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Comment by jefftk | Hacker News Reader

The paper recommends against baking pizza on steel because this would cook the pizza too fast, but this is only true at the temperatures of pizza-specific ovens (paper says 620F / 325C). If you're trying to cook a pizza at home in an oven that only goes up to 550F / 290C the steel helps a lot to make up for the oven not being quite hot enough.

(I use a pizza stone, though, mostly because that's what I already have)

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I must have misread or something. Page 5/6 clearly seemed to demonstrate there was a problem with steel because the interface temp which drives transfer would end up much lower with steel. This is also confirmed in their conclusion... At least I thought... with the following line:

>Together with a weight loss of 30g, a good assumption is a 20% loss of water, i.e. α=0.2. Using this with the values of specific heat capacity and density for dough from the table above, one finds that Qtot = (70 + 226)J/^2, which gives for the baking time in the wood oven T(wood oven) ≈ 125 s. For the electric oven an analogous calculation resultsin an almost 50% longer time T(elect steel) ≈ 170 seconds. We see that we have succeeded to reproduce the value disclosed to us by our pizzaiolo: 2 minutes for baking in a wood oven. The result of an attempt to bake a pizza in the electric oven will be the mentioned unbalanced product. (Burnt crust, innards uncooked)

would end taking longer because of the cooler interface temp?

I'm kinda thinking I misread or lost the track somewhere though to the point I kinda want to figure out how to do the experiment myself.

Any time diff eq's come into it, I tend to feel better after I've like done the math myself 5 times. Me and calculus love each other, but damn are we not good for one another.

After some experimentation, I ended up doing pizza on a stone that sits atop a steel on my gas grill, with another stone suspended above to reflect heat back down. I find that the steel’s conductivity keeps the stone nice and hot while reducing thermal loss when I place the dough, while the stone provides “softer” more even heat to the pizza to prevent scorching.

Does the steel under the stone actually do anything? I think of the advantage of steel as getting things to equilibrium faster, but your stone should already be at equilibrium.

I have noticed a different versus not having it. I think the additional thermal mass helps maintain high, even heat when you lay the dough down, so you get a crispier crust.

The extra thermal mass I would definitely believe, yes! I just wouldn't expect there to be additional benefit from the high conductivity of it being steel.

Ah, good point!

I make pizza in oven-safe pan, then just put it on stove on max heat for some time (till it all heats up and starts smoking basically) then shove it into oven. If bottom crust is not browned enough can be also just put back on the stove after baking.

I have found that steel works up to ~650F but becomes too conductive above that (hence using stone). Stone is not conductive enough below 650F-700F

thats not how that works. stone and steel are both exactly as conductive at one temperature as they are at another, at steady state.

i dont mean to say the conductivity changes, but the thermal conductivity of steel is too high that when its hot enough it will have too much stored heat and will burn your pizza. stone, having a lower conductivity will release its heat more slowly

also, conductivity is determined by (at least) material, shape, and temperature

Yup, bake my pizzas on a 44W slab and they come out perfect.

> 44W slab

44 Watts?

44W is a type of steel (https://www.terranovasteel.com/structural)

Still, somebody needs to prototype a 44 Watt steel slab to cook pizzas with.

This is Hacker News, after all. :)

And then someone needs to port Doom to it.

Would the pizza dough on the bottom be considered as the display? ;)

I'm thinking pellets of cheese as the pixels, with a frame rate of one frame about every three minutes.

44 watts is not enough. I would say 1100 minimum to cook a good pizza.

If I were reading this on The Right Tools for The Right Job News, I'd agree. :)

It all depends on the size of the pizza. Make one with a diameter of 3 cm and those 44 watts are more than sufficient.

44W is a secret way to tell you that they are Canadian! (... it is a steel grade)

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