"Pizza stone" for 2 burner Force 10 stove

[rsn48]

My Force 10 2 burner propane stove has a small oven and I know once the door opens a significant amount of heat is lost. So I am planning to have have a potter make a rectangle stone for the oven.

My question is where to do you put it. There are two locations, one on the wire rack set on its lowest grove, I could set it there. Or, can I set it on the stainless steel "pan" covering the heating element below?

[Bill O]

We just use a conventional round pizza stone in our oven on the middle rack to make pizza. This still allows for heat circulation evenly throughout the oven and still keeps the stone hot. Too low for pizza cooking, usually ends up w/burnt crust.

If you are only using the stone for thermal stability (not cooking pizza), then low as possible would be fine to make room in you oven. Still would allow enough flow around your custom stone for even cooking.

[Phantom Jim]

We cut down a commercially available pizza stone to improve our oven performance. We have a Princess Hillerange 3 burner model. The stone sits below the lowest rack on the metal shelf above the burner. It does help.

[Mike OReilly]

I did just that with my 2-burner, Force-10 oven. I used a standard "pizza stone", except in my case it was grilling stone used on a fondue set. It was the perfect rectangular size.

I think I put it on the flat metal heat disperser, or maybe right on the bottom beside the burner. Can't recall exactly. What I can say is that I tried it for a few months, then tossed it over the side. My observation was that it didn't functionally help.

Yes, it retained heat, but it also meant the oven took a lot longer to actually heat up. Makes sense since it now had to heat the heavy stone.

My sense is that these ovens are so small, that they heat up quite quickly, so can be re-heated if/when you open the door. Again, my theory is that the "pizza stone" idea makes sense for larger ovens, but when we're talking something not much bigger than a toaster-oven, it seems counterproductive.

Just so you know, I use our oven a lot when on board. We bake all manner of meals, including bread and cookies and other deserts. We use it a lot.

[Simi 60]

Ceramic floor tile works for us.

Cast iron pan makes the better pizza.

[hpeer]

We have a kero cooker but similar in concept. I keep 3 plain tiles in the bottom of the over. I don't try to cook Pizza on the tiles. My sense is that for heat regulation put them as low as possible. But if I wanted to cook in them I would out them kn the lowest rack for a start. Under the bottom rack and they would get too hot.

2¢

[Sparx]

I put the stone on the baking rack when the bake calls for gentle even heat. For example cinnamon rollsn whole wheat sandwich bread, or cakes

I put the stone on the stainless heat diverter when the bake calls for a hot oven and a crisp crust. For example a neopolitan style pizza or a rustic french style bread.

My advice is play with different techniques.

[BlackHeron]

We used a commercial stone in our Force-10. There are many sizes of this stove, US large and small, and Euro large and small. They are each about a cm or so different inside as they get bigger so apples and bigger apples.

We had to cut down our stone we found about an inch on one side using a tile/stone cutting blade made for a hacksaw. It was brutal slow work and if I had made one wrong stroke the stone could have cracked. I think I counted 100 strokes for every inch cut. I wouldn't recommend cutting it this way but it is possible. I did it out in the mooring ball at vero beach. It was a hot day in March...

[rsn48]

I knew a pro baker in my area and for a stone, he had a potter make one to his specs. That's what I'm thinking of doing. Can't cost that much as it is a rectangle, maybe 3/4 - 1 inch thick with no fancy covering over the clay.

[wsmurdoch]

We have a two burner Princes Hillerange stove with a black marble floor tile resting on the steel heat diffuser below the oven rack with air gaps on each side. The stone is wired in place to keep it from falling out of the oven. Because it is black it always looks clean. It came from Lowes, and they cut it for free. All six muffins in the pan now have matchingly browned bottoms.

Bill

[disputin]

We use "unglazed quarry tile" which are tiles without any finish (no toxic surface) on them. We buy them at our local contractor tile store. We never remove them. We leave them in our propane oven and use them to bake on and to regulate the heat. Much cheaper than a "pizza stone" and we don't have to try and get the pizza centered on the stone.


Sean

[djousset]

Following

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by disputin

We use "unglazed quarry tile" which are tiles without any finish (no toxic surface) on them. We buy them at our local contractor tile store. We never remove them. We leave them in our propane oven and use them to bake on and to regulate the heat. Much cheaper than a "pizza stone" and we don't have to try and get the pizza centered on the stone.


Sean

Yes, that is what we also have.

[Bill O]

Unglazed tiles are not a bad way to go, but many have barely used/new pizza stones that they will almost give you because they don't like/use them.

[Paul Howard]

We laid standard fireplace interior liner bricks on the floor of the oven, loosely covering it and that made a big difference.