|
I have a wimpy pizza stone that is about 1/2 thick and maybe 12-14in diameter. Where can I get a thick bad rear end pizza stone? I've heard of getting them from stone/granite places but I called one locally and they quoted me over $100 bucks for a slab. What are you using and where do you recommend I look for a sweet (inexpensive) stone? I don't care if it's half a broken jagged counter top as long as it cooks my delicious pizzas. Thanks.
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2012 03:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 12:40 |
|
|
ThirstyBuck posted:I have a wimpy pizza stone that is about 1/2 thick and maybe 12-14in diameter. Where can I get a thick bad rear end pizza stone? I've heard of getting them from stone/granite places but I called one locally and they quoted me over $100 bucks for a slab. What are you using and where do you recommend I look for a sweet (inexpensive) stone? I don't care if it's half a broken jagged counter top as long as it cooks my delicious pizzas. Thanks. http://www.bakingstone.com/ You're welcome.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2012 04:02
|
|
|
ThirstyBuck posted:I have a wimpy pizza stone that is about 1/2 thick and maybe 12-14in diameter. Where can I get a thick bad rear end pizza stone? I've heard of getting them from stone/granite places but I called one locally and they quoted me over $100 bucks for a slab. What are you using and where do you recommend I look for a sweet (inexpensive) stone? I don't care if it's half a broken jagged counter top as long as it cooks my delicious pizzas. Thanks. Cordierite kiln shelves are fairly popular amongst posters of a pizza forum I read. If you have a pottery supply place nearby I would see if they have them. Just make sure it will fit in your oven and provide room on the sides for airflow. I bought a 20inch diamater/.75inch thick shelf for ~$40 a couple weeks ago to use in a modified Weber grill.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2012 05:00
|
|
|
Shooting Blanks posted:http://www.bakingstone.com/
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2012 20:28
|
|
|
I just spent about 11$ on a 40x40x3 cm slab of polished granite from a large builders warehouse over here. It fits perfectly in my oven, Tomorrow it's time totest it out on some bread, ad maybe later some pizza. I'm very excited. Any tips for the first attempt? Should it be broken in in some way before cooking on it?
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2012 20:33
|
|
|
GroovinPickle posted:The manufacturer says that it'll emit a slight odor when you're breaking it in, but the odor was very strong and unpleasant for me. It took several hours (at least 3, probably more like 6) of heat to dissipate, but it eventually did. Now it works really well with no odor. I have very little sense of smell so it wasn't an issue for me. One thing to be aware of, though, is that if you move and it's outside of an oven for more than a couple hours, you may want to break it in again since it'll readily pull moisture out of the air.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2012 23:39
|
|
|
DekeThornton posted:I just spent about 11$ on a 40x40x3 cm slab of polished granite from a large builders warehouse over here. It fits perfectly in my oven, Tomorrow it's time totest it out on some bread, ad maybe later some pizza. I'm very excited. I thought polished granite was generally frowned upon for baking stones, since it can emit radon... Edit: drat, meant to add this to my previous post. Sorry about that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 15, 2012 23:43
|
|
|
Shooting Blanks posted:I thought polished granite was generally frowned upon for baking stones, since it can emit radon... Considering that most baking stones sold here in Sweden are granite I'd say no. My only worry is that it might crack if I heat it too quick.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2012 09:08
|
|
|
You use granite when working with dough on a countertop, I think. You put an unglazed ceramic tile in the oven because it will hold heat and also wick away moisture. I don't think granite wicks away moisture very well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 16, 2012 09:14
|
|
|
Here is some of my work from last night. Olive oil and herb sauce with garlic, mushrooms, and some mozzarella. I found a board in my basement that contractors left behind and I've been using it as a makeshift peel. A huge improvement over taking my stone out of the oven.  Shooting Blanks - thanks for the website. It sounds like users are pretty happy with these although $70-90 I think is a bit much for a stone. Maybe I'm not hardcore enough. Or just cheap. Nebula - Thanks for the recommendation, I hadn't thought of this. There are a couple places nearby that I will check out. DekeT - This is what I wanted to do originally and the price point I wanted find. ThirstyBuck fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Jul 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 17:22
|
|
|
Well,I just made my first stone baked bread, and the results were excellent. I made a dough with the flour I had left last night, about 28o grams of wheat flour and some extra rye to top it off. Then just a little bit of yeast, a little over two deciliters of water, some salt and a dash of canola oil. I let that rise in the fridge over night and made two small loaves out of it for breakfast. I heated the oven to 275 degrees centigrade for about an hour with a tray of water at the bottom of the ovenand then lowered the heat a bit and tossed in the loaves on the stone. The stone really helped in making the bread rise quickly and they got a great even crust. Now I just have to make some proper dough, maybe with some sourdough.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 17:46
|
|
|
quote:Shooting Blanks - thanks for the website. It sounds like users are pretty happy with these although $70-90 I think is a bit much for a stone. Maybe I'm not hardcore enough. Or just cheap. Didn't you say you were trying to replace a 12-14 inch stone? The 13 5/8" Fibrament is only $43, actually. Mine has behaved perfectly for about 3 years so far, probably close to 100 pizzas and multiple cleaning cycles, and if the pizzas come out less than perfect it's always been something I screwed up, not the stone.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2012 23:41
|
|
|
Decided to try one with bacon... probably should have added a sweet ingredient or less cheese to balance out the saltiness. I envy you guys that can go above 500!
