Baking Steel

[Stanleythecat]

Hi Folks

I'm wondering if anyone might know where I might be able to get hold of a piece of 10-12mm thick steel to use as a baking stone? Needs to be about 13"/14".

I'm not sure where to start looking!

Leo

 

[mick91]

http://www.metalcut2size.com/index.html
Those fellas aren't bad

 

[rorymax]

Local scrap yard, one of the guys there will find you bit for 2-3 quid I would guess.
And stainless if you are lucky, or be prepared to wait and go back when they have set aside a piece for you.

The stainless will go rusty looking with the heat, but it is easier to maintain as it won't 'scale'.

 

[Toddy]

Car boots are worth a trawl up here if it's a girdle/griddle/bakestone

I bought a new one a couple of years ago since the old ones didn't fit on my modern electric hob. It's surprisingly good
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kitchen-C...-Stone-27cm-/111624596865?hash=item19fd582d81

Though there are ones like this…. that needs a blooming good scour and then baked upon.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OLD-WELSH...IDDLE-ROUND-/221847024693?hash=item33a71cf435

M

 

[demographic]

Hi Folks

I'm wondering if anyone might know where I might be able to get hold of a piece of 10-12mm thick steel to use as a baking stone? Needs to be about 13"/14".

I'm not sure where to start looking!

Leo

Local steel merchants often have an offcut skip you can put beer money into blokes hand and ratch through.

Up here its Thomas Graham and Sons.

 

[Stanleythecat]

http://www.metalcut2size.com/index.html
Those fellas aren't bad

Thanks Mick, that looks like a good site. If I can't find it locally (and save myself the postage) this will be who I go to. Still much cheaper than buying the official 'baking steel' product.

Leo

 

[Stanleythecat]

Car boots are worth a trawl up here if it's a girdle/griddle/bakestone

I bought a new one a couple of years ago since the old ones didn't fit on my modern electric hob. It's surprisingly good
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kitchen-C...-Stone-27cm-/111624596865?hash=item19fd582d81

Though there are ones like this…. that needs a blooming good scour and then baked upon.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OLD-WELSH...IDDLE-ROUND-/221847024693?hash=item33a71cf435

M

Thanks Toddy. I had looked at these. They are a little small for my sourdough pizza fetish but also (apparently) the thermal qualities of cast iron are quite different to sheet steel... i'm happy to be corrected on that though!

Leo

 

[Stanleythecat]

Local steel merchants often have an offcut skip you can put beer money into blokes hand and ratch through.

Up here its Thomas Graham and Sons.

Thanks Buddy I will look in to that too.

 

[Stanleythecat]

Local scrap yard, one of the guys there will find you bit for 2-3 quid I would guess.
And stainless if you are lucky, or be prepared to wait and go back when they have set aside a piece for you.

The stainless will go rusty looking with the heat, but it is easier to maintain as it won't 'scale'.

Thanks Rory. This and the beer in the pot option sound the best!

 

[Stanleythecat]

I got two bits in the end. Unfortunately the first was cut too small and they made a real botch of cutting it so they gave it to me. I tried somewhere else and managed to get a 16"/14" piece of 10mm mild steel in the end for £15. Cooks up a treat! My pizzas now have a lovely crispy crunch

Heavy though! Paraniod I'm going to drop it and smash the oven door.

Next to try it on the bread.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Toddy]

Thanks Toddy. I had looked at these. They are a little small for my sourdough pizza fetish but also (apparently) the thermal qualities of cast iron are quite different to sheet steel... i'm happy to be corrected on that though!

Leo

I know that the shipyard workers used to cut a disc for a girdle for any daughter getting married. A friend was given one by her Dad….you'll just need to trust me on this, but it was impossible to bake on. It didn't spread the heat the same way as the cast iron. Everything stuck and burnt.

M

 

[Dave Budd]

they cut them out steel girdles?! crikey they take marriage seriously up there!

 

[Stanleythecat]

Take a look at this Toddy:http://www.bakingsteel.com/shop/baking-steel

 

[Jared]

Bakingsteel use A36 steel, presumably less likely to break if you drop it.

 

[Toddy]

I use a stone for pizza

http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-pizza-stone-38cm/p185399

and a cast iron girdle for baking on.

Both live in the oven when not in use, but the girdle is usually on the stove top.

What the Scots call a girdle is what the Welsh call a bakestone.

I suspect that cast iron aside, getting the steel right is crucial. The stuff meant to make warships doesn't do it well.

M

 

[mrcharly]

Metalurgist Dave will probably correct me, but I think there will be very very little difference between the heat conduction characteristics of cast iron vs steel.

