Stone versus Steel?

[P61]

I'm looking for opinions and recommendations from folks that have used/experienced both stones and steels on their grills. I'm trying to do my due diligence before choosing. Certainly the stone recommended on the site is considerably less expensive, but.... any help would be appreciated.

[kmhfive]

Welcome to fun and learning.

Don't have experience with either on a grill, but use stone in the oven inside. I'm interested to see what others say.

[P61]

I noticed that I did not specifically indicate Pizza stone vs steel if I confused anybody

[scottranda]

I have a pizza stone. Haven't found a need for a steel because the stone does everything I need.

[Pequod]

I have used both on my kamados. The steel is vastly superior for thin crust pizza. If you get the griddle version, the other side works fantastic for smash burgers as well.

Oh...and welcome to the Pit!

[MBMorgan]

We have both. In general, the steel does a noticeably better job (esp. w/pizza). It's indestructible but is very heavy and awkward to use. The stone is OK, too ... much lighter and therefore easier to handle but subject to possible breakage.

[P61]

Thank you for the welcome.

I appreciate the feedback. I have been reading the reviews on Amazon on the Pizzacraft stone and many of the people are really disappointed with the smell the stone seems to continue to "provide"(in the home)! My inclination has been to go with the steel due to durability, but wanted to leverage the experience of members. With 2 out of 2, that have used both, leaning towards steel, makes me lean that way even more!

[Willy]

I commented below, too, but I have had ZERO problems with odor from my PizzaCraft stone

[fuzzydaddy]

Welcome to The Pit P61! Thanks for joining!

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[Mr. Bones]

Howdy from Kansas Territory, welcome to th' Pit P61 !!!

[RonB]

Welcome to The Pit.

I have had a stone for many years and always like what it did. I did think it was heavy though. Several years ago I received a Baking Steel as a gift. I now think the stone is very light. But the steel performs better. It heats up quicker, and to a higher temp too. I've never had a stone reach a temp higher than the set temp - like set for 350* it will not any higher. Since most ovens cycle on and off, they will reach a temp higher than the set temp and the shut off. The temp will drop below the set temp and then start heating again. The oven is supposed to average the set temp. Anyway, the steel will go higher than the set temp as the oven cycles higher.

There are two downsides though. First, the already mentioned weight, and second, if you bake pizza at very high temps, you will destroy the non-stick finish and the steel can rust. It's not really a big deal, but you should be aware .

[Willy]

Funny this topic should come up at the top of the "Today's Posts" list, because I was just coming in to ask about some difficulties I just encountered with my brand new pizza steel. I have been baking bread and doing pizza on a stone for months now and have always been very happy. I've used the stone (cordierite) mostly in the indoors oven, but have also used it on my Weber gasser. I recently bought a BGE and my go-to pizza stone (13.5" X 20" X 0.6") won't quite fit on the BGE, so I used an old small 13" round stone (ceramic) to bake a loaf of sourdough and to make a pizza on the BGE (bread at 500°F, pizza at 800-ish). It worked fine, but the small stone wasn't quite big enough to reliably accommodate my erratically shaped pizzas, so I ordered a 16" X 16" X 1/4 inch steel. First up yesterday was a sourdough loaf (500°F). The crust was burnt horribly and stuck to the steel. This has NEVER happened before. Later in the day, I fired the BGE up to 800°F plus to cook a pizza, which took only two minutes. The crust stuck a bit (I was able to loosen it, which I've never had to do before), but, for the first time ever, the crust was burnt--edible but pretty blackened in spots.

At this point, I am disappointed in the pizza steel and must ask:

1) Are steels not good for bread, and

2) why did my pizza burn?

The pizza dough was 00 flour--no oil and no sugar. An IR thermometer showed the steel reached only about 700°F even though the BGE showed 800°F plus. The SD loaf was standard KA BF. For both cooks, the "Conveggtor" was in place)

The pizza stone I really like is this one: https://www.pizzacraft.com/collectio...ch-pizza-stone

[EdF]

Just speculating, since I've only used stones, but maybe parchment paper would help?

[bten]

you may want to look at these:

http://www.californiapizzastones.com/pizza/stones/single-pizza-baking-stone.php?stoneNum=sq14f

I am considering purchasing one for my gasser. Looks like a durable stone

[Pequod]

Steels amp up the heat transfer. Most people find they need to turn the temp down a bit. I get beautiful pizzas by running at around 550 with a steel. Higher than that and they're likely to burn. Haven't tried it for bread -- I prefer my KK baking stone for that.

[RonB]

Willy - The steel, at least in my experience, will get hotter than the stone. You also purchased a steel thicker than what I have. 1/16" may not sound like much, but I think you are experiencing the heat retaining ability of that thick hunk o' steel.

I suggest bringing the egg up to temp, or close to temp before placing the steel in it. then place the bread or pizza on the steel when the steel is ~ 50* below the egg temp. You will probably have to play with the 50* to get it right. I also suggest using either parchment or a silicon mat under the bread or pizza.

If you want to shorten the preheat stage, you could heat the steel in the oven to 50* below the egg temp, or if doing high temp pizza, heat the steel to your oven's max temp. Please be careful when moving that hot steel, and use at least two sets of pot holders to make the transfer.

[EdF]

So, my most common problem with pizza is that the stone gets too hot while the dome isn't quite there for the toppings. So most remediation I do is to heat the top and lower the temp of the stone. The steel sounds like it's going to make that harder?

[Pequod]

EdF - Keep in mind that I own a KK, and the KK stone is designed to brown the bottom at roughly the same rate as the top due to the dome. My advice is to buffer the steel in some way so that it is not directly heated by the firebox. You could use an air gap with a deflector or stone. In this pic I just put the steel directly on my KK stone. I get the benefit of the rapid heat transfer from the steel that browns and crisps the bottom, but is moderated by the stone.

[EdF]

Sure, that's definitely one way to make it work!

I generally use a grid extender with the stone on top to get it up into the dome, then cover the stone with foil to suppress its temp. When it's time to put the pizza on, I pull the foil, put it on and cook. This is working around 800 degrees. Works well enough.