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 06:05
|
|
|
I make Chicago style deep dish pizza in a cast iron pan. It takes a long time to cook, but that's what this kind of thing requires. It's very different from the fast, hot, stone/parchment pizzas I've seen in this thread. My way is plodding and slow, takes an hour plus to cook, and is my personal favorite. I ask my wife to make a batch of bread dough from a recipe she got from Cook's Illustrated magazine a couple years ago. I have no idea what's in it. When it's had a day or two to rise in the fridge, I dust the counter with flour and roll it out to about 1/8 inch or so, give it time to rise to a quarter inch, and roll it right back down to an 1/8th. I warm a big cast iron skillet on low, enough to melt a little kerrygold ghee to coat the inside of the pan well. Then I lay the dough in the pan and drape up the sides with the intent to keep the thickness even all the way around. Once the dough is laid out in the pan I get to the rest of the preparations. I slice fresh Motz on a circular slicer 1/8th inch or less for bottom/side cheese. Then I use a rubber spatula to fold equal parts pesto and tomato paste together for the sauce. Low moisture is part of the key to making sure the crust stays intact. Then I prepare my toppings. If I'm lucky, Trader Joe's has clamshells of fresh basil for $3. Sometimes I'll smack a pound of spicy pork sausage into a disk that will fit edge to edge on the bottom of the pizza. I recently made a steak pizza with flank steak, A1/tomato paste for the sauce, onions/leeks/shallots, and a couple layers of stinkcheese topped with motz. The idea is to use low moisture sauce, low moisture meat, low moisture cheese, and layer it on from the outside in. Lay down a thin layer of bottom cheese right on the dough and up the sides of the pan. This will help the other ingredients to stay in a bowl of melted cheese and cook up in there. A thin layer of sauce on the cheese. Then start layering your meat, then stinkcheese, then garlic, then herbs, then motz. That's your base. Then you can add something with more moisture that will evaporate up. Maybe some mushrooms, peppers, artichokes, greek olives, sliced tomatoes, whatever works with your dish. If I was going to make a kielbasa/hot peppers packed in oil/sauerkraut pizza, I would layer it with the kielbasa on the bottom, then stinkcheese, peppers, then motz. Then sauerkraut on top. Once you have your second layer, you fill the pie to dome it above the level of the top of the pan with shredded motz, maybe with some three cheese blend. Any spices in this layer are going to get burned, don't bother. High moisture vegetables can be added on top of this layer. Finally, take your spatula and work one last thin layer of sauce on top of it all. Stay with the low moisture tomato paste/pesto mix. Cover the cheese, but you should see the cheese through the sauce. Option #2 is to lay down the top layer of sauce thick so nothing shows through. That seals in moisture though, so you should only use low moisture ingredients throughout if you want to cap it like that. Take a look at the photos of the pizzas throughout this thread. Notice the heel of the slices (the bottom of the slice towards the outside where the dough piles up) is thick bread while the middle is thin, tends to have more toppings, and the crust seems a little droopy. Try to avoid that with Chicago style as this effect can be exaggerated with excessive moisture and with dough that sloughs off the sides of the pan down to the fold. Work your toppings from the outside of the bottom. Press in. Make sure to thin that heel out and push some of the dough towards the middle that could wind up thin and soggy. It's OK if grease works its way into the crust as that will crispify it, but moisture is a no-go. Don't be shy with the bottom cheese, try to seal it around the crust. I'd rather have a ton of superthin slices to layer rather than thicker slices that have to be folded and cracked into half rounds and work a jigsaw puzzle around the crust. OK, I wrote way too much, but I hope it's worthwhile.
