primitives discuss exploding pizza stones

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x74720

Oh my.

Duer 157099  (1000+ posts)        Wed Feb-03-10 08:51 PM
Original message
 
Let's say I put a pizza stone on the stove burner (gas)

What could go wrong? Explode? Shrapnel all over the kitchen?

I was wondering if this might be a good way to heat the stone up hotter than it could get in an oven.

I think I know what my next new gadget is going to be! And just *try* to talk me out of this one, it won't happen, I'm committed to getting one as soon as I can.

http://www.amazon.com/Raytek-MT4-Non-Contact-Thermomete...

after which a photograph of something that looks like an optical scanner for UPC (universal price code) labels

housewolf  (1000+ posts)        Wed Feb-03-10 09:28 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Oh my gosh!!!!!

I want one too! I thought they were MUCH more expensive than that. Just added to my Amazon wish list.

Can't help with your pizza stone question - I don't have even the slightest idea what would happen if you tried to heat it up on a burner. I'd be afraid to try

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Wed Feb-03-10 11:30 PM
THE DEFROCKED WARPED PRIMITIVE; #09 TOP PRIMITIVE OF 2009
Response to Original message
 
3. Putting any ceramic pizza "stone" on the burner is very chancy and will invite cracking along all the hidden flaws as the side toward the flame gets screamingly hot while the other side stays relatively cool. Most ceramics can't handle that kind of stress. Only ceramics rated specifically as flameproof for stovetop use can withstand the temperature difference and even they have been known to shatter.

I know, a friend was a potter who specialized in flameproof cookware, was very good at what she did and still saw some pretty spectacular failures.

I'd suggest heating the stone in the oven as hot as your oven can go and leaving it at that. What you're looking for is a thermal mass that will heat up evenly and stay hot when the pizza is dumped on it, heating the bottom skin of dough instantaneously and providing heat to cook the pie from the bottom up.

If you want to heat a pizza gizmo to screaming hot on top of the stove, think about a round cast iron griddle. That might do it for you.

Duer 157099  (1000+ posts)        Wed Feb-03-10 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
4. So the tile doesn't transfer the heat from the bottom to the top?

Actually this idea evolved from the idea of using a cast iron skillet (for pizza) per Heston Blumenthal.

Here's the thing: I have this pan that I found at a thrift store, it's apparently from a pizza store (forgot the brand) but it's very large (16") and very shallow (1" or less) and has a handle on it. Most likely it was what they used to make pan pizza, albeit not that deep.

But here's what I use it for: my large pizza stone, the 16" one, cracked into 3 pieces quite awhile ago, and I discovered that it nested perfectly in this pan and keeps the pieces together, so I keep this in my oven as my pizza stone. The stone is exactly flush with the rim of the pan so it's easy to get things on/off.

And since it has a handle, I just wondered whether I should try to heat it up on top of the stove. But then I got paranoid about the tile getting a drop of water on it or something and bursting into shards or something.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Wed Feb-03-10 11:59 PM
THE DEFROCKED WARPED PRIMITIVE; #09 TOP PRIMITIVE OF 2009
Response to Reply #4

5. Ceramic is a poor thermal conductor

Fire clay takes a while to heat up but once it does, it keeps the contents of the pot hot for a very long time, which makes it ideal for hot water for a whole morning's tea. The poor conducting property is why they coat the outside of the space shuttle with ceramic tiles.

You can certainly try it, but I'd suggest you don't unless it's something you don't mind risking.

Duer 157099  (1000+ posts)        Thu Feb-04-10 12:06 AM
Response to Reply #5
 
6. Since it's already broken, I don't mind risking it

I just don't want it flying across the room and impaling me onto the cabinets

[JohnnyReb]

To hell with the rock. By the time you get it heated up, PIZZA INN/DOMINOES could have delivered.

[franksolich]

To hell with the rock. By the time you get it heated up, PIZZA INN/DOMINOES could have delivered.

Cookies appear to be a favorite topic among the cooking and baking primitives.

The cooking and baking primitives are always whining about a lack of storage space for their kitchen gadgets.

Apparently it's never occurred to a cooking and baking primitive that one can cook a pizza on a.....cookie sheet.

For me, this is what makes the cooking and baking primitives the most interesting of all the primitives on Skins's island; they exemplify so much, and so well, the primitive attitude about much in life and politics.

[whiffleball]

Another example of how DUmmies must have 'gadgets' even though they whine about no money.  Unless Lord 0 promised pizza stones for all.

Hello, lurking DUmbazzs!  You can make a pizza on a cookie sheet as Frank has stated.  I know it takes a lot of gray matter to figure that out and 'making do' just isn't in your vocabulary.

[bijou]

Another example of how DUmmies must have 'gadgets' even though they whine about no money.  Unless Lord 0 promised pizza stones for all.

Hello, lurking DUmbazzs!  You can make a pizza on a cookie sheet as Frank has stated.  I know it takes a lot of gray matter to figure that out and 'making do' just isn't in your vocabulary.

Also, I bought for a sum somewhere in the vicinity of $2 a mesh arrangement to put pizzas on which allows for all round cooking and gives a crispy base. You can get by without shelling out big bucks when finances don't allow.

[JohnnyReb]

DUmmies want everyone to go green...save energy....but the stupid DUmmies want to use up more energy heating a rock than it would take to cook three pizza's.

[The Village Idiot]

DUer 150799

He is ready for Obama's Orwellian world with that handle.

Yes, he will die in a violent pizza stone explosion!

[IassaFTots]

I have a pizza stone.  But I cook pizza, cookies, bread, chicken wings, jalepeno poppers, biscuits, etc. on them. 

Good and seasoned, just like my cast iron. 

