Not all home pizzaiolos have access to a pizza stone (or cast iron or a baking steel) in their kitchen. Heat is the reason why Doctor Dough recommends a pizza stone for your home kitchen oven. Yes, you are totally hot and you always bring the heat... but those looks won't cook a pizza. Technically, one does not need a pizza stone. However, it is the single piece of equipment that can make a good pizza an excellent pizza in your home kitchen oven. A pizza stone's ability to retain heat is second to none.
Worry not! Doctor Dough is ready to explore other options that may be hiding in your kitchen. Let's get ready for a doughventure!
First up: NO! You may not use a baking sheet/cookie sheet.
But Doctor Dough, my baking sheet is really sturdy... NO!
Oh Doctor Dough, I know my baking sheet can do the job because my grandma... NO!
Doctor Dough, I saw this advertisement on one of the socials for these cookie sheets that double as underground bunkers... NO, but cool!
The reason why your cookie sheet that Grandma Auntie Nona gave you won't make a good pizza is because it just can’t hold on to that much heat. While you can burn yourself touching a hot cookie sheet, making a pizza requires a lot more heat energy. That leads us to...
Cast Iron Something
Staying at an AirBnB, for example, may present you with limited pizza making options. If you find yourself in that position, Doctor Dough has your prescription! As a pizza cooking surface, cast iron provides excellent heat retention. With its wide popularity, cast iron might be in your home kitchen, in one form or another. Many of us have a large cast iron pan or skillet that we use for cooking all sorts of yummy foods. If you look at the bottom (exterior) of that pan, it's probably flat, or mostly flat with a logo or name engraved. That mostly flat surface is perfect for pizza! Take your cast iron pan, flip it upside down, rest it on the oven rack, and voila! You have a makeshift pizza stone.
Other cast iron cookware can also be recruited into pizza duty. A single or double burner flat top used on your stove makes for a great pizza stone. Some dutch ovens are large enough that turning one of them upside down can also do the trick.
NOTE: Your cast iron cookware must be oven safe to high temperatures. That means no Le Creuset or other enameled cast iron pieces. Also, any non-metal parts, such as a silicon handle holder for your iron pan, can not go inside the oven. They must be removed before use.
Steel Something
For the best pizza from your home kitchen oven, a baking steel is hard to beat. However, not everyone owns a hunk of metal that weighs more than a baby. Maybe something else in the steel-adjacent family can help?
For example, a carbon steel pan can act the same as the cast iron pan in the previous example; just flip it upside down! Since many baking steels are carbon steel, not stainless steel, the use of a pan made of the same metal is a natural fit. Also, like cast iron, a carbon steel flat top for your stove can serve double duty as your pizza stone.
NOTE: Carbon steel is not the same as stainless steel. Highly polished, shiny surfaces, like those on stainless steel pots and pans, have not been tested by Doctor Dough. We predict such a surface will cause your pizza dough to stick and burn. Carbon steel or stainless steel surfaces with a matte finish will give you the pizza of your dreams-- unless your dreams are super whack. Then you're out of luck.
Unanticipated Something
Most of us would be surprised at what we could find if we hunted through every single crevice of our kitchens. I know some of you reading this have one of those warmer drawers on the bottom of your oven. I know that you store stuff down there that you might not have inventoried within the decade. Have a look!
That narrow cabinet in the corner, constantly neglected in favor of the wider cabinets, see what might be standing upright up in there? That cabinet above your fridge, bust out the step stool and have yourself a climb.
The point is, our kitchens are full of tools. Sometimes a bit of creativity is required to get the job done. Most importantly, when using kitchen cookware as they were NOT intended to be used, take an extra moment. This goes for any kitchen adventure, not just pizza making. Your cookware should be clean. Your cookware should be able to withstand the environment and configuration in which it is going to be used. For example, any pan with a nonstick coating like Teflon or ceramic should NEVER be used in a high temperature oven. This would be a very bad piece of cookware to use as a pizza stone.
When all else fails, Doctor Dough recommends you ask a neighbor. They will probably lend you their Super Pizza Stone 5000 on condition that you invite them over for pizza. This could be a blessing or a curse. Doctor Dough is happy to take you through that journey, one pizza at a time. You're welcome.
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