Hi
I want to get a pizza/baking steel and want it to fit my smaller oven too, can't find anything ready made here. I'm thinking of getting a plate cut to size, but question is what material to use and whether some materials are not good for food. Some places describe baking steels made of "food grade steel" which I think is a random made up term...?
I know most of the baking steels are made of carbon steel but there are many types, and better to not use anything with lead in it... but how do you even know if it has lead in it...?
Stainless might be ok too, but supposedly not as good for cooking, both because of heat conductivity (compared with steel) and possibly the nickel or chrome releasing at a certain temp... which might or might be relevant.
Thanks
Most "baking steels" are just mild steel that gets seasoned with a light coat of oil. Just avoid one of the intentionally lead containing grades and you will be fine. The amount of surface contact a pizza actually has with the steel is incredibly low as it almost immediately bubbles into a structured non flat surface. Barry covered most the rest of the basics.
There are several ebay sellers with precut shapes of all sizes/thickness for this purpose:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=steel+plate+16&_osacat=0
More Detail:
With plates or stones you have two main variables, total energy stored in the plate and conductivity (how quickly it can delivery that heat to the pizza). Ideal is for the energy storage to be infinite, but real world trials seem to result in 1/2" steel and 1" aluminum (aluminum has a lower volumetric heat capacity) being the point of diminishing returns. The desired conductivity should be proportional to the oven temperature. The plates are preheated to approximately the oven temperature, so high conductivity plates will result in excessive heat transfer into the pizza bottom at high temperatures.
Testing from a number of internet chefs seems to suggest that given sufficient thickness aluminum works well at 500F and below, steel at 550-650F, and stones above that with a lot of overlap potential. At 900F+ we are looking to stone with intentionally low conductivity to keep from scorching the bottom.
Cooking times are directly related to the oven temperature. With increasing cooking time, you increase the thickness of the browned hard crunchy layer of the crust. The characteristic of this layer is the primary determinate of pizza style. It is primarily influenced by cooking temp/time and secondarily by the dough recipe. The two main reference styles are New York at 4-7 minutes and Neapolitan with 50-90 seconds. New York has distinct crunch and defined outer crusty layer from the moderate cooking time. Neapolitan has almost no defined outer crusty layer and is elastic even though fully cooked. That super thin crusty layer allows extreme browning/burning of discrete sections without developing off flavors as the small dose comes through as toasted marshmallow when done right.
In home ovens you are aiming for New York style and its variants. I like this around 4 minutes, which requires maximizing heat in the oven and plate. You can play around with cooking under the broiler or under a second plate or stone. Make sure you sufficiently preheat the oven, which is going to to be 45-60min.
My strong preference Neapolitan oriented oven outside. Launching a pizza directly onto a hot plate or stone inevitably involves smoke from things that fall off.
Oh and learn to make long fermented dough. This is dough that rises over 2-3 days by using the fridge or small initial amount of yeast.