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 10:17
|
|
|
NosmoKing posted:It's not really pizza, but this seems like a good place to ask. Are you talking about 'knækbrød'? (or whatever it is called in Swedish - the WASA kind of thing?)
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2012 10:46
|
|
|
area_man posted:stinkcheese
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2012 07:20
|
|
|
I forgot to freeze my leftover pizza dough. It was made and refrigerated on Wednesday and has already had two rises. It definitely looks like it's now had some decent cold rise action for 48 hours as well. Do I dare use this forgotten dough, or do I go for fresh? I'm sure it's safe, and I'd bet the flavor would be improved, but I'm dubious about what texture of crust will result.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2012 18:37
|
|
|
Molten Llama posted:I forgot to freeze my leftover pizza dough. It was made and refrigerated on Wednesday and has already had two rises. It definitely looks like it's now had some decent cold rise action for 48 hours as well. Give it a whirl! What's the worst that could happen? Also, post pictures.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2012 19:14
|
|
|
ThirstyBuck posted:Shooting Blanks - thanks for the website. It sounds like users are pretty happy with these although $70-90 I think is a bit much for a stone. Maybe I'm not hardcore enough. Or just cheap. Those are very large stones, how big is your oven? Remember that ideally, you'll have some room between the stone and your oven's interior walls to allow for circulation. I have the 15.5" ($53) diameter version and I couldn't go any larger on width. Also remember that shipping is included int hat price..
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2012 20:11
|
|
|
The Fibrament stone is 100% worth it just for peice of mind alone. Even at 500 degrees if you get a drop of sauce on a cheap rear end pizza stone it will shatter in the oven. I had an unintended calzone split and spill its entire innards onto my Fibrament stone at 850 degrees and absolutely nothing came of it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2012 20:58
|
|
|
Cpt. Spring Types posted:Care to get a bit more specific here? Lots of cheeses "stink", but I can't imagine they'd all go well in a pizza. Otherwise, I'm probably going to try out your technique, because my cast iron pan needs a good workout, and so do my kidneys, liver, and heart. I basically go to the store and buy whatever's on sale or whatever looks good that day. Costco has nice big plastic buckets of shredded Parmesan regularly. Parmesan doesn't melt all that well, so I blend that with motz. Winco has good prices on wedges of all kinds of stinky Italian cheeses. It kind of depends on what you use as filling. I wouldn't hesitate to use blue cheese if I was making a steak pizza or cheddar if something went well with that. I could easily wind up with a red wine/tomato paste sauce with shallots, leeks, roasted garlic, and aged white cheddar cheese blended with enough motz to melt well and not come out like a brick. Mozarella is the medium for hard, stinky cheese to melt and flow within. If it's really stinky, maybe I'd use less stinky stuff and more motz to keep it behaving like a pizza. Cheese is part spice, part structural element.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2012 03:50
|
|
|
Molten Llama posted:I forgot to freeze my leftover pizza dough. It was made and refrigerated on Wednesday and has already had two rises. It definitely looks like it's now had some decent cold rise action for 48 hours as well. Knead it 50/50 with fresh flour and water, give it an hour's rise, then freeze half and use the other half. You'll get the best pizza dough you've ever had.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2012 15:40
|
|
|
I don't have any fancy stone - unfortunately - and use two metal baking trays to make enough for the family. I cheat in all sorts of ways. The bread is two and three-quarter cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 cup water, 7g packet of dried yeast and a big tablespoon of 'butter' (Flora). The trays are well greased with more Flora to prevent sticking. The sauce is usually a pasta bake sauce with some tomato ketchup added - spread thinly otherwise the bread goes soggy. Proper cheese, then toppings to taste, red peppers and lots of mushrooms are my preference. Garlic when I remember. Baked on two shelves in the middle of the oven at gas mark 6, 200C, 400F for twenty minutes, after 10 minutes swapping shelves to ensure even cooking. Still tastes better than restaurant ones.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2012 23:09
|
|
|
Clarence posted:The sauce is usually a pasta bake sauce with some tomato ketchup added Uhh excuse me, but 
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2012 11:29
|
|
|
Well I did mention I cheated! The ketchup was initially added because of a fussy eating 5 year old. It's slowly being reduced until I can remove it altogether. I'd like to make my own sauce, but lack of time just doesn't allow me to. Plus unfortunately there are no ready made pizza sauces in the local shops.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2012 12:27
