www.sausagemaking.org

Hi Folks,

Has anyone had experience of using them as I am thinking of getting one for Pizza, naan and pitta bread making in a normal oven? Will any old slab of marble or granite do? Local cemetery?

Cheers

John

I've been lurking around on the forums at pizzamaking.com

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php

Everyone seems to recommend unglazed quarry tiles, which are apparently dirt cheap and ideal for the job.

I've yet to try myself but it's on my list of things to do!

Granite also seems to be a good choice, i guess a local stonemasons place might have some cheap off cuts lying around? failing that im sure it's easy enough to get in B&Q etc

These are selling like hot cakes at the moment as subwoofer plinths over at the home cinema forum. I bet they would make a mean bakestone

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... RANITE.htm

If anyone needs exact measurements I do appear to have bought one already for home cinema use

they do a square one as well, get them while they are hot

Dave

I have a pizza stone I bought eons ago. I think its the best way to cook a pizza in a conventional oven, although its needs to be very hot before you put the dough on it or it sticks. I have all the facilities to make these so I'll experiment and report back.

Jen

I tried baking stones etc and although they are very good I changed to one of these pizza oven, my wife thought it was just another gadget ( I love my gadgets ) it has proved to make really good pizzas.

Neat, is it a ceramic "stone" Gordon?

Dave

They are the same as the normal pizza stones but the beauty is the oven has a heating element at the top as well as underneath and they can be controlled independently. The stone rotates to ensure the pizza is cooked evenly and since there are two heating elements in such a small oven it gets to a very high temperature so the base get crispy.

They were £10 cheaper when I bought my one.

I have one of these:

http://whateveruwant.com.au/The_Pizza_C ... _P354.aspx


Although my wife prefers the traditional Jamie Oliver way of making Pizza, and I have to admit it is pretty damn good.
If anyone wants to know how to do this I will post it here. just let me know.

john

I've seen those things before and thought they were just another crappy gadget that would end up in a cupboard and never used again lol i guess i was maybe wrong, im still not convinced though!

We used to buy frozen pizza every week until i started making my own from scratch and the difference is like night and day, we had a frozen one that was leftover the other night and it tasted like cardboard in comparison! never again! you cant beat fresh dough and a nice homemade tomato base.

I've just been cooking mine on a baking tray in the oven (one with holes in it) and i've been pretty pleased with the results to be honest, nice and crisp on the outside/bottom but lovely and soft inside the crust. I'll definately need to try a stone in the oven to see what difference it makes as i doubt i'll ever fork out 60 quid for one of those other things!

I put a granite paving slab from Wickes in the oven at 260 deg C and chuck my pizza on top of that when it gets to temperature

Hi
it's a gadget that has ended up at the back of the cupboard (and we paid almost than that for it)

My flat breads rise too much and stick to the top

George

A slab of polished granite works great.

Get one custom made by your local mason to fit snuggly in one of your oven trays, about 1 inch thick is ideal.

Let it heat up for at least 40mins before you use it.

For pizza - turn your oven up as high as it will go.

If you make a lot of pizza.. invest in a cheap pizza peel (about $20-30) or make a wooden peel out of 6mm ply.

.. and the most important thing for pizza... never EVER! use a rolling pin to shape your dough... only ever use your fingers...

my 2 cents worth:
i use a 12"x12" piece of polished granite tile from home depot; cost about $4-$5, whatever. nothing sticks to this. it seems 1/2" thick, so if i got two of them i could have the full 1" thick stone. i also love my pizza stone from walmart. overall, kind of a scroungy setup, but it all seems to work great, and hey! who's got extra money to burn in this economy?
i also got a ceramic dutch oven with a small vent hole in the cover which cost $4 at the second hand shop. this makes great bread [and can be used for chicken paprikash] and it also never sticks. note: i usually use cornmeal under the dough.