jim262
Cook
Since most clay and brick ovens have an active fire in them, they will always have the advantage of direct radiant heat from the fire source that speeds the heating and charring of the top of the pizza to help balance the intense heat of oven deck.
In a conventional oven the only radiant heat that reaches the top of the pizza is reflected from the oven walls an top, so the best placement of a pizza stone is high in the oven instead of the bottom. The high in the oven technique is advocated by both Cook’s Illustrated and Nathan Myhrvold in Modernist Cuisine. CI uses a conventional baking stone while Myhrvold uses a quarter inch steel plate cut to fit the oven. Since steel is a much better conductor of heat, it will preheat faster than ceramic and conduct heat into the pizza more efficiently for faster bottom browning. Using the broiler as a direct radiant heat source while the pizza is cooking is also recommended, but I think many broilers have upper limit shutoff that may interfere with the concept.
Either way, they key to properly cooked pizza is balance between top and bottom cooking. I get good results using my stone without the broiler when it is placed high in the oven so I am not quite ready to search for a 20 lb steel plate to improve my pizza, but since the steel plate will probably cost less than an a premium baking stone it is certainly a move worth considering.
In a conventional oven the only radiant heat that reaches the top of the pizza is reflected from the oven walls an top, so the best placement of a pizza stone is high in the oven instead of the bottom. The high in the oven technique is advocated by both Cook’s Illustrated and Nathan Myhrvold in Modernist Cuisine. CI uses a conventional baking stone while Myhrvold uses a quarter inch steel plate cut to fit the oven. Since steel is a much better conductor of heat, it will preheat faster than ceramic and conduct heat into the pizza more efficiently for faster bottom browning. Using the broiler as a direct radiant heat source while the pizza is cooking is also recommended, but I think many broilers have upper limit shutoff that may interfere with the concept.
Either way, they key to properly cooked pizza is balance between top and bottom cooking. I get good results using my stone without the broiler when it is placed high in the oven so I am not quite ready to search for a 20 lb steel plate to improve my pizza, but since the steel plate will probably cost less than an a premium baking stone it is certainly a move worth considering.