Stone ABOVE Steel?

[Locolombia]

I was informed that a King Arthur Pizza-making Class was advised to use a stone ABOVE the steel when baking in a home oven. I already bake on 3/8" steel in my electric home oven but would like to try using stone on the shelf above the steel baking surface. Thoughts/recommendations? How about using split fire bricks? Thanks!

[Pizza_Not_War]

Steel near top of oven close to broil element works well instead of stone for me.

[scott r]

I agree... im not sure what the stone above is going to accomplish.   Put the steel as high in the oven as possible.  this can make it tricky to launch sometimes, but for me in my oven it has allowed me to achieve the most balanced bakes regardless of if I am using the broil element or not to preheat the stone.

[RHawthorne]

I've heard this idea go around for years, and I've never understood the logic behind it. In my opinion, all a stone placed above a pizza really does is impede the flow of the oven's ambient air, which is already a very poor conductor of heat. Also, while baking stones (and steels) are good at holding heat, neither are particularly good at radiating it, from what I've heard. All in all, using your broiler element at the end of the bake makes a lot more sense than trying to use a stone above the pizza, as far as I'm concerned. That's what it's there for. 

[texmex]

When you don't have a broiler element in the top of the main oven(mine is below in a broiler drawer) the stone above the steel can create a heat sink which holds a steady hot temp right above your pizza.   The stone's heat above the pie does more for an even bake than merely the heat of the steel your oven is made out of. Ask me how I know.

[Timpanogos Slim]

When you don't have a broiler element in the top of the main oven(mine is below in a broiler drawer) the stone above the steel can create a heat sink which holds a steady hot temp right above your pizza.   The stone's heat above the pie does more for an even bake than merely the heat of the steel your oven is made out of. Ask me how I know.

Yeah - i found with my green mountain grills pizza oven attachment, although the convection coming up the sides of the dome was very hot air, "doming" the pizza wasn't really a thing because that single layer of stainless steel was hundreds of degrees cooler than the stone.

I put a blanket of ceramic fiber insulation over the dome and slung a crappy 11" round cordierite stone under the lid with a layer of foil-wrapped ceramic insulation between it and the lid, which helped top browning and doming is now sort of a thing, but also the convection of exhaust gasses hits the outer crust much harder so now the right and left sides brown quicker than the back. When the snow abates a bit (I think i have 6 or 7 inches outside right now) i will take out the extra insulation.

I may look into a heavy steel to bring the heat closer to the top of the pizza in the future. I am also working toward controllable forced induction.