Pizza stone/quarry tiles.

[pizzaguy]

My 4th pizza stone cracked last night    I've had it with those things.  I'm very gentle with them, but they break in the oven, usually with a pizza on them.  I want to get some thick tiles, but last time I went all over town looking for them, nobody had anything I would cook on.  Everything was glazed, and 1' x 1', which is too small to cook a pizza on.  Can someone give me advice on how to acquire good thick quarry tiles for my oven?  I live out in the sticks, so I'd prefer to order them online.  Thanks,

-Tim

[Steve]

A box of tiles is going to be heavy and you're going to pay through the nose for shipping. Plus they are very fragile and will probably arrive in shattered pieces via UPS.

My advice: Check your local Lowe's/Home Depot and/or any local tile stores.

[SalBO]

I bought my tiles at Lowes Hardware last week.  Just ask for quarry tiles. They were 77 cents each....Thanks for all the info on this forum to everyone....

[canadave]

Just remember to get *unglazed* rather than glazed--the chemicals in the glazed ones aren't good for you if you're cooking.

Also, I'd recommend half-inch thickness.

Dave

[pete23]

I bought some tiles from Lowes for 64c, but all they had were red tiles.  They are unglazed though.  Are these painted tiles still safe to bake my pizza on?  Any info. is appreciated...planning on making some pizza tomorrow night so I need to know if I need to go get some different tiles.  Thanks in advance.

[Lars]

I bought Saltillo tiles at a local stone yard (Bourget Brothers), which are a good substitution for quarry tiles, but if your tiles have paint on them, I would turn them upside down.  Also, you might want to use a pizza screen, which is what I do just for convenience.  I use a Saltillo tile (which I cut down from 12x12 to 12x9) in my toaster oven, but I have a regular pizza stone in my regular oven.  In the regular oven, sometimes I use a pizza screen and sometimes I don't, and I like the results pretty much equally either way, but then my regular oven will not get as hot as I would like.

What baking temp are you using? 

[pizzaluvr]

I went to Home Depot today and bought what looked like the only stone quarry tiles they had.  They're red in color.  After breaking one in half, I noticed that they are either painted red (in addition to being red clay)  or are glazed, giving it a just slightly painted appearance.  So I'm not gonna risk using them.  I'm off to the tile store tomorrow to get the real thing.  Oh well,  a whole box was only $8, so not much of a loss.

Mark

[MTPIZZA]

I would just make sure there is no surface glazing or chemical treatment on top. You certainly don't want nuclear tasting pizza.... The quarry tile I used to use would eventually crack or break...