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Comment by poloniculmov | Hacker News Reader

Something like this[1]. It's easier to use than a pizza stone and yields better results.

1: https://bakingsteel.com/products/baking-steel

I have one of these and haven’t used my pizza oven since.

I turn the oven on as high as it goes and put the steel in and prep all the pizza toppings, then I switch the oven to the grill mode (or broiler in the US) then make the pizzas. It takes about 5 mins per pizza, so it’s a bit slower than the pizza oven but I can make the next pizza while the first is cooking so it’s fine.

My family say they prefer this to pizza made in the Ooni, I think they are both on par with each other but this is less hassle, cheaper than running the Ooni and less stressful because things don’t catch fire as fast.

Jesus, $120? Does it knead, stretch, and top the dough itself too?

Seriously, is it really supposedly that much better than my £15 cast iron 'stone'? (I put a lovely seasoning on it initially, but didn't look after it very well and it's all cracked and flaking off, so I need to start again really I think - I suppose it does save that maintenance work... but still, I could just buy a new one and start again several times for $120!)

yeah. thats silly. my 'stone' is a piece of scrap 6mm steel. even new it shouldn't cost more than $8 or something

Maybe, but have you bought anything like that recently? Probably if you know the right place to shop or the right people it wouldn't be much more, but I needed a bit of metal pipe to use as a lever and spent $40 on 3ft of 1.5in diameter pipe at Lowe's. I don't think I paid much more than that for the ratchet set I was using it with.

I buy steel all the time. certainly not at Lowes. its about $.90/lb for hotroll now.

edit: the issue is they only sell 'wholesale' quantities. 20' sticks, 4'x8' sheets

OK, that makes sense. I didn't want to have to deal with cutting the pipe myself and so I didn't even consider buying a larger size or anything like that.

I agree it's expensive and it's probably not 5 times better than you cast iron pizza pan. It's lower maintenance, even if it still needs a coat of oil from time time, but that doesn't mean you should just go out and buy one now, especially if you already have something that gives you good results.

How does it compare with cast iron ones such as:

https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Baking-Pre-Seasoned-Round-Handl...

https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-BW15PP-Seasoned-Pizza-Black/dp/...

Yes. Weighs a lot, but it'll never crack like a stone will.

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