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

nolaegghead

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.

shtgunal3

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!

nolaegghead

"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.

BOWHUNR

Nice!  I still wanna bring a bottle of Templeton Rye down there and drink with you! 

nolaegghead

BOWHUNR said:

Nice!  I still wanna bring a bottle of Templeton Rye down there and drink with you! 

Anytime, brother!

Mickey

Ok, what the hell do you do for fun )

Village Idiot

Coincidence ?  I think NOT !

nolaegghead

@Mickey - cooking of course. Duh. :bz ....oh, sorry, I mean

@Village_Idiot - Busted! :ar!

Aviator

@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.

nolaegghead

@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. 

caliking

Nice project. And the crust on that pie looks spectacular.

nolaegghead

Thanks @caliking.   The crust was phenomenal.   Consensus - putting something oily between the dough and the toppings gives a better crunchier crust (as expected).

caliking

Nola- did you brush the dough with olive oil before adding toppings?

nolaegghead

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.

Aviator

nolaegghead said:

 is to put the sauce on last. 

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

Austin Egghead

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 :-)

Mama Roneck

Fantastic! but I'm running out of superlatives for your projects...

Ozzie_Isaac

Aluminum is scary.

JohnInCarolina

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