However, I do believe that the surface finish will be utterly different. Cast iron tends to have an 'orange peel' finish, whereas steel will be smooth. I've had cast aluminum and cast iron pans with this finish; both were almost like working with a teflon non-stick surface. Dunno why it is, but food doesn't stick to the orange-peel finish the way it does to something smooth.

 

[Stanleythecat]

I've been looking in to this quite a bit but to answer the non stick question I have seasoned it as you would cast iron too.

The heat transfer is an interesting question too as it can relate to the surface texture and the colour too.

This article experimented with a copper Steel/Stone but interestingly it didn't work as well. The article explains why they think it so. I'm sure that cast iron would be good too but it would probably need to be a bespoke piece to maximise the use of the oven and bake on, for pizza anyway. I'll be using mine to bake bread on too.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/pizza-hack-baking-copper.html

 

[Toddy]

The shipyard steel disc that we tried to bake on….and we did give a fair old shot at it, had almost an 'engine turned' surface on it. We seasoned it, we baked on it, we roasted it and seasoned it some more. We scrubbed it and started again, and again, and still every damned thing stuck in a neat pattern where the heat came up from underneath. Didn't matter whether we used gas (her) or electric (mine) cookers. It just wasn't worth any more trying.

My cast iron girdle (and my MIL's old aluminium one that Son1 pounced upon and carried off when I said I couldn't use it on this hob) both started rough, that orange peel finish that mrcharly mentioned, but both are now flat and shiny. Both bake superbly well, as does my pizza stone that is now so dark that it would pass for iron to look at and not ceramic.

I use mine daily at times. It was every single day in life when my sons were younger and feeding them was like filling bottomless pits
They are, I think, nowadays vastly under-rated kit. I take one with me when camping too. Fresh bread, pizza, scones, oatcakes, pancakes, tatties scones, bannocks, tortillas, nan, bere cake…..every kind of baking under the Sun, and most traditional flat breads too.

Interesting to hear of the metal bakestone though; my ceramic one's now twenty years old, and I haven't dropped it yet, but I suppose I only need to do so once….

cheers,
Toddy

 

[tombear]

I must admit to have not used mine for a few weeks as I've been tied up with stuff and out most days up and neglected my baking. I have scrounged some bakers yeast and got a couple of cartons of buttermilk and more dried fruit and oats which we'd run out of after a binge on oven made bannock so there's no excuse now things have calmed down.

i want to do some baking on a open fire and since I've read about it I fancy doing some bread making using a inverted cooking pot on top of the bakestone and heaping ashes on the base of the pot. So I'm looking about for a suitable metal cooking pot or pan. Nowt with plastic handles of course and what I'd really like is what they used back in the day, a cast iron pan, like a handle less frying pan which has had a iron rim riveted to it that extends it into a sauce pan size. I could just use something completely cast iron but since these things turn up I've been assured I may as well look for one. Alternatively you can use a inverted pottery vessel , even a flower pot with the hole in the bottom blocked.

ATB

TOM

 

[Stanleythecat]

The shipyard steel disc that we tried to bake on….and we did give a fair old shot at it, had almost an 'engine turned' surface on it. We seasoned it, we baked on it, we roasted it and seasoned it some more. We scrubbed it and started again, and again, and still every damned thing stuck in a neat pattern where the heat came up from underneath. Didn't matter whether we used gas (her) or electric (mine) cookers. It just wasn't worth any more trying.

My cast iron girdle (and my MIL's old aluminium one that Son1 pounced upon and carried off when I said I couldn't use it on this hob) both started rough, that orange peel finish that mrcharly mentioned, but both are now flat and shiny. Both bake superbly well, as does my pizza stone that is now so dark that it would pass for iron to look at and not ceramic.

I use mine daily at times. It was every single day in life when my sons were younger and feeding them was like filling bottomless pits
They are, I think, nowadays vastly under-rated kit. I take one with me when camping too. Fresh bread, pizza, scones, oatcakes, pancakes, tatties scones, bannocks, tortillas, nan, bere cake…..every kind of baking under the Sun, and most traditional flat breads too.

Interesting to hear of the metal bakestone though; my ceramic one's now twenty years old, and I haven't dropped it yet, but I suppose I only need to do so once….

cheers,
Toddy

I did look at stones but to be fair the cost was prohibitive at the time. Ironically it was whilst looking to see if I could find a cheaper route (unglazed tiles, natural stone tiles etc) I chanced across an article testing out the baking steal, then again by chance found other people who'd just made their own. In the end I went to the local steel merchants down the road and they cut me a bit for £15 and so far I have to say it has been a success, thankfully!