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While restaurant-quality dishes can often be achieved in a home kitchen, without the proper equipment, the same cannot be said for pizza. To mimic the intense radiant heat of a commercial pizza oven, you need a pizza stone or steel. “The premise of using any kind of stone or steel is that it serves as a thermal mass, holding the heat of the oven, and radiating it back into the product,” says Peter Reinhart, a faculty member at Johnson & Wales University and founder of PizzaQuest.com.
The best pizza stones or steels need to retain a lot of heat. “I’d advocate for buying as thick a steel as one can afford and is willing to handle,” says pizza consultant Gregorio Fierro. “It’s heavy, but the good news is that it just lives in my oven. It doesn’t take up much space and it helps with thermal mass in other baking applications as well.”
I’m a chef and culinary educator at Drexel University who has been using stones for decades to make pizza at home. For this guide, I tested seven stones, irons, and steels in ovens and on grills. The main differences between them were in the time it took to preheat (the thicker they are, the longer it takes) and the time it took the stone or steel to recover, or get back up to cooking temperature to cook the next pizza at the same temperature as the previous one (the thinner they are, the longer it takes). I also talked to eight chefs, pizza experts, and cookbook authors about what to look for — and what to avoid — in equipping a home oven or grill to level up your pizza. Of course, if you’re a home pizzaiolo, you might want to consider a dedicated pizza oven.
What we’re looking for
Material
Nearly any food-safe material capable of absorbing and retaining heat can work as a thermal mass for baking. But some materials are superior for durability, ease of cleaning, and heat retention. Many chefs recommend a cordierite baking stone. This naturally occurring mineral compound is composed of magnesium, iron, aluminum, and silicon, and can withstand high heat and has good heat retention. The thicker and larger the stone, the better. Joe Beddia, chef-owner of Pizzeria Beddia and author of Pizza Camp, says cordierite “is in regular deck ovens. They are heavy (and cumbersome), but they’re great. You don’t even need to take them out of the oven.” He and other experts I spoke to also appreciate how durable cordierite stones are. Versions made of cast iron or steel conduct and retain heat better than stone. Pizza steels typically cost about double what a cordierite stone costs but are also very durable. “Pluses of a steel are it’s durable, won’t shatter, and conducts heat beautifully,” says Reinhart. “Maybe too well — it’s possible to burn pizza even in a home oven.”
Weight
Mass is important for heat retention, but it needs to be balanced with convenience, ease of storage, and maneuverability. Stones and steels can range from just a few pounds to nearly 30.
Dimensions
A large rectangle or square provides a versatile platform for a variety of baking applications, whereas a smaller, more specialized stone can be limiting. Stones and steels can be as small as a ten-inch round to as large as a 16-by-16-inch rectangle that covers the rack of a typical home oven.
Best pizza stone overall
Material: cordierite | Weight: 12.6 pounds | Dimensions: 22” x 13.5” x ½”
This heavy, expansive Sur La Table pizza stone fills the rack of a typical home oven to create a deck-oven-style floor (a large flat-stone surface common in ovens at pizzerias). It took me just over 30 minutes to heat, and it had excellent heat retention. Like other cordierite stones, it can withstand thermal shock. Given its generous size, it can handle two personal-size ten-inch pizzas, a row of baguettes or pita, or two large loaves of bread. With a dusting of cornmeal and a pizza peel, baking with this stone feels close to professional pizza-making. While the cordierite stones themselves are all fairly similar in features, I like this one best because it encompasses all the features I’m looking for: It is large enough to bake just about anything, light enough to pull in and out of the oven easily, even when hot, and thick enough to have strong heat retention and make multiple pizzas.
Peggy Paul Casella, author of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Cookbook and founder of Thursday Night Pizza, has a rectangular cordierite stone in the top third of her oven. “Call me a traditionalist — I like the vibe of it. It’s how pizzas are traditionally made.” Size was also important to her: “It’s as big a rectangle as I could find,” she says. “It fills the rack of my oven and it is pretty much indestructible. You want a big rectangle, and you want it as close to an inch thick as possible.”
Best-looking pizza stone
Material: glazed stoneware | Weight: 5.63 lbs | Dimensions: 15” round
While best known for its enameled cast-iron cookware, Le Creuset makes a double-sided pizza stone out of stoneware. The nonstick side has its familiar brightly colored glaze, while the reverse is unglazed. When I tested it with a flatbread and a pizza, both slid right off without requiring the ball-bearing-type action of cornmeal or semolina traditionally needed on unglazed stones. It’s relatively lightweight (just over five pounds) and dishwasher safe, and it looks as attractive on the table as it does in the oven.
Chef Liz Sempervive of Lilah prefers this type of pizza stone. “The stoneware has the ability to control the heat to avoid burning the crust. For me, some char is nice, but burnt is bad. The stoneware also absorbs moisture and helps create a crispy crust.”
