Pizza stone – cordierite, ceramic or slate
Which pizza stone material copes with 300 °C, how to preheat without cracking it and when a baking steel is the better buy. Materials and care explained.
Quick answer: Cordierite copes with thermal shock best and is the standard choice. Unglazed ceramic is cheaper but more prone to cracking. Natural slate looks lovely but cracks most easily of all if it is heated too quickly.
The materials and their weaknesses
Cordierite is made specifically to withstand rapid temperature changes without cracking – the safest choice for home use. Unglazed ceramic works but is more sensitive to thermal shock, especially if you put a cold stone straight into a hot oven. Slate is beautiful but the most crack-prone of the three – always preheat it extremely slowly if you choose slate; see cracked pizza stone for what happens if you don’t.
Preheating without cracking
Put the stone in the cold oven and let it heat up with the oven – never put it into an oven that is already hot. Allow at least 45–60 minutes of preheating before the stone is actually hot right through, not just the air in the oven.
Stone or steel?
Steel conducts heat faster and recovers more quickly between pizzas, but stone is cheaper and gentler on the dough if you only bake now and then. A side-by-side comparison is set up in the test baking steel vs pizza stone. See the full protocol in pizza in a home oven, and the steel alternative in baking steel.
