Richard Aerni on fri 7 mar 97
Tony et al,
I read your comments about designing a pizza stone early this morning,
deleted them, and then while out shoveling snow they kept ringing in my
mind. So, while some are doing the yeoman work of establishing "our"
(clayarters?) place in the art cosmos, and whether or not "we"
(potters/society?) have any or the right values, I'll just put a few
thoughts to monitor about pizza stones, designing for beauty and/or
utility, etc.
You said you were making a ceramic stone out of a pyrophillite body for
good resistance to thermal shock, that it would be flat, and have
concentric circles on the bottom, and wasn't that better than using a
kiln shelf? My answer would be a qualified "NO". Qualified because I
don't know how you were intending your customers to use the piece.
Let me put forth my understanding of pizza baking and pizza stones. The
idea of using a stone is to give the pizza a good crisp crust on the
outside, and chewy on the inside. This happens because the stone has
been heated up within the oven, so that the uncooked dough comes in
contact with a hot (commercial pizza ovens are around 600 degrees
Fahrentheit, if I remember properly from my restaurant days) surface,
quickly cooking the dough. Thus, the stone has been heated up in
conjunction with the oven, meaning that there is little chance of extreme
thermal shock taking place. Certainly a kiln shelf would work, as that
is how they are used in kilns. The method of transferring the raw pizza
into and out of the oven is by means of a pizza peel, a large and long
handled spatula.
A commercially made pizza stone that I used to own was designed to be
used in a different manner. Their directions called for preheating of
the oven, and the dough placed onto the cold stone, then stretched and
shaped to configure to the round pizza stone shape, and finally for the
pizza and stone to be placed, cold, into the hot oven. This produced a
soggy crust, as it took way too long to heat the pizza stone, and by the
time the cheese was done the dough was not. In fact, a thin metal cookie
pan produced a far superior pizza to the pizza stone. Also the pizza
stone had a raised lip which precluded using the pizza peel in the
traditional manner.
So, a lot of hot air, and about what? Just that these folks who made my
pizza stone had designed and produced an object that functioned far worse
than the cheaper mass produced object. They obviously didn't understand
the methodology of making good pizza. This is a reminder to me that what
we make to be strictly utilitarian should perform its function well. And
to me, it would be hard to beat the performance of a cordierite kiln
shelf used as a pizza stone. (and if you feel the need to clean it, just
fire it up next time you do a kiln)
Now some ceramic objects produced by studio potters that function far
worse than their cheaper mass produced commercial brethren offer as a
rationale a superior rating on the "aesthetics meter", or the "artistic
expression meter". Take for instance teapots, wine goblets, casseroles,
etc. I'm not going to go into this cuz it turns into a major can of
worms, but it seems to me that a pizza stone is a pizza stone is a pizza
stone. Not that someone can't turn one out with such superior aesthetics
as to excuse poor performance, but really, why bother? (My own
attitude.)
So there. My response to your response to the great pizza stone
question. I'm going to go make teabowls now...(never had a tea ceremony
in our house either.)
Richard Aerni
Bloomfield, NY
Julia Townsend on sat 8 mar 97
At 08:23 AM 3/7/97 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>>...directions called for preheating of the oven, and the dough placed onto
the cold stone, then stretched and shaped to configure to the round pizza
stone shape, and finally for the pizza and stone to be placed, cold, into
the hot oven. This produced a soggy crust, as it took way too long to heat
the pizza stone, and by the time the cheese was done the dough was not...
>Richard Aerni
>Bloomfield, NY
>
Richard,
The pizza stone I own looks just like a small round kiln shelf. No lip.
The directions that came with mine said to leave it always in the oven, thus
pre-heating it along with the oven. This makes the best crust for pizza!
Nice and crisp on the bottom! I do buy the pre-made crust, and do not make
my own. I think it was a great investment. My opinion.
JuliA
Tony Hansen on sat 8 mar 97
Richard:
It is true that thermal shock is not an important aspect to the
performance
of a kiln shelf as a pizza stone. However the commercial pizza stones
that
we tried to duplicate had a geometry that made them very susceptible to
thermal shock failure during washing or careless oven use. These stones
are a
fraction of the weight of a shelf and will heat much more quickly for
home
use. They are also a beautiful object with pleasant contours. The lack
of a
glaze to smooth the surface and remove imperfections where cracks could
start
was an additional factor that made it seem very wise to add thermal
shock
resistance properties.
--
=================================================================
Tony Hansen, IMC - Get INSIGHT 5 beta or The Magic of Fire II at
http://digitalfire.com or http://www.ceramicsoftware.com
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