My pizza stone broke

Cafe Society
1

Last night, I fired up the grill and put the pizza stone on it in preparation for some delicious grill-cooked pizza. A few minutes later, I opened up the grill and found the stone cracked right in half down the middle. That was suprising and disapointing. I put it on before the grill heated up, so the stone would heat up with it and I’ve only had that stone for a few years as well. I assume that I didn’t do anything wrong. Right? Right?

Anyway, so I guess I’m in the market for a new pizza stone now.

2

I’ve had 3 pizza stones through the years. The first lasted about 5 years, the second about 4 years. I am about a year into my third.

Each cracked - one down the middle, one into 3 pieces. I look at it as the natural death throes of a pizza stone.

3

You should check out Lodge’s cast-iron pizza pans. I have one of these and, in my opinion, they work just as well, if not better, than pizza stones. You don’t have to worry about those suckers cracking.

4

We’ve had for probably 4-5 and we only use it once every few months or so, but it sure did work great in the oven or on a grill. I just had one of those “What the f*** did I do to this thing?” moments, so I guess I’m glad yours broke, too.

I may have to look at those.

5

I had two pizza stones. Yup, both of them broke after a few years, too. Nonstick vented pizza pan, these days.

6

You may have heated it too fast, depending on how many BTUs your grill can throw and high you had it turned up. Even our elderly grill we just replaced would hit 350 in under 10 minutes, whereas our oven takes 10-15 to get there. Our new grill takes about 5 minutes. Heating a pizza stone in something like that wouldn’t be terribly different than just sticking it in a hot oven.

Don’t bother buying another pizza stone, just get some unglazed terra cotta floor tile instead. Where you have to use four of them to fill the oven there’s a built-in expansion joint so they pretty much never crack unless you drop them.

7

The cheap saltillo tile is definitely the way to go here. They can be had for about $2 or $3 for 12 inch square tiles at the home improvement store or get a box of ten for $15 and have a few extra if one breaks. I find the two of the tiles fits in the oven well.

8

I am intrigued. I have never had a grilled pizza. I am going to investigate.

9

We always put the dough right on the grill, actually, no stone.

10

It’s not really “grilled” pizza if it’s made on the stone, IMO. I make pizza on a grill on a stone, but that’s because I can get much higher heat on a grill than in my oven. I don’t really notice much grilled flavor from this approach. Making it directly on the grill is what makes “grilled pizza” grilled to me.

11

Doesn’t the dough fall through?

12

It seems to firm up on the bottom pretty instantaneously at those temps. We oil it so it doens’t stick, and it works really well. I would have guessed that it would fall through but it doesn’t, for whatever reason.

13

But if you want a good approximation of a brick oven pizza, a stone is the way to go.

14

It never occurred to me to cook my pizza on the stone on the grill, but you’re right, it gets a lot hotter, and faster. I might have to give that a try.

15

There’s a “pizza, round or square” poll around here somewhere. You could truthfully answer “semi-circle”.

16

Here’s a demonstration.

17

As I said above, I actually think the cast iron may be better. Here’s a picture of one of my pizzas made on the cast iron pizza pan. And here is the underside.

The crust is a bit thicker than I would have liked it, and I’ve gotten better and more supple results using 00 flour (that picture was with either AP or bread flour) but using the cast iron (heated up over a range burner, then put under a broiler), is the only way I’ve gotten that wonderful flecking and slight char on the underside. Even preheating my pizza stone in the oven at 500F for an hour, I haven’t been able to achieve that char. It seems you really need temps of at least 700-800F to get that effect. I do that by heating the cast iron over a burner at a medium to medium-high flame for about 10 minutes, cooking the pizza for two minutes on the range, then transferring it immediately into a hot preheated oven, or under a broiler to finish the top. It’s a two-step process because I don’t have an oven that could surround the pizza with an even 800F heat (like a brick oven.)

The key to a brick oven pizza is getting really high heat all around the pizza at the same time, so it’s done in 60-90 seconds or so. For me, the above method is the closest I’ve been able to approximate it at home, although it’s still not the same.

18

Ooo yum, I may have to look into the cast iron pan.

19

hmmm all this talk makes me interested in trying this. Is there a link to a spot on the forum on how to make the pizza and cook it in this style or can someone just message me a recipe?

20

No, gravity isn’t going to exert anything like the kind of pressure it takes to stretch out a pizza dough. Especially not in the small spaces on a grill and for the very limited time before the dough sets. You have to keep in mind, the dough for a pizza crust is relatively dry and really, really elastic.