Silicon Carbide Baking Surface

[johnamus]

Leaving residue (seasoning) is the stated goal.  However, when burning oil you have to deal with what doesn't become residue, namely the volatile compounds which diffuse into the air.  You could just as well season the stone with sugar as I documented in the post linked below.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5122.msg46827.html#msg46827

Perhaps a more interesting seasoning could be made by adding a small chunk of your favorite fermented dough to a large amount of water to dissolve into a thin liquid.  Brush the liquid on the stone and bake in the aforelinked manner.  That should get you started on the right carbon foot.

November,

I'm glad to see a recent post from you, while reading through the forums I've learned a lot from your posts.

Regarding seasoning of hearth surfaces, what do you recommend for seasoning steel plate that experiences temps from 550°F to possibly a few hundred degrees higher?  Thanks

John

[November]

John,

Thank you.

Again, "seasoning" is just another way of saying leaving baked on residue.  Either let the surface season normally with use as Don mentioned; or prepare a liquid as I stated earlier, brush it on, and bake.  There's no secret formula or special process for different materials.  It's all about using whatever carbon-based components you might bake with.

- red.november

[magna]

This is the thread that finally got me to register on the site after lurking for so long.  Anyway, I came across a cheap source of new SiC kiln shelves on eBay here. At that price I decided to bite the bullet and see how it works out.

[scott123]

That IS a very good price, but 14 x 16? I guess, for Neapolitan, 14 x 16 works, but for NY, that's a little small.

[magna]

Yeah, the size isn't perfect but I thought it would be decent enough to experiment on. Their inventory list has a few other new SiC shelves in different sizes.

[scott123]

One of the problems with SiC is that it's hard/hard to cut (SiC is used for cutting), and, if you can cut it, it can potentially damage it structurally, so the really big sizes they carry aren't all that useful for us.

Still, I'd be very curious as to how your experiments work out.  Do you have a powerful broiler in your oven?  To achieve Neapolitan bake times with SiC you need an extremely powerful broiler- high wattage, lots of coils.