On 13 Dec 2002 "Kishwar Shahab" <kishwarshahab@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I am trying to kind differences between pizza stone, baking stone, and
> unglazed quarry tiles. I am interested in baking some bread but not
> sure whether to use pizza stone, baking stone, or unglazed quarry
> tiles.
Let me start by expressing a bias. I rarely bake one loaf of bread. I
bake for my church's dinners, for friends, and to test variations in
recipes. So, if something will be great in my oven, but only let's me bake
one loaf, I'll keep looking for something else.
All of these oven enhancers work on the principal of using their mass to
hold heat and transfer it to food through conduction. Old ovens used to
cook by radiation, convection, and conduction. New ovens don't have the
mass of older ones, so they only cook by radiated heat and convection.
(Yes, your regular oven does cook by convection. Heated air will move, and
that's what convection is. A true convection oven will enhance this effect
through the use of a fan.)
There are at least four oven enhancers along these lines. One is the pizza
stone. They tend to be large, fragile, and more expensive than I'd like.
I've had them crack, and then I had to replace them, one way or another.
Also, because of their size, it's hard to use them to cover most of an oven
rack. The round ones are the worst. You can't put two on an oven rack.
The rectangular ones I bought were about $18.00 each, so it cost me $36.00
to put one on each rack of my oven. I thought it was too much, though they
did help my bread.
The next option is a baking stone. These tend to be very heavy and thick
pieces of concrete like material. Look for fibrament on the net. They are
very expensive, but a friend who has one swears they are the best thing
next to the commercial oven in his resturant's kitchen. They are around an
inch thick. I haven't used one, much less one for each oven rack.
The next option is the hearthkit, such as the one recently raffled off
here. They look great, but, again, I haven't used one so I can't comment on
them. Several people I know have tried them and rave about them. Very
expensive, however.
The cheapest way out is to use unglazed quarry tiles. Unglazed is the most
important word here. Glaze may contain lead. Lead in your food and food
handling implements can cause problems for you. No glaze = no lead = no
lead problems. Quarry tiles are available in a variety of sizes. They are
around 3/8" thick. Go to a flooring store and ask if they have any
remnants. I bought a box of tiles for about $10.00 that let me tile both
racks of my oven, both racks of a friends oven, and I have tiles left
over. I just leave the tiles in my oven and give the oven extra time to
warm up (which is required for all these oven enhancers). I've had no
tiles break on me, but if they do, I can replace one of the 4 x 6" tiles
very easily. If you need, or want, more thermal mass, you can double layer
the tiles.
Some people use marble or granite obtained from headstone carvers. A scrap
piece can be very cheap - sometimes you can trade it for a few loaves of
bread. Still, I would be worried about the thermal stability of these
natural stones. Some people use fire bricks and are very happy with them.
However, I think that might just be too much of a good thing.
Hope this helps,
Mike