My husband read about this in the NYT’s Wirecutter. He really thinks we should get one especially for baking bread and pizzas. They seem awfully pricy to me. Has anyone used one? I’d like to find out more about it before we spend the money. Thanks!
baking stones are da’ bomb for pizza and breads - Fibrament ‘specializes’ in ‘full width full depth’ stone - which… you obviously don’t need for a pizza.
just keep in mind, it takes roughly an hour for the oven and stone to preheat. if the stone is not up to temp, not much different than an ordinary baking sheet.
so - check around for smaller / round stones - they tend to the $20-30 range and work just as well as the full-width-depth variety.
unless you’re baking 4-5 loaves at one time , , , where you need more area…
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Oh yes, I remember this discussion even back on Chowhound.
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If you have a sheet pan that’s on the thick side, place it on the oven rack upside down and preheat the oven. I do this when reheating pizza and it seems to me that the heat rising from the lower elements is trapped by the inverted rim. I haven’t got the type of equipment to measure, though.
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I have a stone I keep permanently on the lower rack. It is thinner than the Fibrament, but works pretty well on pizzas and other breads. However, if/when it cracks I’ll replace it with a baking steel.
Why? Because virtually every comparison I have seen online pretty much concludes they are superior. This from both pizza guys and bread bakers.
Search “pizza stone vs steel” in YouTube and see for yourself.
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Get a steel, or nest your two thickest matching sheet pans, overturned, on the top rack and preheat your oven as hot as it will go. Prepare your pizza dough and toppings on a sheet of parchment the same size as your overturned sheet pans, slide parchment onto sheet pans after the oven is thoroughly preheated, and cook the pizza.
Make rectangular pizzas. Roll out and trim neatly with a knife running against a stainless steel ruler.
Round is for chumps.
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ceramic/clay/fibrement/firebrick type materials are actually designed to be heat insulators - “protecting” external materials from very high temps ‘inside’ the heat vessel. in the glass industry fibrement type materials are used to construct glass kilns/vats - holding 2300’F molten glass - that’s it - interlocking bricks with steel angle iron “frame” . . .
steel, otoh, gives up heat to a crust very very rapidly - compared to insulating materials…
so the “better than” is hardly any ‘surprise’ - but it does sidestep the question of “how better is necessary?”
I’m not convinced the home cook needs a 600-800’F oven to cook a pizza in 3 minutes or less. commercial operations be different . . .
I have round stone, bought parchment rounds - about $0.05 more costly that the same lineal use off parchment roll - but it allows me to roll out the crust the the right dimension, apply all the toppings, then using a no-lip-sheet pan as a peel, move it onto the 550’F preheated stone.
. . . 10-11 minutes, out of oven, slide off parchment round onto rack to cool 5 minutes, onto cutting board, the crust ‘snaps’ as I cut it . . .
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TBC, I have no intention of replacing my stone with a steel until I’ll have to (it works fine). But my recommendation to a cook choosing either for the first time is steel. Not only for the better thermals (faster/higher heating/transfer), but also the clean-ability and indestructible nature of it.
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We’ve used stones in a residential setting. They took on sort of a rancid odor that couldn’t be gotten rid of. Pretty sure it’s because a domestic oven just won’t get hot enough to keep everything burned completely off/out. I’m am, by far, not a pizza expert but that’s my theory and hence suggestion to use a steel or overturned sheet pans for those who haven’t already invested in a stone.
self-clean cycle works nicely
Love my neighbors too much (NYC apartment).
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I’ve had a stone for decades - it just gets moved from the old oven to the new oven. It stays stored in the oven on the very bottom rung. There’s room for air to circulate. I don’t even know why I still have it, but I do. I’ve cleaned it with a microfiber rag, water, a brush and a bench scraper. I don’t care about the stains, I just want the lumpy gunk off.
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Me too!
