This year we are all spending a lot of time at home, sometimes craving some delicious food you normally just get in restaurants, like pizza. If your homemade pizza is not as good as the one you order out, you definitely need a pizza stone for your oven.
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Not everyone can have a wood fire oven in their backyard, but anyone can definitely consider getting a good pizza stone for their ovens. And let me tell you it makes a day and night difference.
Here you will find a list of the best pizza stones that will give you a similar crust you would get at an authentic Italian pizzeria.
"Perfect for making delicious and crispy crust pizza"
Ooni sells professional pizza ovens and all of them come with baking stone included. If you don't have an Ooni pizza oven, you can still have top-quality pizza results by buying Ooni baking stone separately to use in your oven or barbecue.
This baking stone is made of quality cordierite stone, which makes it extremely durable. It is, therefore, perfect for making delicious and crispy crust pizza. The stone can withstand high temperatures up to 1 800 degrees Celsius.
Cordierite is a compound mineral and its major component is silica. It has melting point of between 1200-1450 degrees Celsius. Ooni baking stone has a rough surface for better heat distribution. When used in a barbecue, it should be placed on the outer side of the grill so that it is heated indirectly from all sides.
Material: Cordierite
Dishwasher safe? No
"More robust than any other stoneware"
Pampered chef pizza stone is made with a new StoneFusion material, making it way more robust than any other stoneware. You can pre-heat, broil, and even put it in the dishwasher, and it only gets better with time. The more you use it - the more it will develop a nonstick seasoning, so the darker it looks, the better it cooks! A nonstick seasoning will develop as you use it—the darker it looks, the better it cooks!
Material: StoneFusion
Dishwasher safe? Yes
"The Emile Henry Pizza Stone will help you make beautifully golden pizzas"
If you are looking for a fancy product for fancy pizza results, Emile Henry pizza stone is what you need. It has a more delicate ceramic and is better to not use directly on a heat source, but it is perfect to use on a barbecue grill. The Emile Henry Pizza Stone will help you make beautifully golden pizzas.
Material: Clay
Dishwasher safe? Yes
"Crustier bread, crispier pizza crusts and golden focaccia"
Available in different shapes, FibraMent baking stones are the answer to your pizza craving.
Sometimes, ovens and grills at home can generate unwanted temperature fluctuations with hot and cold spots. FibraMent baking stones are designed to hold and transfer heat homogeneously. The consistent heat means crustier bread, crispier pizza crusts and golden focaccia.
Material: Mixed Raw Materials
Dishwasher safe? Yes
"Does not require any seasoning or conditioning"
Pizzacraft Thermobond normally sells professional pizza baking stones. However, this rectangular pizza stone is made for home use and it's a sure bet for any pizza enthusiast. It is formulated to eliminate thermal shock breakage, promotes even heat distribution and retention, and guarantees consistent cooking on the oven or grill. It does not require any seasoning or conditioning; this pizza stone is ready to use for perfect results.
Material: Cordierite
Dishwasher safe? No
"Doesn't bend or warp at high temperature"
Perfect for restaurant-style crusts! This baking stone is naturally seasoned and always give the best results from the very first using. The material doesn't bend or warp at high temperature.
It provides excellent heat distribution and retention for consistent, even cooking.
Material: Cast Iron
Dishwasher safe? No
"Ready in a few minutes with impressively crunchy results"
This baking steel is very resistant and already seasoned, and ready to use. Steel conducts heat very fast and can be even better than a pizza stone if your oven can't reach high temperatures.
Cooking temperatures vastly influence the taste and texture in your cooking experiments. Your pizza will be ready in a few minutes with impressively crunchy results.
Material: Steel
Dishwasher safe? No
"Perfect for pizza but also for cooking bread and cookies"
This pizza stone is perfect for pizza but also for cooking bread and cookies. The exclusive spiral heats will spread from the centre, which means you will cook the toppings in the middle as the one on the edges.
Material: Cordierite
Dishwasher safe? No
"Italian pizza cooked on a BBQ grill"
Have you ever imagined having an authentic Italian pizza cooked on a BBQ grill? With this stone, it is made possible. The handles will make it easier to handle the hot pizza stone on your BBQ.
