Steel Life

Today I finally tried my new oven, along with a pizza steel. I had been using baking stones for years, but people on a pizza forum said steel was much better for New York pizza, so I decided to try it.

Naturally, I barely had to move in order to get a steel going. I had a big sheet of 1/4″ plate on hand already. It had a small amount of rust, so I put it in the kitchen sink and used a Fein Multimaster to knock it off. Then I coated it with lard and baked it to season it.

I still get to do things like that until the wife moves in.

My old oven only went to 500°, which is at the low end for New York pizza. It also had a failing display, and I couldn’t use the self-cleaning cycle because it would blow its thermal breaker. The new oven does 550°, it’s bigger inside, and it will clean itself with either steam or high heat. The steel I used today is a plate I intended for use as an outdoor griddle, and it’s almost 18″ square. It would never fit in the old oven, but it just barely fit the new one, so I used it.

I picked up a slightly smaller piece of steel this afternoon, so I’ll still be able to make the griddle.

Why do people use pizza steels instead of stones? Simple. They transmit heat faster. Would you rather touch a 550° stone accidentally, or would you prefer to touch a steel? Exactly. The steel would burn you faster, making it harder to pull your hand back in time. The same principle applies to pizza. The steel will brown the crust faster at the same temperature.

I stuck my dough in the fridge last night. I don’t have any faith in long fermentations at low temperatures, because my refrigerators are too cold to allow yeast to do much. I do have faith in a long rest’s ability to improve dough’s texture. Today I took the dough out of the fridge a few hours before I intended to bake, and it blew up well.

I had been concerned about unsatisfactory oven spring, and I also wanted to make a pie with no oil inside the dough. Pizza dough is just plain better without oil in it. End of story. I didn’t put any oil inside today’s ball, but I did oil the outside before refrigerating it.

A completely oil-free dough will work great, but it will tend to tear during tossing. This is why I oiled the outside. I hoped it would prevent tearing.

When I got the dough out of the bowl, it had some nice big bubbles starting. I consider pizza a failure without big bubbles in the crust. When I worked at Domino’s, they made us break the bubbles. That’s Domino’s for you.

The dough tossed very easily. I had to be careful not to open it too much. I was making a 12″ pie with 400 grams of dough. It could easily have opened up to 16″ if I hadn’t been careful.

I left a fairly large rim, thinking I would need a lot of dough for a big rim.

The pie blew up beautifully. The rim was so big, I may reduce it next time. It’s almost like a doughnut with a pizza inside it.

The crust was nicely browned on the bottom. The upper part was browned, but it could have used a little more heat to crisp it up.

Here are some shots to show the details.

I measure my ingredients very carefully, so I am sure this pie was made with the same things as the previous one. Strangely, this one tasted sweeter. It also cooked much faster. I find myself wondering if these things are somehow related.

I have been advised that sugar makes dough softer, so maybe I need to cut back. I guess I can do that the day after tomorrow and see what happens.

Pizza steels are obviously great. That, I am sure of. The Sicilians I finished on stones were wonderful, but they could just as easily be finished on steels, and the thin pizzas didn’t cook as well as the one I made today.

The store-bought steel that was recommended to me costs $120, which is ridiculous. At that price, they are begging potential customers to make their own. I paid under $28 today for a 16″ square. I’m going to grind the corners off, which anyone can do, and then I’ll season it and be done with it.

I already made nice New York pies in an ordinary oven, but it looks like the steel makes them better, and it will also reheat faster than a stone, so you can make several pies at one gathering without a lot of down time.

In short:

Steel: recommended.

Buying a steel someone else made: not recommended.

Now what do I do with my stone?