Of course, to bake Neapolitan pizza, you need something to put the pizza on in the oven. This applies whether you are using a professional pizza oven or a regular home oven. But should you use pizza steel or a pizza stone?
Simply explained, you should use pizza steel for ovens that do not reach 400 degrees (including home ovens), and pizza stones for really hot pizza ovens. In this article, you can learn more about why it is so, and you can also read about our pizza steel and our pizza stones. There is also a little bonus at the end :)
Pizza Steel - For the oven that does not turn super hot
Pizza steel is what you should have for an oven that does not reach 400° or more, for example, the home oven in the kitchen which is often at a maximum of 300 degrees. If you ask us, there really is no other alternative, so just order one like this.
So why should you have a pizza steel? Pizza steel is better than stone for a cooler oven as the steel conducts heat faster into the bottom, which is especially important at the start.
This leads to better baking and more crisp on the bottom along with better lift and more swoosh. All this is of course what you need for a great pizza, and that's why we believe that pizza steel is a total no-brainer.
In addition, steel is quicker to heat up, so you don't need to keep the oven on as long. Pizza steel also works really well for bread.
Lilla Napoli's pizza steel
Our pizza steel is nothing fancy really except that you can rely on it doing the job well. It also has a nice little logo :)
As previously stated, this is what you should have for a standard home oven or pizza oven that does not get so hot if you are going to make really delicious Neapolitan pizza. With this, you can actually achieve good results despite the actually too low temperature. Works excellently for bread as well.
This pizza steel can withstand up to about 350 degrees, and it's good to know that it weighs 8 kg. Why so heavy? Without some weight, not much heat is stored simply.
Dimensions:
- Length: 35 cm
- Width: 40 cm
- Thickness: 8 mm
Pizza Stone (Biscotti) - For 400° or more
If you are using a pizza oven that goes over 400 degrees, then a biscotti stone is what you should have. What makes a really good pizza stone important is that the heat conduction ability in the material must be extremely precise. If you have a regular refractory stone - the kind you can find everywhere in Sweden's stores - the pizza's bottom burns very quickly.
With a good biscotti stone, you can have an oven at over 500 degrees without burning the pizza. But for most people at home, a biscotti stone is not something to have, as they do not reach sufficiently high temperatures.
Biscotti stones are one of the biggest secrets of the Neapolitan pizza ovens that make the tastiest pizzas. The secrecy around this is also surprisingly large. If you are going to bake a classic Neapolitan pizza at high temperature, we would say that high-quality biscotti stones are a must.
Apart from not burning the pizza, biscotti stones are generally good at delivering a nice and even baking where the pizza gets the characteristic high edges and good with swoosh. They also withstand heat!
