The Magic of the Pizzasteel
You want to get a perfect pizza crust? Your homemade pizza journey won’t be complete without unlocking the remarkable potential of a Pizzasteel. This innovative tool combines the heat intensity of traditional wood-fired ovens with the convenience of home baking. It seamlessly bridges the gap between professional pizza making and home cooking, and for a good reason. With Pizzasteel, your ordinary home oven can be transformed into an extraordinary pizza-making powerhouse.
A discussion of the magic of Pizzasteel is essentially a discussion of heat – how it’s retained, distributed and transferred. These pillars of baking determine the final quality of your pizza crust. In this context, Pizzasteel stands tall, showcasing the unmatched thermal properties of steel.
The classic approach: The Pizza Stone
To fully appreciate the magic of Pizzasteel, let’s start with its predecessor-the traditional pizza stone. Pizza stones have long been the go-to tool for home pizza chefs. Known for their heat retention and ability to give your pizza a rustic, crispy crust, they have taken their rightful place in pizza history.
The principle of pizza stones is simple. They absorb the heat from your oven and then release it evenly into the pizza, creating the golden brown crust we all love. But while pizza stones can reach and maintain high temperatures, they fall short in one critical area – thermal conductivity and thermal capacity.
Thermal conductivity is a measure of a material’s ability to conduct heat. It’s how quickly it can transfer that heat to another object – in our case, pizza dough. Despite their ability to hold heat, pizza stones have a relatively low thermal conductivity, which means that heat is transferred slowly to the pizza dough. The maximum amount of heat the material can hold (heat capacity) is also important. The more energy that can be stored, the more it can be transferred to the pizza base.
The Game Changer: Pizzasteel
As the name implies, Pizzasteel is made of steel, a material known for its high thermal conductivity. This critical characteristic allows Pizzasteel to transfer heat to the pizza dough 18 times faster and more effectively than a stone, resulting in a superior crust-crisp on the outside, yet airy and moist on the inside.
Pizzasteel’s higher thermal conductivity also contributes to another important baking quality – heat retention. When a room temperature pizza is placed on it, the temperature of the Pizzasteel drops less than that of a stone. Therefore, the oven’s recovery time, or the time it takes to return to baking temperature, is faster with a Pizzasteel. This feature is incredibly beneficial when baking multiple pizzas back-to-back, as it helps maintain a consistent baking temperature, ensuring even cooking.
Pizzasteel also surpasses pizza stones when it comes to durability. While stones can crack under extreme temperature fluctuations or accidental drops, steel is virtually indestructible. Therefore, with proper care, a Pizzasteel can be a one-time investment that will serve you for a lifetime.
In essence, the Pizzasteel is not just a baking tool; it’s a game-changer, a magic wand that transforms your pizza-making journey from ordinary to extraordinary. It’s about embracing the intricate art and scientific principles behind pizza making, from the very first step.