Pizza Stone for small

bobbyb · February 2006

Can the 12" pizza stone sold by BGE be used in the small without impeding airflow? The product lists says it should be used in the medium and my local dealer said it shouldn't be used in the small.
Want to use it for bread baking.
Thanks in advance.
Bob

Unknown · February 2006

bobbyb,[p]Listen to your dealer and the mothership and don't try to use a 12" stone in the cooker. There is a better solution that I have been using for about 3 years and it works great.[p]Go to New Mexico Clay company and punch and punch and punch until you get to Kiln Shelves and it's the one in the first picture. It is 10" in diameter and the cost is about 8 bucks. However, they are only about 1/4" thick so you will need two so you can stack them. They have 14 in stock today.[p]Dave[p][p]

[ul][li]Kiln Shelves[/ul]

bobbyb · February 2006

Old Dave,
Thanks for the great advice. Just ordered two.
Bob

Unknown · February 2006

bobbyb,
I've used the 12" stone on my small with no problems.[p]TNW

fishlessman · February 2006

bobbyb,
the bigger the stone, the larger the fire needed to get temps above it high enough to cook bread. what happens is that the stone will be too hot and burn the bread bottom. the smaller 10 inch stone that olddave recomends will allow enough heat to rise around it and a smaller fire to cook your bread at the proper temps. ive never cooked bread in the small, however my large 15.5 inch stone in the large egg will cause this also. in the large, i use a 10 inch stone over a 13 inch pan for bread baking and it has worked well.

Haggis · February 2006

Old Dave,[p]That's an interesting site. I particularly liked the link on "cooking in your digital kiln." That's REAL ceramic cooking!
[ul][li]Kiln cooking[/ul]

Chubby · February 2006

Old Dave,[p]I gotta part ways with you on this one Dave.[p]I use the 12' BGE stone in my Small all the time![p]It works well for me, and others who regularily post here![p][p][p]
Evans

GrillMeister · February 2006

Chubby,[p]Hmmm. Looks yummy!

Chubby · February 2006

<p />bobbyb,[p]With due respect to Fishlessman and Old Dave...[p]I havent found that to be the case... at all.[p]I use the 12' BGE stone to bake in the Small all the time, [p]and others on the board do as well![p]
Evans[p]

egret · February 2006

<p />bobbyb,
The 12" stone works well for me as well as you can see.

fishlessman · February 2006

Chubby,
ive never measured temps below the stone in my large, but you can see that the fire is much hotter, and the lump dissapears faster with the big stone i have in there. also, ive cracked the lower section of the egg with that big stone in there, twice, and i definately believe its the big pizza stone that did it. fire boxes come and go, but replacing half an egg is a hassle.

QBabe · February 2006

bobbyb,bobbyb,[p]You've gotten some differences of opinion on this one, I see![p]I use the 9" BGE deep dish pizza pan as my "platesetter" for the small egg. [p]You can flip it upside down and use the flat bottom as a ceramic pizza stone and accomplish what Old Dave and Fishlessman are discussing, getting good airflow while cooking your baked goods.[p]You can also let it remain as a ceramic mass, use some Grate Mates to give you a raised grid space, and then use the larger pizza stone, since at that point, there's a lot more air space that occurs (look at the pics from Chubby and egret).[p]Lots of different ways to tackle a problem and many good ideas...[p]Tonia
:~)

mad max beyond eggdome · February 2006

Chubby,
isn't that a set of those really cool 'grate-mates' that pizza stone is sitting?. . .they are the best thing to hit the small since i don't know what!!!! i LOVE my grate-mates!!

Chubby · February 2006

<p />mad max beyond eggdome,[p]How astute... you troublemaker!![p]Still...If the Defense Dept believes you...maybe others should as well!![p]I say.."Our Government's in good hands...with the "Mad One" @ the controls"!![p]Evans[p]

Chubby · February 2006

fishlessman,[p]Well...you pose some interesting questions.[p]I follow you how restricting the airflow could allow excess heat to build up below the stone...[p]But do you think without forcing air to the fire (almost like a Blast Furnace)...it can really get hot enough on it's own...(keeping in mind your concern about restricting the airflow) to crack the bottom of your egg?[p]I also understand you earlier comment about the stone overheating and burning the crust..[p]I think that maybe the reason I haven't had trouble here is I use the BGE baking Dish below (as a deflector under the Stone)...so it's not seeing such extreme temps below the stone.[p]That little "BGE baking dish" is one hefty little hunk of ceramic!![p]I do give Egg..ie..Stone a good long warm up![p]Any thoughts?[p]Evans[p]PS...I could think better if I was sitting onj a lake... in the North Woods... with a 5 ft. buggy whip in my hand, and a smallie tugging on my line!![p][p][p]

fishlessman · February 2006

Chubby,
both eggs cracked at a dome of about 400, with the bigger stones and the vents almost opened all the way. one was about 4 hours into a turkey cook and it sounded like a sawed off shotgun going off near my ear.
on a different note,this weekend was 6 degrees out on the lake while fishing a derby, winds must have been hitting 60 plus at times. shanties were taking off with people sitting in them. one shanty hit a trailer so that the trailer flipped over, then the shanty dented one side of the truck before heading out into open water where it sunk. one game warden fell thru with a fourwheeler. i sat off to the side with a big grill, we heated up some chili, soup, mac and cheese casserole, cooked a pork loin, buffalo wings, deer meat, and reheated some pulled pork for sandhiches. while not a lot of fish, i was very amused and full

bobbyb · February 2006

All,
Thanks for all your comments. From what I gather, using the 12 inch stone with the gratemates works fine, but without, excess heat may build up and crack the lower half of the egg. To hedge my bets I ordered the 10 " stones that Old Dave recommended, am going to use in conjunction with Chubby's Grate Mates, and follow Tonia's suggestion to use the 9" ceramic casserole dish as a platesetter under the stones. Hopefully this will allow me to bake bread on the small. Thank you one and all for the great discussion and valuable advice.
Cheers, Bob

Pizza Stone for small

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