|
|
|
Clarence posted:I'd like to make my own sauce, but lack of time just doesn't allow me to. Plus unfortunately there are no ready made pizza sauces in the local shops. Just open a tin of tomatoes (I like chopped ones, they have fewer seeds), drain some of the juice from the tin, and shove in a stick blender. Spread on dough and sprinkle on some herbs if you like. Pizza sauce as quick as opening a jar and mixing in ketchup.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2012 13:44
|
|
|
If yer gonna cheat just use some quality marinara dosed up with fresh oregano and garlic, works like a champ.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2012 14:50
|
|
|
Use crushed tomatoes from a can, throw it in a pan for 15 minutes to soften up, add spices to taste. It doesn't new to b an all day slow cooked affair. Also, generally, canned tomatoes will make better sauces then fresh tomatoes. The ones you buy in produce aren't really the right kind to use for sauce, but the canned ones are because that's pretty much the reason why they sell them, sauces.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2012 15:22
|
|
|
Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a go and hopefully next weekend (pizza is usually Saturday night) will look like a hero.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2012 15:42
|
|
|
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I thought technically you weren't even supposed to precook canned tomatoes for pizza because you bake it at such a high heat. Regardless the best sauce I've ever had are canned crushed San Marzano tomatoes.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2012 22:40
|
|
|
Yeah a lot of pizza places don't even seem to use a cooked tomato sauce. The ketchup is so weird.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 00:24
|
|
|
Queen Elizatits posted:Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I thought technically you weren't even supposed to precook canned tomatoes for pizza because you bake it at such a high heat. That may be the case, honestly, that just what I do for a quick pasta sauce, but I figured it would work.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 04:24
|
|
|
Peter Reinhart's sauce recipe is great and doesn't require any pre cooking. After all the tomatoes are cooked during canning and again on your pizza.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 05:12
|
|
|
So, we tried using an old pizza stone that we have had for some time now last night. It split in the oven - not a great first experiment, or dinner. Undeterred, I've ordered a new stone from the website linked above. I believe it came up before, but should I just leave it in the oven when I'm not using it?
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 14:46
|
|
|
Yeah, there's no reason not to. You can leave it in even when youre not cooking pizza on it, it will be a thermal regulator which helps control temperature swings when you open the door for example.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 19:11
|
|
|
IfIWereARichMan posted:Yeah, there's no reason not to. You can leave it in even when youre not cooking pizza on it, it will be a thermal regulator which helps control temperature swings when you open the door for example. Actually, there is a very good reason why you SHOULD leave it in the oven: assuming your oven gets at least semi regular use (a couple times a week), leaving it in will help prevent the stone from absorbing any moisture, which makes it more prone to crack or offgas. It will pull moisture out of the air regardless, but regularly heating it up is a good thing (and the humidity in the average home oven does tend to be slightly lower than outside, again due to use).
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2012 19:27
|
|
|
About a month ago I helped a neighbour build a cob oven and have since been building planters and tables and things around it and curing it with small fires. We tried it out for the first time the other night. I was really happy with the results and I think we'll be getting great pizza from it regularly with a little fine tuning of my fire building and tending technique and the acquisition of some proper tools (I was using a baking sheet for a peel and tongs to move the pies around)    The first pizza (pictured above) was done in 90 seconds, I probably had the fire too hot and put the pizza a little too close, the next ones were more evenly cooked and less brown on the edge. large hands fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Jul 25, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2012 01:10
|
|
|
How long did it take you to build that fire up and let the oven heat?
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2012 03:23
|
|
|
Zhent posted:How long did it take you to build that fire up and let the oven heat? Pretty sure it was a little over an hour.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2012 03:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 12:40 |
|
|
How do you clear the ash out of a stove like that? Wait til the next day and use a small shovel? Leafblower?
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2012 06:28
|
|