[whiffleball]

I have a pizza stone.  But I cook pizza, cookies, bread, chicken wings, jalepeno poppers, biscuits, etc. on them. 

Good and seasoned, just like my cast iron. 

Then you're doing it all wrong!  Pizza stones are only for pizza.  Cookie sheets are only for cookies.  Omelet pans are only for omelets. 

[franksolich]

Then you're doing it all wrong!  Pizza stones are only for pizza.  Cookie sheets are only for cookies.  Omelet pans are only for omelets.

That's what mystifies me about Mrs. Alfred Packer, the "hippywife" primitive, who seems at least somewhat above the average intelligence of the cooking and baking primitives.

Mrs. Alfred Packer apparently owns a set of good, high-quality, sturdy knives, which I suspect were gotten from an area coroner's "surplus property" auction or something.

But Mrs. Alfred Packer wants another set of knives.

It doesn't seem to occur to Mrs. Alfred Packer that cadaver-cutting knives can be used for more than one purpose.

[IassaFTots]

Then you're doing it all wrong!  Pizza stones are only for pizza.  Cookie sheets are only for cookies.  Omelet pans are only for omelets. 

I was worried about that.  Until I came here, and read the Dumpster, I didn't realize I shouldn't be multi-using my cooking utensils.  I have a lot of shopping to do, to get up to speed.  The most specialized piece of equipment I have in my kitchen is my toaster.

[Karin]

I just don't want it flying across the room and impaling me onto the cabinets

Oh come on!  Doesn't anyone else sense a story here?  Have a go at it, FGL?  It's a peck of fun! 

[The Village Idiot]

Oh come on!  Doesn't anyone else sense a story here?  Have a go at it, FGL?  It's a peck of fun! 

lol. I dunno. Not my best topic, cooking or exploding stones.

[franksolich]

The most specialized piece of equipment I have in my kitchen is my toaster.

But to be a primitive, you would have to have a toaster specifically for bread, and a second one for muffins, a third one for waffles, and so on.

And you would have to have more than one toaster for bread; a toaster for wheat bread, a toaster for rye bread, a toaster for white bread.

The primitives can be so silly.

By the way, lately some primitives have mentioned that they buy cooking implements whenever they're "depressed."

Given how 2010 is most likely to turn out, as soon as I win the Powerball lottery, I'm putting the whole thing into cooking implements stocks and bonds, so as to double.

[Randy]

But to be a primitive, you would have to have a toaster specifically for bread, and a second one for muffins, a third one for waffles, and so on.

And you would have to have more than one toaster for bread; a toaster for wheat bread, a toaster for rye bread, a toaster for white bread.

The primitives can be so silly.

By the way, lately some primitives have mentioned that they buy cooking implements whenever they're "depressed."

Given how 2010 is most likely to turn out, as soon as I win the Powerball lottery, I'm putting the whole thing into cooking implements stocks and bonds, so as to double.

You forgot a bagel toaster, 1 for each flavor outta do it.

[GOBUCKS]

In the franksolich school of cooking, something is always exploding.
A bomb disposal squad is a much safer place than a kitchen.

I do remember my mother talking about a neighbor who had pinto beans stuck to the ceiling of her kitchen as a result of a pressure cooker incident.
I suspect that franksolich steers clear of pressure cookers.

[Karin]

Dave Barry tells the story of the time his mother made creamed chipped beef in a pressure cooker (shit on a shingle).  It exploded just when people were arriving.  Try cleaning THAT up. 

Although I do cook with gas, I've never touched a pressure cooker. 

[The Village Idiot]

Dave Barry tells the story of the time his mother made creamed chipped beef in a pressure cooker (shit on a shingle).  It exploded just when people were arriving.  Try cleaning THAT up. 

Although I do cook with gas, I've never touched a pressure cooker. 

doesn't making ketchup involve a pressure cooker?

[Chris_]

doesn't making ketchup involve a pressure cooker?

I thought that was what supermarkets are for.......

doc

[franksolich]

Although I do cook with gas, I've never touched a pressure cooker.

No way in Hell I'm ever going to get within a football field's length of a pressure cooker.

Those things explode.

[delilahmused]

I heard that if you put concrete blocks and chicken wire on top of it, it won't catch on fire at all!

Cindie

[DefiantSix]

I heard that if you put concrete blocks and chicken wire on top of it, it won't catch on fire at all!

Cindie

 

[debk]

No way in Hell I'm ever going to get within a football field's length of a pressure cooker.

Those things explode.

 


My feelings exactly!

[Chris_]

No way in Hell I'm ever going to get within a football field's length of a pressure cooker.

Those things explode.

Good grief....Mrs. doc has been using a pressure cooker for various things at least once weekly for close to half a century......and hasn't had an explosion yet.......

The maximum pressure that you can generate in one before the safeties blow is about 20 psi.......the tires in your car likely have in excess of 30 psi.........does that mean that you folks are going to stop driving?

doc

[debk]

Good grief....Mrs. doc has been using a pressure cooker for various things at least once weekly for close to half a century......and hasn't had an explosion yet.......

The maximum pressure that you can generate in one before the safeties blow is about 20 psi.......the tires in your car likely have in excess of 30 psi.........does that mean that you folks are going to stop driving?

doc

I have cooked for almost 50 years ( ) without ever using a pressure cooker, I can make it without ever using one. 

I had to buy a Fry Daddy in order to deep fry. It sat in the closet for a 4 years before I took it out about a month ago to try it for the first time.   

Deep frying scares the crap out of me.....first time I ever tried was not long after my mother was killed and my dad and I decided we would have deep fried shrimp. Instead, I was doing homework, he was reading the paper, and the oil exploded and caught the kitchen on fire. I've never deep fried anything since until I got about a month ago.