Is pizza steel better than a stone?
Pizza steel and pizza stone are two instruments that are used to cook pizzas at home. The pizza steel is made up of steel. They are solid square or circular slabs of steel that can be placed directly in your gas ovens for baking pizzas. Pizza steels are used for cooking pizzas better because of the good conductivity of steel.
What does pizza steel do?
Pizza steel made the pizza-making process convenient and faster. In other words, it boosts the baking capacity of a pizza oven. They bake all kinds of pizza crusts. They are the best temperature boosters if you want to bake your pizza at different temperatures. However, gas ovens do not allow so much temperature fluctuation. So, the steel can help you in this way by achieving your desired temperature for baking pizza.
What is a pizza stone?
A pizza stone also serves the same purpose. It helps in baking the pizza faster by distributing the heat equally throughout the pizza crust, making crispier pizza dough. Pizza stones are generally made from ceramics or clay. A pizza stone helps in dividing the heat efficiently throughout the base of the pizza. But there is a little drawback of pizza stone that they are very fragile.
They tend to break very easily if they are thrown or shattered. They cannot survive extreme temperature changes like making them extremely hot or freezing suddenly. The crack appears on the surface of pizza stones if they are exposed to sudden temperature changes. Pizza stones have a small advantage over pizza steel in that they are cheaper than compared to Pizza steel.
The durability of a pizza steel
Pizza steel is composed of steel which is a durable material and does not get worn off or cracked easily. Pizza steel is preferred to make pizza throughout the world by most bakers. Pizza steel needs time for preheating, almost about an hour, but once it is heated, it does not require further heat, and it retains the heat in itself, making the perfect pizza dough.
Preheating the pizza steel
Preheating is essential when you are working with pizza steel; otherwise, your pizza steel would not work efficiently to heat the pizza dough equally from all sides. Pizza steel needs preheating for about 45 minutes to one hour.
If you want to make pizzas on a commercial scale and are using pizza steel, the pizza steel needs to be reheated repeatedly after one pizza. It is because it loses some of its retained heat while making a pizza. To make sure that the working of pizza steel is the same with every pizza, we need to reheat it between baking more than one pizza.
Maintenance of pizza steel and pizza stone
The maintenance and cleaning of pizza steel are easier compared to a pizza stone. When a pizza is baked, allow the pizza steel to be cooled down and then wipe it off using a scrub or a spatula. It would clean up all the residue of cheese and pizza dough. The best thing is to avoid washing it with detergent or a dishwasher. Washing the pizza steel with clean water would do. So, pizza steel is easy maintenance.
A pizza stone is fragile and can be broken easily, so you have to take extra care while cleaning it. Never clean the pizza stone straight from the oven. Most people make the mistake of putting the pizza stone straight in the sink from the oven. Avoid this blunder, or you would end up with a crack in your pizza stone.
Heating capacity of a pizza steel
Pizza steel is made up of a hundred percent pure and renewable steel. The pizza steel heats the pizza crust 16 times better as compared to a pizza stone. It is because steel is a good conductor as compared to ceramic or clay from which the pizza stone is made.
Pizza steel works best with frozen and unfrozen pizza. It heats up or cooks the pizza perfectly. A Pizza stone, on the other hand, is perfect when you are baking an uncooked pizza.
Weight of pizza stone and pizza steel
Pizza steel is heavier compared to a pizza stone. It is because it is made up of steel and has a coating of aluminum on it which makes it more durable but at the same time heavy as compared to a pizza stone. A pizza stone, on the other hand, is made up of ceramic and lighter.
Being heavier, pizza steel is more durable as compared to a pizza stone which would break even at a minor fall from the kitchen counter or if cold water is thrown on It accidentally.
Price range
As for as the price of pizza steel and pizza stone are concerned, there is a remarkable difference in the prices of both. As pizza steel is more durable and stronger, so its price is high. Moreover, pizza steel is a hundred percent pure steel that costs more than ceramics or clay that makes a pizza stone.
Even if the cost price of pizza steel is high, it is more preferable because investing once to get a good thing is better than paying again and again for junk. A pizza stone is cheaper as compared to a pizza steel as it is made up of ceramic or clay. Getting a pizza stone is better if you are sometimes baking for or home cooking purposes only.