Hot stone cooking

[madelinew]

I've just come across this on sailgb.com

http://www.sailgb.com/p/hot_stone_32_5cm/

It's made of granite

Now I have a small marble chopping board and wonder if it would be up to the same task. I believe marble is more porous than granite but that's all I know. Any thoughts?

Having said that I do have some cast iron skillets I've used for BBQs and they may well be good for the same task if I put them straight on the fire - which is what they are designed to do.

 

[Wayland]

The key with using most stones as cooking implements, is heat as evenly as possible, avoid sudden temperature changes and do not use porous wet stones. (Do not use river stones.)

I would say marble ought to be worth a try under those conditions. After you have used some oil on the surface that will start to fill up any pores and it should get better and better like a well seasoned pan.

 

[madelinew]

Thanks Wayland I'll give it a go - carefully. I have cooked on hot stones before. Granite ones that have been preheated for me.

 

[KIMBOKO]

Marble is composed of calcium carbonate so it will be attacked by acids. Also if it is heated to too high a temperatutre carbon dioxide will be driven off leaving Calcium oxide which is a very strong alkali and very reactive with water. Be warned

 

[baggins]

When i lived in NZ, my local pub used to have a whole oven full of these type of things. You'd order your steak and it would come out raw on one of these stones (super heated to Xdegrees) and then you cooked your steak as you liked it. They were a good idea, but very limiting with what yo can cook on them, and they took ages to reheat and then cool down again.
Baggins

 

[crazydave]

we had this discussion at the pub the other week when the steaks came out on 'sizzlers' which were 6 inch granite squares heated nice and hot. we were trying to work out how we could get one into a cargo pocket without a trip to casualty.

I'm guessing it was manmade granite/glass/ceramic as the natural stuff is generally flawed and porous so wouldn't be approved for use - bit like the difference between acrylic and polyester solid worksurfaces. I've fitted a lot of granite over the years and customers were always surprised at the care instructions believing it to be waterproof. seeing coffee rings in a two thousand pound worktop because they never sealed it used to be quite funny.

 

[madelinew]

seeing coffee rings in a two thousand pound worktop because they never sealed it used to be quite funny.

Ooh you're so mean - but it made me laugh too!

The granite we had sizzling stuff served up on when I lived in Malaysia a few years ago was just slabs of natural granite. The slab I posted at the beginning of this discussion does look artificially formed.

And perhaps I'll give the marble one a miss in view of other comments!