If anyone decides they like what they made… I would gladly commission one from you.
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Looking around, Long Beach has a ton of metal fabrication shops. -
SheilaAnn I would gladly season a steel for you, but the shipping would kill you - from Florida. 😁
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I have been using baking stones for years. Only broke one, and I still have 2 of them. But a year or so ago I bought a couple of Lodge baking steels. Bought them primarily so I could use them outside without the risk of breaking them. But now I find myself using the steels more than the stones even indoors.Comment
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I too caught the pizza bug last year. Promptly cracked my wife's pizza stone and quickly picked up a Baking Steel. It works great and now Friday is Pizza Night here. I've found I can also use the Steel on my gas grill as a griddle and smash up some burgers which works great.Comment
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Steel arrived yesterday. Amazon Prime - free shipping. 😉
I will post pics to verify the DIY process (DIY process and Amazon link for steel are at the beginning of this post).
I did not need to sand as there were no sharp edges on the steel.
You could sand or grind a nice rounded edge if you wanted.
Any spacer will do to keep the metal off the bottom of the container. The posted link uses pencils, but I used 1/2 cuts of pvc pipe b/c why waste a pencil.
Here it is submerged. 4qts White Vinegar, 4 qts water. Now we will wait for 48 hours.
I happened to have everything I needed; so getting this done took about 10 minutes.
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SheilaAnn - Thanks! The outside kitchen has more counter space than the inside. Carol is jealous. 😁
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Question - Is it difficult to find a place for the steel slab if you needed the oven right after pizza/bread, for something else? I'm thinking it would be too hot to place on just about anything indoors?Comment
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48 Hours soaking and the steel was not as clean as I wanted. So I rinsed and repeated to make sure I got everything off the steel. I’ll check again in a day. I also have some muriatic acid; but for now that is a little too dramatic.
Those spots that are very clean are the result of a light rusting that happened when I changed the water. Hopefully that will fade. I want the steel to be a uniform color.
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I need some advice. There is a lot of discoloration. The raw mild steel was rusting about 20 seconds after rinsing off the vinegar etching solution. I could not get them into the oven fast enough to dry before they turned from grey to brown/red. I cannot figure out how to prevent that patina.
These have two cycles of seasoning with organic flax oil.
Is this is good as it gets?
I have no problem starting over if I can get consistent color.
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Why worry about the color being perfectly consistent? I don't think it can be a perfect process. The purpose is to get the oil to polymerize. Once that has been achieved, it will work as intended or better. -
That was what I was wondering. But then when I handled them, my hands smelled like rust. I sanded one of them down yesterday. Much happier with the result. Will probably do the other after a test cook.
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Does it seem to be "baked in?" (That is, not surface rust?)
I wonder if something like this is just inevitable unless you're doing this in the summer in the Mojave desert. For it to rust/discolor that quickly seems almost unavoidable.Comment
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Just used my 15" lodge pizza pan again today. Not sure why everyone wants to make the wheel rounder.Comment
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Michael_in_TX That discoloration would not wipe off. I took one of the plates and sanded it, finishing with a fine steel wool. No water, no vinegar. Seasoned that last night and it looks great compared to the original. It is a solid color, and slick. We will see how it cooks soon.
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Wrap up:
The steel performed superbly.
1) The pizza slid on and off easily.
2) The size of the steel made it very easy to move it around and check the crust.
3) The thickness of the steel allowed enough heat retention for back to back pizzas.
4) At 500f, the pizza took 10 minutes to finish with a nice brown crust and no burnt cheese.
4) Having two steels turns a conventional oven into a pizza oven for a large pizza party.
The total cost to make a 16x16x1/4” steel plate was $40.00 (steel, vinegar, plastic tub). You can purchase smaller or thinner steel or cast iron for less, however the cost of a comparable size and thickness of cooking steel was around $100.00 and up.
Cheese, cheese and pepperoni, and meat lovers. 👍👍
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Honestly, I was worried too. I got impatient with the chemical process.
It turned out nice, in the right light, you can see the sanding marks.
If I did it again, I would use a fine (400) sandpaper and electric sander and clean it in about 30 minutes. Using a circular sander, I could put a nice etched pattern in the steel too.
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They look great. If you have to sand again, try using wet/dry sandpaper with oil as your lubricant. That should prevent any rust.Comment
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