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OT - Baking Aluminum (like baking steel). Today's project.

nolaegghead
nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
Sorry haven't posted in a long while. This is a one-day recycle some junk to cook pizza on it project.

I was a little intrigued when LS talked about ordering some "baking steels".  Did a little web search and it looks like they're thick plates of steel that you cook on, like a pizza stone but made out of steel.  I thought that makes sense, steel transfers heat better than a junk-yard dog transfers fleas.  As a matter of fact, it transfers heat better n stone and cast iron. 

I was cleaning up round the back of the shop - we have a termite inspection on Wed.  Throwin' out some junk, and I found a big chunk of alloy I scavenged from an ICP we decommissioned at the lab. I thought it was magnesium, so I did a little test to see if the metal savings combusted.  I did that with a plasma cutter and I was a little worried I'd have a run-away thermite-like reaction, but alas, luck was on my side.

It was a weird milled and casted chunk of metal.  The plasma cutter didn't work well - I trashed the ceramic nozzle with blow-back.  Another sign it was aluminum....very good at conducting heat and tough to cut thick via plasma.

So I decided to use a carbide circular saw.  Cut it like frozen buttah.

Now, I got a buddy whose givin' me a chunk o thick steel for a "baking steel".  I'm gonna cut a 16" circle or hexagon for pizzas n stuff on the egg.  Because there's less mass, and therefore less thermal mass because the lower density of aluminum, I just made as big a chunk as I could, to give me as much real estate and thermal heat carrying mass as possible to cook pizzas, bread, eggs, bacon or whatever else I want to throw on it.

Why the OT?  Because this mother is too large to fit on the egg and shut the lid.  So I used it in the oven to test it out. Yep.  I'm a heretic.  Also works on the range burners.

Did all this today, and the pizza came out delicious - experimented with cheese first and sauce on top, and sauce on the dough and cheese on top.  The sauce on top was better.  Both pizzas came out delicious.

Here are the pics. I used a circ saw with a guide, then cut the junk (standoffs) off, polished it, seasoned it, cooked 2 pizzas on it.  Oven, did not fit in egg, so be a lover and not a hater.  Peace out.



imageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimage
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I love lamp..

Comments

  • shtgunal3
    shtgunal3 Posts: 5,629
    Damn Nola, only you could look at a price of scrap and think "if I spent half a day on that I believe I could cook on it".

    Awesome job dude!

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     LBGE,SBGE, and a Mini makes three......Sweet home Alabama........ Stay thirsty my friends .

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    "One man's trash is another man's cooking surface".  Thanks @shtgunal3

    It's a huge 1/4" thick slab o aluminum...or some aluminum alloy.  Came from a $150,000 instrument (when new) that used to measure metals in water n dirt down to the part per billion level.
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    I love lamp..
  • BOWHUNR
    BOWHUNR Posts: 1,487
    Nice!  I still wanna bring a bottle of Templeton Rye down there and drink with you! 

    I'm ashamed what I did for a Klondike Bar!!

    Omaha, NE
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    BOWHUNR said:
    Nice!  I still wanna bring a bottle of Templeton Rye down there and drink with you! 
    Anytime, brother!
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    I love lamp..
  • Mickey
    Mickey Posts: 19,669
    Ok, what the hell do you do for fun =))
    Salado TX & 30A  FL: Egg Family: 3 Large and a very well used Mini, added a Mini Max when they came out (I'm good for now). Plus a couple Pit Boss Pellet Smokers.   

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    @Mickey - cooking of course. Duh. :bz ....oh, sorry, I mean ;)

    @Village_Idiot - Busted! :ar!
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    I love lamp..
  • Aviator
    Aviator Posts: 1,757

    @nola

    Is the melting point not a concern. Although at normal indoor range cooking temps the seepage into food may be hardly worth mentioning, I am concerned that those high temps(pizza) aluminum may get to higher levels into food. Nola, I am NOT an engineer, you are. Aluminum causes mental retardation, among other things like malabsoption of Fe and anemia. In the brain it has a half life of 7 yrs. Again, it is readily excreted in the amounts we see day to day, but I would not fool around with it. Having said that, we see AL in a lot of stuff including antacids, deodorant gels, soda cans ...

    Not an argument, but for discussion purposes only.

    Like your creation though.

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    Large and Small BGE, Blackstone 36 and a baby black Kub.

    Chattanooga, TN.

     

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    @Aviator - there's aluminum added to lots of stuff we eat - as anti-caking agents and dessicants and the like.  It's the most abundant metal in the earth's crust and it's in everything.

    I'm not worried about it.  As a matter of fact, I have three aluminum cookie sheets and two aluminum baking pans that I regularly use. 

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Health_concerns

    I'd wager everyone on this forum has at least one aluminum cooking implement.  I'm more worried about the massive amounts of Bourbon and BPA that I ingest regularly.  ;)
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    I love lamp..
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    Nice project. And the crust on that pie looks spectacular.

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    Thanks @caliking.   The crust was phenomenal.   Consensus - putting something oily between the dough and the toppings gives a better crunchier crust (as expected).
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    I love lamp..
  • caliking
    caliking Posts: 18,727
    Nola- did you brush the dough with olive oil before adding toppings?

    #1 LBGE December 2012 • #2 SBGE February  2013 • #3 Mini May 2013
    A happy BGE family in Houston, TX.
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    I  usually do, but this time I did two - one I put the cheese down first, the other the sauce.  No oil this time.  But in all fairness, I did work the dough with the cheese down first more, so it wasn't a perfect experiment. 

    The pizza nazi, who's opinion I respect with regard to pizzas (even though I'm a crunchy thin dough guy) said a family secret is to put the sauce on last.  So I tried that.  It was better.
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    I love lamp..
  • Aviator
    Aviator Posts: 1,757

     is to put the sauce on last. 

    You are so right. That's what I do and the crust is never soggy.

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    Large and Small BGE, Blackstone 36 and a baby black Kub.

    Chattanooga, TN.

     

  • Austin  Egghead
    Austin Egghead Posts: 3,966
    nola you are truly a Renaissance man.
    You said:"I'm more worried about the massive amounts of Bourbon and BPA that I ingest regularly"...  ditch the red Solo cup, not the Bourbon :-)

    Large, small and mini now Egging in Rowlett Tx
  • Mama Roneck
    Mama Roneck Posts: 386
    Fantastic! but I'm running out of superlatives for your projects...
    Mamaroneck
  • Ozzie_Isaac
    Ozzie_Isaac Posts: 18,942
    Aluminum is scary.
    A bison’s level of aggressiveness, both physical and passive, is legendary. - NPS
  • 5
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike