I need some advice on buying a baking stone

I'm really interested in owning a baking stone. I'd like to get to the next step of bread baking, and I know a stone is a must. Any recommendations? Round vs. rectangle vs. square? Any brand preferences? How about a plain unglazed stone from Home Depot?

Any comments and suggestions would be most helpful.

I don't know about for bread baking at a professional level, but we got one as a gift from Williams Sonoma. It is rectangular, and I leave it in the oven all the time. We got it in 1993, it's still in one piece, and has been moved from home to home quite a few times.

the bigger the better.

Just buy unglazed quarry tile. It'll be 20x cheaper than a baking stone marketed to cooks.

The important part is that it's completely unglazed. Glazes often contain lead. Any tile store will carry it.

Best,
Michael

Hi,

If you buy a stone, look for a thicker stone with the smooth surface.

The firebrick SPLIT stones are available at your local brick yard at a very low price. They may be built to any size in your oven. A brickyard will also saw these to fit for about #3 per stone. They are heavy and you have to place them individually.

You can also buy 14 X 16 stones from a variety of sources:

http://www.bakingstone.com/order.php
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products ... ng%20Stone

If you are interested in a faux Hearthkit, you can line the sides of a standard baking stones with firebrick split.

Good luck,

Tim

I use a Fibrament stone and highly recommend it.

Cook's Illustrated's "top choice" is King Arthur's baking stone but I do NOT recommend it for the following reasons: (both the Fibrament and KA were in CI's baking stone review)

Fibrament: 3/4" thick
KA: 1/2" thick
At the same size, the fibrament is much heavier and you'll want that in a baking stone so it retains more heat. For some reason CI cited the heavier weight as a "negative." Huh?
I found it questionable that they mentioned nothing about the importance of stone thickness and even thought of heavier weight as a negative.

CI also mentioned that the Fibrament had a cement-like odor every time they used it. If they actually read the manual, they'd know that they have to season the stone (progressively heat from 200 > 500 F over a few hours) first before using it. This eliminates factory odors and any excess moisture that might cause it to break.

I use a Fibrament stone. Pricey, but durable and I was able to get one that fit my oven perfectly so I could bake long baguettes.

Bill/SFNM

I've had the Old Stone Oven Baking Stone for about 3 years now and love it. We leave it on the bottom rack of the oven all of the time.We bake a lot of bread and pizza and have never had any issues or problems with it.

Note that it is considerably more expensive through the King Arthur catalog than through Amazon.

Definitely get a rectangular stone, not a circular one (unless your oven is a circle). You want one that will cover as much of the oven surface as possible because you don't want the crust to accidentally fall off the edge of the stone.

(As an aside, I believe the reason that Cooks Illustrated didn't like the weight of the FibraMent is because it was too heavy to lift or move. It wasn't a performance issue. In fact, they noted that they all of the products they tested performed equally well. Take that for what it's worth. We leave our stone in the oven so excess weight wouldn't be a problem. Cooks Illustrated makes a lot of mistakes in their testing; this isn't the first one.)

I know I used to have the typical crap they sold at the cooking store in the mall. It was circular and too thin, perhaps a half inch.

Now I have a large square stone, probably an inch thick.

Thickness really makes a difference.

I'm guessing unglazed quarry tiles probably fine if they're big enough. You certainly will want to be able to make pizzas on your stone.

Nancy