Material: Cordierite
Dishwasher safe? No
"Diffuses heat for even baking and browning"
The Big Green Egg Pizza & Baking Stone is a handy piece of cookware for baking various recipes from pizzas to bread to desserts. The stone diffuses heat for even baking and browning, and the ceramics pull moisture from the dough's outer surface for brick oven crustiness. This baking stone maintains heat for a long time, so your foods will stay hot longer.
Material: Ceramic
Dishwasher safe? No
Using a pizza stone is very easy: first, you need to preheat your pizza stone to around 500 F. Then, carefully place your pizza on the pizza stone and bake it in the oven until the cheese on it looks lightly browned. Finally, remove the pizza, turn off the stove, and wait for the pizza stone to cool down before brushing it off.
If you are using a baking stone for the first time you may need to wash it (not all pizza stones need washing, so read carefully the instructions). After washing it, preheat it in the oven at 500 F.
Depending on the material, every pizza stone has different ways to be cleaned. Most of the baking stone is made of a porous material, such as ceramic or stone, making the pizza stone absorbing whatever substance you rinse it with. This could impact the food's favour, as too much moisture can affect the pizza crust crunchy texture.
First of all, before cleaning it, wait for the pizza stone to cool down. You can use a brush with water to eliminate the food leftovers from the baking stone. Brush it until it looks clean, paying attention to not scratch your stone. Never use soap or chemicals to clean it. Certain pizza stones can also be washed in the dishwasher, but be careful not to add soap.
After you cleaned your pizza stone from any food and oil leftovers, rinse it and let it dry in a warm place, allowing all the water to evaporate.
The best way to season your pizza stone is by using it. The older it gets, the better results you will get. Most of the pizza stones don't need seasoning before usage. However, some special treatment if you are using them for the first time. Just make sure to read the instructions for your stone.
To season a pizza stone, you can put a thin layer of oil on it, using a towel of a piece of paper. Bake the stone while the oven is preheating; otherwise, the stone may crack, and bake it at 425 F for about an hour. After that, your pizzza stone will have a perfect seasoning and will be ready to use after wiping it dry.
Ceramic pizza stones have perhaps the best value for money. Made from clay and fired in a kiln, these stones are excellent at conducting high heat evenly, making them great at baking pizza. When properly cared for, ceramic stones can last for many years.
Clay is best for achieving a crispy, but it takes a while to preheat. Ceramic heats evenly but cracks easily if not properly preheated.
Slightly more expensive than ceramic, but even more durable than the ceramic stones, Cordierite is a mineral known for handling extreme temperatures well. It’s the same material used to make kiln shelves, and it’s thermal shock resistant. It means you can take a cordierite stone from a low temperature to a very high temperature without the risk of breaking it. These stones can handle all the heat your oven or grill can dish out and still keep cranking out pizzas year after year.
It is a new material for pizza baking stones. Steel is very flexible to be used for cooking many different kinds of food other than pizzas.
While they radiate heat less evenly than ceramic or cordierite stones, pizza steels can achieve higher temperatures. Steels can also be used in combination with pizza stones for those of you who don’t have a top-mounted broiler in the oven. The best part is that baking steels are nearly indestructible. Not only will they stand up to any amount of heat you subject them to, but they’ll also easily survive accidentally dropping on the ground. On the other hand, baking steels require a little more maintenance than stones, as you’ll need to season them from time to time to prevent rust.
A pizza stone is one of the keys to making a perfect pizza, or at least, results will taste like a pizza cooked in a wooden oven. The stone conducts and holds the heat in the oven, which sometimes have some temperature fluctuations. The pizza stone so keeps the temperature steady, even when you introduce a cold ingredient.
This fact helps the pizza cook more evenly and allows the bottom to get crisp.
Your pizza will result in crunchy and cook homogeneously.
Plus, you can use your pizza stone for cooking food other than pizzas, and the results will be delicious. The porous material used for the pizza stone will absorb flavours. The most you will use it with a different kind of food preparation, the more your food will have an authentic taste.