Baking Steel Rectangular, 14 x 16 x 1/2 inch
- Carbon steel
- 18X greater conductivity than ceramic
- For home ovens & grills
- Bake restaurant-quality pizza & artisan breads
- Mix ice cream on cold steel
- 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" options
- Pre-seasoned
- Made in the United States
Baking Steel Rectangular, 14 x 16 x 1/2 inch
Baking Steel products were born through a unique combination of interests and skills. Andris Lagsdin, founder of Baking Steel, had an “ah-ha" moment while reading a review of Nathan Myhrvold’s book Modernist Cuisine: The Art & Science of Cooking. The article posed this problem, “you love Neapolitan style pizza, but you don’t want to invest in a brick oven.” According to The Modernist Cuisine, steel is a more conductive cooking surface than a brick oven’s stone, and because of its exceptional conductivity, steel offers faster and more even cooking at a lower temperature, resulting in beautiful, thin, crispy crust. Andris realized that he could use both his experience in cooking as well as his background in steel manufacturing to create a superior baking surface for cooks to use in their home ovens for pizzeria-quality pizza and artisan breads. Baking steels darken with use.
Baking steels store cold energy too. Make fun treats like ice cream and granita almost instantaneously using a steel that's cold from the freezer!
See the table below for measurements and weight of the rectangular baking steels.
For more details please see the specs tab, above.
Click here for round baking steels.
Baking Steel FAQ
How is a baking steel better than a ceramic stone?
Steel's thermal conductivity is 18X greater than ceramic's conductivity! If you were to walk on ceramic bricks after they'd been sitting outside on a hot day, you wouldn't burn your feet, because the heat transfer between the ceramic and your feet would be rather slow. (Slow enough that it wouldn't hurt.) However, if you tried doing the same thing with steel, you'd probably end up with some severe burns, because the heat moves much faster from the surface of the steel to your foot. (Of course, don't try this at home!)
Why does my baking steel darken after use?
Your baking steel arrives ready to use. After its first use you'll begin to notice a change in the color of the baking surface. This is normal and with each use your baking steel will darken. Over time, the surface will become a uniform dark grey, almost black. Seasoning your steel will also result in a darker surface.
How are the Original, Modernist and Big baking steels different?
- Original: The Original is 1/4 inch thick, weighs 15 pounds and provides home cooks exactly what they need to produce the best at-home pizza!
- Modernist: Angled corners give the Modernist a stylish design, and the 3/8 inch thickness holds even more energy than the Original. This additional energy provides great support for really quick cook times. The Modernist weighs 22 pounds.
- Big: The Big is the beast for the nerd cooks who want the behemoth of steel. Its 1/2 inch thickness is great for an insane oven spring and regulates your oven temperature with minimal rebound time while cooking. The Big weighs a hefty 32 pounds.
Specs
Care Instructions
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1 - 10 of 14 reviews
We bought this for our at-home pizza. I make a homemade crust and everyone chooses their own toppings. With this steel, we are pulling pizzas out every 5-6 minutes with beautiful golden crusts, perfectly cooked throughout. It's a huge hit at our house. Would have bread baking uses, but haven't experimented with that yet. Highly recommended tool for your kitchen. It is necessary to use a pizza peel, and we've found using unbleached parchment sheets make this process cleaner and simpler for multiple pizzas, some with a lot of topping. Make sure you also give the steel plenty of time to preheat for best results. Will buy another soon! PHG has some of the best prices on these baking steel that I found.
I have been baking all of our bread (sourdough) for the last 40 years, but getting that brick oven or steam effect on hand shaped loaves has been difficult in an ordinary oven without the extra use of cloches. I broke one baking stone from water sprayed on it. (Mistake to spray on water while cold. It soaked in and cracks it when hot. ). I love being able to cook at lower temps, and get better results, and be able to use a liberal spray of water without worry. Being able to make as good a pizza as my friend with an expensive wood fired outdoor brick oven is a big plus for me. I have always liked to make pizza, but it is so much better now. With the long heat storage, I can at least make breads that need to finish baking in a brick oven cooling down slowly overnight. (I got the thick version, not needed for most people.) I have also been working with steel for my entire life, and I appreciate the bead blasted surface that along with the seasoning process really helps the non stick nature. The Vietnamese baguette, bahn mi, is my next test.
My baking steel arrived while I was out of town. I am home and the steel has replaced my stone. Bread is crisper in crust. Making pizza next. I cannot wait. I gave one to my son and he loves it. Bread comes out with a excellent crust and browns better than baked on a stone.
The crust quality is amazing. I haven't tried it with bread yet, but the pizza crust quality with this is beyond amazing.
This puppy is heavyweight! I could barely carry it in from from the front porch when delivered. There is no worry of breakage or warping with this product. If you want to make pizza or artisan breads, get it. It’s worth the money.
We cooked some sourdough bread on the "Bakers Steel" it was every bit as good as any store bought sourdough loaf. The steel holds the heat for hours, great deal.
This steel makes my regular oven perform almost as well as a proper bread oven. I recommend it highly!
Recently I purchased this for baking pizza. Prior to trying this baking steel I had a baking stone which worked so-so. Now with the steel my crust comes out so nice just like from a pizza parlor.
I highly recommend this product it is a game changer. Also you should purchase along with your new baking steel the book they offer named Baking with Steel.
My pizza crust as well as my loaves of bread turn out fantastic.
I've been using the baking steel for several years. I may need to reseason with oil to prevent rusting from any water spray during baking. Heat retention is such that you will want to elevate your dutch oven above the steel to prevent burning of the bottom of the loaf in the dutch oven.
Pleasant Hill provided excellent service. The item was out of stock for a period of time and they called to make sure I still wanted the baking steel.