I was awfully proud of my "baking steel" hack...
I'm a little bit of a foodie and like to experiment. I read about this baking steel product for superior homemade pizza results when I was looking into getting a pizza stone.
I found a local steel yard and got myself an 1/4" 18x22 piece of steel for $13. Cleaned it up and seasoned it. It really does make superior pizza... 5-6 minute pies with the assistance of the top boiler, better than our local pizza joint according to my teen.
Did you just get mild steel (hot rolled)? I'm very excited about this!
Sorry, just seeing this now....I got regular A36 hot rolled steel. Some people freak out if has mill scale on it which is just oxidized iron and nothing to fear. There will be oily stuff on it that I cleaned up with acetone wiping and wiping until no black residue came on the paper towels, hot soapy wash, then seasoned on the stove top with oil and smushed garlic pieces. Other people have handled it differently ( check out pizzamaking.com under equipment - but ignore the pizza zealots who say you gotta have half inch steel, it's too heavy). You want to measure the oven carefully and get on that fits completely back to front but leaves an inch on each side for circulation. Also the cut edge seemed it could give a nasty cut if you slid your hand against it just right so I went over that with a metal file.
Great! I wasn't worried about mill scale, I just couldn't find a picture of the product, so I didn't know if I'd go hot rolled or cold. I sort of thought that some scale might help with seasoning. It seems like you've done what I was imagining, but then improved it with garlic! I'm excited try it out! Thanks for the answer!
