so.....what happened to those pizza steels

fishlessman

all the frenzy and now nothing getting posted, did they work out ok

gdenby

I admit that I've only used mine 3 times.

The first time was ridiculous. It was a nasty day, and I didn't want to bother lighting the Egg for a first experiment w. the steel. Pre-heat the oven to 450. The steel reached closer to 600, if the IR therm was right. I knew I couldn't use my usual parchment paper, because it would likely burn. I hadn't slid a pizza off the peel on corn meal.

When I did, I heard a slight hiss of steam as the dough hit the steel, and the pizza continued to slide towards the back. Half the 'za fell off the back of the steel. I tried to pull the remnant forward, and burnt my arm on an upper rack. The stove and kitchen filled w. smoke.

I closed the oven, and decided within moment to turn the oven off. Opened the windows to let the smoke out, and a few minutes later my wife came downstairs and asked if I had burnt something. At about 5 min, I took out the remnant, and it was quite good. Just took 3 attempts to clean the burnt on mess off the stove.

Tried again in the stove. That worked pretty well. I'm not good w. pizza dough, much less hi hydration dough, so I used an all purpose dough from a deli. Not quite wet enough to take all the heat from the steel. so the dough was a little over done. Not burnt, but too dry. Still, a good pizza, and very quick. Just 5 min.

My Egg attempt wasn't very good, but it wasn't the steels fault. I knew a friend of my wife was coming by, but my wife said she would be gone an hour before dinner. At that time, I started the Egg up. Platesetter inverted, grill, then steel. Got the dome to 450. Waited. Friend stayed, and kept chatting. I only had enough for 1 medium pies, so after another 1/2 hour, I damped the fire back to 300. By the time she left, and I had assembled the pie, having added some water to the dough, I could only get the Egg up to 550. The dough came out between a flatbread and a thick cracker. The toppings were barely cooked. Edible, but nothing worth talking about. Steel too well ppre-heated, and the air temp not hot enough to cook the toppings.

Since then, I haven't cooked a lot. I have come across a recipe for a flatbread that uses creme fraiche instead of cheese and pre-carmelized onions for toppings along w. some tomato and herbs. That will be my next experiment. The flatbread was developed to test an ovens heat to see if it was ready for bread baking, and give the baker a snack.

HDmstng

My 16" (or did I get 15.5") steel is still in the original shipping box!  The last time I cooked on my large BGE was back in May and was a couple racks of ribs.  Did do a clean burn a few weeks ago as I had mold, the mold is back again...  But with a 5 month old, 3 year old and my wife having had back surgery back in early June, just too much to get things going again.  

Would love to see more cooks with the steel as one of these days I hope to unpack and use it!

fishlessman

thanks for the response, it seems not many are using them, saw a piece of scrap metal to make one yesterday but maybe ill hold off and see if others are truly using theirs. make sure to post the flatbread recipe, weve got a really thick lebanese yogurt up here that would work well for the creme fraiche i think, has that same tang

billyray

I've only done 1 pizza and I left it on a little to long. Wife said the bottom was burned, I say a slight char. It definitely gets hotter than the stone. I have used it as a flat top for burgers and it works out really well.

rtt121

I have been using mine alot on my xl..

I got 20" which is very versatile size for xl so I have used it for pizza cooks, in leu of cast iron for high temp sears as well as a barrier for indrect cooking as i do not have a plate setter or AR.

I am a fan.  Seasoned beautifully at this point as well.

Fred19Flintstone

I have used it for pizza twice and a number of times as a flat top. Pancakes rock on it!

yzzi

For those of you using the store bought dough (like a publix), what temp are you using?

StlScott

Which steel is everyone using?  I've been eyeing the one from the Baking Steel folks ... but just saw that Sur la Table is now carrying them (and they appear to be from the same manufacturer).

StlScott

Cookinbob

My son has a baking steel, we have done some great pizzas on it in the oven at 500 deg, using parchment paper.  He lives in another city, so we have not had a chance to put it on the Egg yet, but we will and I will report on it. Note, the baking steel is different from the Pizza Steel, It looks to me like the Pizza Steel is a home-made copy, though it should work the same. The baking steel is $79 vs $72 for the pizza steel.

I have done pizza on the egg twice with the baking stone.  Once with the plate setter, and once raised direct. Both worked very well, but the stone does get hotter on direct, so need to watch the temp. I would not let the stone get much over 450, or the bottom cooks before the toppings. 10-11 minutes is all it took for mine.

COegger

My son also has a baking steel from our group buy.  He worked at a pizza shop in high school and through college and has made quite a few pizzas on his Egg using a pizza stone.  Last weekend he used his baking steel for the first time and gave it the thumbs up.  He said he felt it was more even heat.  He used his "usual" technique for pizza, not really sure what that is except he stabilizes his egg at a certain temp before he puts the pizza on.  

StlScott

@Cookinbob - now that's a good lookin' crust.  Wow.

 

@Coegger, thanks for the feedback, as well.

 

StlScott

QDude

I have used mine a few times and the pizzas have been great. Rave reviews from filter and friends.

Bustersdad

I bought on the group buy, 16" for a large egg. We use the Baking Steel all the time for pizzas mostly, have used for pancakes, scrambled eggs as well.

Ozzie_Isaac

People got pizza ovens