Reddit reviews Dough-Joe Pizza Steel Baking Sheet-The Emperor-15" x 15" x 1/2"
We found 5 Reddit comments about Dough-Joe Pizza Steel Baking Sheet-The Emperor-15" x 15" x 1/2". Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
MADE IN USA--15" x 15" x 1/2"--made of carbon steel--pre-seasoned--IMPORTANT you need an average of 1.5" on all sides of your oven. Without enough clearance, your steel will get very hot while your air space above will not be hot enough to adequately cook the ingredients, resulting in badly burned crust.Fits perfectly on the Weber 22.5" grill. Pre-seasoned, which is why the dark color. Re-season only as needed. Steel WILL NEVER BREAK, and will last for a lifetime.EXTREMELY HEAVY--Actual Weight of the Emperor™ is about 32 POUNDS.Steel pizza stones deliver a huge amount of heat very quickly to your pizza or bread.Matte finish surface allows steam to channel away quickly and keeps a nice appearance.
Before I get into it, two important questions. How hot does your oven get? Do you have a broiler in the main oven compartment?
Contrary to what psychics will tell you, no one can predict the future. There's really no way of knowing how seriously you're going to take pizza. More times than not, though, someone gets their hands on steel plate, is astounded by the bump in quality of the pizza they make, and starts making it for friends. When you start entertaining, size makes a massive difference, because you want maximum output to feed hungry people quickly.
If you feel like there's a really good chance that you will always make small pizzas and never make pizza for a group, then I think your best Amazon bet would be this:
https://www.amazon.com/Dough-Joe-Pizza-Baking-Sheet-EmperorTM-15/dp/B00LBKWSGW?th=1
Depending on how hot your oven gets, you might be able to get away with the 3/8" shogun, but, if there's any doubt, I'd go with the emperor.
As far as I can tell, that's the largest 1/2" steel plate Amazon offers.
If you're willing to go the ebay route, I found this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-Steel-Pizza-Baking-Plate-1-2-x-16-x-16-5-A36-Steel/322893918588
The downside is that it is unseasoned and there's no way of knowing the quality of the steel. If it is rusted, you can remove the rust by soaking it in vinegar a couples. To season it, you use the same steps that you'd use for cast iron.
It's a little more work than Amazon, but it's cheaper and you get that extra inch (16 vs 15).
Because of the weight of the steel plate, all of these online purchases involve extremely steep shipping charges. For a $100 plate, 50 of that is probably going towards shipping.
But this is all predicated on an assumption that you will never need to make large pizzas. Assuming you're in the U.S., I can pretty much guarantee you that your oven can accommodate at least a 17" steel. When you get into a steel that large, it's really time to source it locally:
https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=31267.0
If you absolutely do not want to leave the house, the guy on ebay says he can do custom sizes, so you might want to price a custom size with him. But be aware that with a few calls, you should be able to cut the price in half from what ebay ends up charging you.
It’s an expensive item but well worth it for sure. Just make sure when you research it you get the right steel. I purchased this one but in 3/8 thickness and anything thicker will bend the rack in your oven. It looks like they sold out of this thickness unfortunately but I’m happy with this one. I think I paid $85 for it if I remember correctly. If you go to their website they probably have it. Good luck.
The steel really makes a huge improvement over the baking stone for getting some nice spotting on the bottom. I wish I would have bought one sooner. I got this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LBKWSGW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I could have bought a piece of steel at the local steel place for $35 that was the same size, but I didn't feel like cleaning off all of the crap from it and softening the edges. I just wanted to use it.
You can do better. Locally sourced would be the best option but there's also:
Cheaper, and they had the sense to make theirs square.
That's what I was reading as well. I should just buy something that is known food safe.
I was looking at this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LBKWSGW/ref=twister_B00LBKWSS0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
But it's a whole 32lbs vs 11lbs (AL)