly and work well as a pizza stone?
It has been over 100 every day for the last month so it was worth it to try and keep the heat out of the kitchen.
Bill D.

 

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carbonbl

Cast Iron

Joined

Apr 15, 2016

• Jul 21, 2018

• #2

A large cast iron pan or griddle works great and is fairly inexpensive. They make ones designed to be used as pizza stones (no/low sides).
I got sick of ceramic pizza stones cracking and only use cast iron now. The results are basically the same.

 

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Hazzert

Stainless

Joined

Dec 21, 2014

• Jul 21, 2018

• #3

Bass pro shop sells a US made ~18” round cast iron griddle with a 1/8” or so lip for about $25 CAD, since they’re all the same if you have one near you check out their camping section.

 

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DDoug

Diamond

Joined

Oct 18, 2005

Location

NW Pa

• Jul 22, 2018

• #4

I dunno....the prefab frozen pizza I made last night clearly stated
(on the box) to place directly on the open grate of the oven.

Not a pan.

 

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metalmagpie

Titanium

Joined

May 22, 2006

Location

Seattle

• Jul 22, 2018

• #5

If you have a casting supply store near you, buy a kiln shelf. They come in all sizes, are about 1" thick, and should not crack. Lots of guys use them as forge floors, where they get thermally stressed way more than on a BBQ grill. Like this one for example: Seattle Pottery Supply E-Catalog: CoreLite - 24" x 12" x 1" RECTANGULAR Kiln Shelf

metalmagpie

 

eKretz

Diamond; Mod Squad

Joined

Mar 27, 2005

Location

Northwest Indiana, USA

• Jul 22, 2018

• #6

You can cook pizzas on a pan or stone and it will cook just fine. If you do it right. Put the pan/stone in while the oven preheats and preheat it also. If you preheat the oven and then put the pizza on the stone and then put them both in the oven cold, the bottom of the pizza won't cook anywhere near to done before the top burns.

 

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Bob-J-H

Hot Rolled

Joined

Nov 14, 2006

Location

Camarillo Ca

• Jul 22, 2018

• #7

I cook my pizzas in a large cast iron skillet on my wood fired BBQ. I set the skillet on a 3/4 inch plate of steel.The idea is to get the crust crunchy at the same time the top is cooked. I also have a wood fired pizza oven, but I never use it. It takes too much time to heat up, and uses too much wood.The BBQ does just fine. Oh yea, I set one of those Weber tops over the skillet to turn it into a make-shift oven.

 

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medsar

Cast Iron

Joined

Jan 13, 2017

Location

Washington, USA

• Jul 22, 2018

• #8

Note that many pizza stones have two sides to them -- glazed side and an unglazed side. The unglazed version is the traditional pizza stone. One of the benefits of a pizza stone (unglazed) is that it draws some of the moisture out while it cooks. That effect is done in other types of cooking as well (like a tandoor). The cast iron skillet/griddle or a steel plate would have less of that effect. It would be similar to using the glazed side of a pizza stone.

 

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kev74

Plastic

Joined

Jan 27, 2018

• Jul 22, 2018

• #9

I also use a cast iron griddle for pizza. It works as well as ceramic, and doesn't crack after a few uses.

When the griddle or stone is somewhere in the neighborhood of 550 degrees, it doesn't need to draw moisture out of the crust.

 

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paulz

Aluminum

Joined

Mar 1, 2007

Location

wisconsin

• Jul 22, 2018

• #10

medsar said:

Note that many pizza stones have two sides to them -- glazed side and an unglazed side. The unglazed version is the traditional pizza stone. One of the benefits of a pizza stone (unglazed) is that it draws some of the moisture out while it cooks. That effect is done in other types of cooking as well (like a tandoor). The cast iron skillet/griddle or a steel plate would have less of that effect. It would be similar to using the glazed side of a pizza stone.

Click to expand...

I have a steel pizza "stone" my girlfriend got for me. The surface looks like it has been shot blasted with large shot. It's about 1/4" thick and works pretty good.

 

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Joe Gwinn

Stainless

Joined

Nov 22, 2009

Location

Boston, MA area

• Jul 23, 2018

• #11

I made a steel pizza "stone" out of A36 structural steel plate, 5/16" inch thick. I would have bough a commercial steel pizza stone, except that my then stove was too narrow.

The steel stone works very well. I used 5/16" because the commercial vendor offered 1/4" and 3/8", and it wasn't obvious that 3/8" was actually necessary, so I split the difference. Having done 5/16", I bet that 1/4" will work perfectly well.