Safety
Although pizza steel is “only” a steel plate, there are two main sources of danger: the weight and the residual heat.
- Always wear shoes when using the pizza steel to avoid injury from falling pizza steel. The pizza steel weighs several kilograms and has sharp edges. Therefore, always handle with care. A falling pizza steel is bad for tiles, parquet and feet.
- Please avoid burns, because hot steel looks like cold steel! Even after baking, the pizza steel still does what it was designed for. It stores heat and releases it on contact! Even long after using it in a well insulated oven, the pizza steel can still be very hot. Please allow to cool for at least one hour after heating. Always check for residual heat before touching it so that you don’t burn yourself!
General information
- Pizza steel is a specially selected steel with high heat conductivity and heat capacity. Some models may show slight scratches. Such visual deficiencies from transport, however, have no influence on the quality and after the first pizza baking, you don’t see them at all.
- The pizza steel changes colour during its first use in the oven. The grey-silver turns it into a golden-brown (see photo). This colour change is caused by the formation of the patina. The pizza steel is pretreated with a special vegetable oil, which “burns in” during the first application and improves the protection against rust. Please do not try to remove this layer! That’s the way it should be. The darker the pizza steel gets, the better it works.
Care instructions
The pizza steel is suitable for use with foodstuffs. The biggest danger for him is rust. Therefore it is important to treat him accordingly!
- Pizza steel never belongs in the dishwasher!
- Remove coarse dirt after use. A ceramic scraper is particularly suitable for this purpose.
- Never rinse the hot pizza steel with cold water! The extreme temperature difference may even cause the steel to crack.
- If necessary, rinse the pizza steel under hot running water. Then dry well immediately!
- Never allow to air dry. Then there is the danger that rust will form in a very short time, which has to be removed first.
- The use of detergent for cleaning is possible. In this case, the pizza steel should be dried and oiled immediately afterwards.
- The pizza steel may be treated with vegetable oils. This protects against rust and strengthens the patina during every use. Flaxseed oil is best suited, but most other vegetable oils such as olive oil or sunflower seed oil also work. Distribute a little bit of oil on both sides very thinly and then rub it down again with a clean kitchen towel until the oil film is hardly noticeable or no longer. Too much oil can cause staining during the next use. That’s not too bad, but it doesn’t look so noble.
- Now heat the oven to at least 200°C and bake the oiled pizza steel for about one hour. The formation of the polymer layer through the oil is noticeable in the smell and darkening of the pizza steel. Then turn off the oven and allow the pizza steel to cool in the oven.
- If rust has formed, it can be easily removed with very fine sandpaper or a steel wool pot cleaner. Afterwards, it is necessary to oil the dry pizza steel immediately in order to prevent further rust formation.
- In summary: Store dry and lightly oil before and after use. Then you’ll enjoy your pizza steel for a long time.