Fastest preheat at high heat (aluminum? Steel?)

[afitzhugh]

I have a thought experiment. I have an outdoor oven that happily produces 1000+ degrees of heat tied to 3cm biscotto stones.  I love the results, great pizzas (if a bit softer softer than I’d prefer). The challenge is that to get the stones  ‘ready’ It takes about an hour of heating torching a huge amount of propane in the process. I’m sure it will then happily bake dozens of pizzas back to back, but I only need one.  To that end, does it even make any sense to generate that much heat to heat stones if they can only absorb so much heat energy anyway. Should I be preheating at a much lower temperature?

So was wondering, what is a different material that can rapidly absorb heat from the burner on full (does aluminum start to gas at those temps?  Steel obliterate any seasoning and rust?) and then retain and discharge Enough to cook a single New York-ish style pizza. (Eg more crispy is just fine) at a reasonable baking time. Does not need to be 90 seconds, assuming 4/5 minutes is ideal. To heat can be adjusted by burner flame (or lack of it).

Once the pizza is done I’d like it to be able to recharge within 5 minutes to be ready to bake another pizza. But five minutes plus or minus between is just fine.

Are there any (safe to cook on and HeatUp) material or combination of materials that could preheat in say 10-15 minutes in this scenario?

Thanks for any insights!

[mosabrina]

there's an oven called Bertello grande that uses cordierite and the oven becomes fully saturated in about 8 minutes probably due to the underfloor burner

Anything that heats up fast will also have a small window of decent temperature. Who knows how long it will take you to stretch/top your pizza?

If you want to cook NY pizzas I would buy a different oven if short preheat is your goal.

Halo versa 16 will preheat fast enough (plus it's gas so you're not watching it)

[Timpanogos Slim]

A major consideration is the type of pizza you are making and what temperatures that requires.

If your style is baked at over maybe 750f, steel will probably cause it to burn badly.

At neapolitan temperatures, people seem to prefer materials that are *less conductive than cordierite, like fibrament or biscotto.

For NY style, probably cordierite. You could get a 15mm stone and put it on top of the biscotto for an experiment.

[TXCraig1]

Pizza is a game of heat balance. Sure you can get a deck that will preheat faster, but it will also release heat at the same rate. At high temps, that means burned bottoms.

[afitzhugh]

I left the key detail out of the post, that in trying to bake New York style, so assuming a temperature of 550 or 600 would be the right target for the surface.  The thing I don’t know is what materials can take extremely high heat safely other then stone, which heats very slowly

[Pizza_Not_War]

There was a guy on pizzamaking in the last few years selling aluminum plates for pizza making. It's not a commonly used material but that doesn't mean it won't work well. Mostly everyone who isn't using stone/ceramic goes for steel plate, which is plentiful on the internet or locally at a metal dealer or scrap yard.

[mosabrina]

I left the key detail out of the post, that in trying to bake New York style, so assuming a temperature of 550 or 600 would be the right target for the surface.  The thing I don’t know is what materials can take extremely high heat safely other then stone, which heats very slowly

The issue is not whether it heats up fast. The issue is that if it does, it has maybe 1-2 minutes of usable window before it's too hot.

Something like cordierite would extend the window a lot more

[Timpanogos Slim]

I left the key detail out of the post, that in trying to bake New York style, so assuming a temperature of 550 or 600 would be the right target for the surface.  The thing I don’t know is what materials can take extremely high heat safely other then stone, which heats very slowly

Aluminum melts at 1222f-ish, steel much higher than that, ceramics are fired at temperatures you can't achieve in your oven. Fibrament is rated for 1000f continuous 1500f intermittent but cannot be directly exposed to flame (though AWMCo says they have a flame-rated option you can ask about)