oven stone / pizza stone / baking stones

[Dragonbones]

Has anyone found pizza stones in Taiwan? This item has come up in the home oven recommendations thread, but I've not seem them in stores. I thought it deserves its own thread, and a renewed search for info about availability.

The mason-cut stones in the above-linked post eventually cracked, so I don't recommend going that route. I MUCH prefer my Lodge cast iron griddle as a pizza stone (16-3/4”x 9-1/2”; measure your oven floor to see if that would fit). I ordered one from http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/pichen1102

If you bake artisan bread, it makes a great heat sink and you can pour boiling water on it after loading bread, to get the steam effect.

Pardon the slash and redundancy in the title; I want to make sure this thread turns up in searches.

[TPEfam]

On our last two visits to Costco Neihu, we saw a couple lodge products. The 5-qt. Lodge Dutch oven where you can use lid as a 8-in skillet (I think) was sold for NT$999.
Quite a good deal!

[Dragonbones]

I have one, and that is a VERY good deal! I paid significantly more for mine. That lid, btw, is excellent for making pan or dep dish pizza. Make the pan pizza an inch or so smaller than the lid, and let the crust rise on a piece of oven paper while you're preheating the lid to your max oven temp for an hour, until it's smoking hot. Make sure the oven paper extends out beyond the pizza by 6" each way. When ready to put it in the oven, pull the hot lid out with mitts, pick up the pizza with a peel or using the oven paper and lower it into the lid. The extra length of paper will let you adjust the position of the pizza by pulling this way or that. Trim quickly with scissors, and return the lid and pizza to the oven.

At $999 I'd say buy two.

[Dragonbones]

On our last two visits to Costco Neihu, we saw a couple lodge products. The 5-qt. Lodge Dutch oven where you can use lid as a 8-in skillet (I think) was sold for NT$999.
Quite a good deal!

Yup, we saw the D.O. at the Xizhi branch today, sure 'nuf only $999, a real steal. RUN, don't walk, and get yourself one. They're awesome for baking boules of bread in, too. They also had a 34-cm Lodge cast iron preseasoned wok for $1399 -- another very good value. But I guess I should post that over in the Costco thread.

[Joesox]

I MUCH prefer my Lodge griddle as a pizza stone. Here is the product: http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Double-Reve ... B002CMLTXG on Amazon, and here is where I ordered it in Taiwan:
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/pichen1102/a ... l=f&fid=24
I have purchased from that seller several times -- a good source for cast iron cookware. It looks a tad pricey but lasts a lifetime or five if well cared for, and I believe the price from that seller is actually less than or the same as the US price PPD.

That griddle looks like a nice piece of kit. Do you use it for anything else apart from baking? Does it fit alright on a two-ring gas stove?

[Dragonbones]

That griddle looks like a nice piece of kit. Do you use it for anything else apart from baking? Does it fit alright on a two-ring gas stove?

Yeah, I use it atop a single burner, with a Lodge round griddle on the other, when cooking English muffins, and for searing meats. It also serves as a heat sink in my oven so that when I open the door to load breads, not too much of the oven's heat is lost through the air exchange. The back side has raised lines so if you wanted to achieve that effect on your BBQ or steak, you can.

[Typhun]

Normally these are intended for use in flooring, especially for outdoor use.

But they are apparently also a popular alternative way to make a custom baking stone. I'm actually looking for something I can fit in my smallish oven to begin bread baking experiments, and haven't found anything yet that's not too expensive or large.

If there is anywhere I can get some here (not B&Q, tried there already), I'll have to make sure there's no lead or other harmful material in them.

[Taiwan Luthiers]

Normally these are intended for use in flooring, especially for outdoor use.

But they are apparently also a popular alternative way to make a custom baking stone. I'm actually looking for something I can fit in my smallish oven to begin bread baking experiments, and haven't found anything yet that's not too expensive or large.

If there is anywhere I can get some here (not B&Q, tried there already), I'll have to make sure there's no lead or other harmful material in them.

I don't know... normally they would sell them in boxes and not piece by piece. One way would be to go to a factory who makes them and ask for scraps.

I have seen a hardware store in Tianmu near the Dayeh mall that sells granite and marble slabs. I don't know if that is what you're looking for, but one side is polished while the other side isn't (so that mortar can stick to them).

[Dragonbones]

If you wander the back streets of Yingge you will find porcelain factories, and if you're fluent in Mandarin can ask them for some clay. Roll it out with a pin, nice & thick, and ask them to fire it for you unglazed. Or ask them to make you a pizza stone to your specified dimensions.

Or look for the flooring shops in traditional neighborhoods, often with some tiles on display, and ask for unglazed tiles. I've found them in Xizhi that way ($200) but it took some hunting and I didn't save the address.


Or get a Lodge double play grill griddle (cast iron). Pricier, but indestructible, and an excellent heat sink; you can also pour hot water on it for steam when baking bread, or flip it to grill meat and get those char lines.

[Tiger Mountaineer]

If you wander the back streets of Yingge you will find porcelain factories, and if you're fluent in Mandarin can ask them for some clay. Roll it out with a pin, nice & thick, and ask them to fire it for you unglazed. Or ask them to make you a pizza stone to your specified dimensions.

Better yet would be to get a cordierite kiln shelf (the black kind). Regular clay is much too sensitive to thermal shock... e.g. putting room temp lumps of dough onto a 250C tile will eventually cause it to crack. I know there is a factory in the way back way back streets of Yingge where you can get these shelves for about $1200 (I was told) cut to fit (~ 40x40cm). The laoban was not around last time I went but I'll probably try to pick one up next time I'm out there... if the shelf is any pricer though, the Lodge griddle would prob be a better deal as it sounds more versatile. They have it at 100Mountain in Neihu near Costco. Tempting.

Dragonbones, do you bake bread right on the griddle as a stone?