Best smaller pizza stone
Material: cordierite | Weight: 6 lbs | Dimensions: 14” x 16” x 1/2”
For an occasional home pizza-maker, the Williams Sonoma stone is an easy one to pop in and out of the oven when needed. Just as with the Sur La Table, this cordierite stone is designed to mimic a brick-oven floor, absorbing moisture and radiating even heat. I found it worked particularly well for flatbreads and when sprinkled with cornmeal to create lift and reduce friction.
Best pizza stone for grilling
Material: cordierite | Weight: 9 lbs | Dimensions: 17.5 x 13.6 x 0.5 inches
While most cordierite stones can be used in both an oven and on a grill, the Henckels glazed cordierite stone is specifically designed for outdoor pizza-making. It can withstand temperatures up to 1,500°F, and at nine pounds, it is light enough to be a grill accessory and not a permanent fixture, as a heavier stone or steel would be in an oven. I used it to cook a New Haven–style clam pie on my grill, as I wanted a combination of smoky, garlicky seafood flavors. When thoroughly preheated for 30 minutes, it yielded the leopard spotting more familiar on a Neapolitan-style crust and a slice that was cooked evenly throughout, rather than drooping at the end.
Best baking steel overall
Material: steel | Weight: 16 pounds | Dimensions: 15” x 15” x ¼”
The pizza steel has only been around for home use since 2012 but has found widespread popularity among pros and home cooks in that short time. “It’s essentially a thick piece of armor plating on which people cook pizza,” says Fierro. “Much better heat retention and not damage prone. Cons? Heavy as hell.” The 16-pound Dough-Joe Samurai Pizza Steel is my personal favorite, as it balances value, durability, and quality, and it creates the perfect pizza.
Chef Hee “Chino” Chang of The Markley restaurant is also a fan and uses this steel at home. “Pizza is all about cooking out moisture and radiating heat,” he says. “At the restaurant, the pizza oven goes up to 1,000 degrees. The steel lets me get similar results at home at half the temperature.” While not much larger than the Sur La Table steel (below) in area, the mass of the Samurai means it retains substantially more heat. That becomes important for recovery time, allowing for multiple pizzas in quick succession, all with the signature leopard-spotted crust of a properly cooked pie.
Best lightweight baking steel
Material: steel | Weight: 7.5 lbs | Dimensions: 14” x 14” x ¼”
For those interested in moving to a baking steel without the over-25-pound commitment of a professional-level steel, the Sur La Table option is a quarter-inch thick and 7.5 pounds. The steel is pre-seasoned and, unlike stones, is unbreakable. It can also be used as a griddle on a grill or stovetop. I tested simple Neapolitan-style pizzas with this steel and found it got as hot as a heavier-grade steel but needed some extra time to recover after the first pie.
Best professional-level baking steel
Material: steel | Weight: 27 pounds | Dimensions: 16” x 16” x 3/8”
Baking Steel started the trend for pizza steels. The 16-inch square version comes recommended by Alexandra Stafford, author of Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad, who prefers steel to stone because it is a better conductor of heat. “For pizza, this means your dough will spring in the oven, which will lead to glorious bubbles throughout your crust,” she says. “Because it retains heat better than stone, it will help keep your oven at the proper temperature as you open and close it while launching and removing pizzas.”
Best cast-iron pizza stone
Material: cast iron | Weight: 1.5 lbs | Dimensions: 15” round
Less common than the cordierite or stoneware versions on this list is the cast-iron baking stone or pan, also called a comal, which is used in Latin American cooking for tortillas, arepas, or other items. “Cast iron doesn’t conduct heat as well as copper or steel,” Reinhart says, “but it’s wonderful and won’t warp.” Chef Brian Lofink, culinary director of the Royal Group, agrees. “The Victoria Iron is incredibly easy to use,” he says. “The pan seasons extremely fast. I set it on my Weber gas grill for 30 minutes on high and lightly rubbed it down with oil. The pizza slid right off the pan with no issues and gave a cracker-crisp crust without burning the undercarriage of the pizza. The pan, being cast iron, was able to maintain its heat, so I was able to fire off six pizzas in a row without the stone losing any heat and therefore I didn’t lose any time.” Like the Le Creuset, the Victoria is designed as both cookware and tableware. Its two handles make it easy to make the transition from grill to table.
Other pizza essentials we’ve written about
Our experts
• Joe Beddia, chef-owner, Pizzeria Beddia and author of Pizza Camp
• Peggy Paul Casella, author of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Cookbook and founder of Thursday Night Pizza
• Hee “Chino” Chang, chef-owner, The Markley restaurant
• Gregorio Fierro, pizza consultant
• Brian Lofink, culinary director of the Royal Group/Blazerz Food Joint
• Peter Reinhart, faculty member at Johnson & Wales University and founder of PizzaQuest.com
• Liz Sempervive, sous-chef, Lilah
• Alexandra Stafford, author of Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad
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