What Is a Baking Steel? (And Why It's Better Than a Pizza Stone)
A Baking Steel is a thick slab of carbon steel designed to conduct heat 18x faster than a ceramic pizza stone. It sits in your oven, gets screaming hot, and transfers massive amounts of heat into your pizza dough, giving you a crispy, blistered crust that rivals pizzeria-quality pies, all in a regular home oven.
I'm Andris, founder of Baking Steel. For years, I tried to perfect pizza at home. I didn't think it was possible without a wood-fired oven, the crust always came out pale, soggy, nothing like what I'd get at a pizzeria.
Then I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about pizza and steel. That's what triggered the invention of the Baking Steel.
I realized the problem wasn't my oven's temperature, it was what the pizza was sitting on. Ceramic stones conduct heat slowly. Steel conducts heat fast. Really fast. If I could get a thick slab of ultra-conductive carbon steel into a home oven, maybe I could finally get that crispy, blistered crust I'd been chasing.
Turns out, I was right.
If you've ever wondered why your homemade pizza comes out pale and soggy while restaurant pizza has that crispy, charred crust, this is why. And here's how to fix it.
Baking Steel vs Pizza Stone: The Simple Truth
This is the most common question I get: "Is a Baking Steel really better than a pizza stone?"
Short answer: Yes. And here's why.
The key difference comes down to one thing: thermal conductivity, how quickly a material transfers heat into whatever it's touching.
Ceramic/cordierite pizza stones: Low thermal conductivity (heat moves slowly)
Carbon steel: Very high thermal conductivity (heat moves fast)
In plain language: steel is roughly 18x more conductive than ceramic. That means it delivers heat to your pizza dough way faster than a traditional pizza stone.
Here's the real-world difference:
Imagine two surfaces sitting in the sun on a hot day:
- Walk barefoot on a ceramic paver: Warm, but you can stand there
- Walk barefoot on a sheet of steel: You're jumping off in a second
Same sun. Same air temperature. Completely different heat transfer to your foot. That's thermal conductivity in action—and that's exactly what happens to your pizza dough.
When you drop your dough onto a preheated baking steel at 500–550°F:
- The bottom of the pizza gets hit with a huge wave of heat instantly
- The crust sets fast
- Starch gelatinizes properly
- You get that crisp, blistered underside
- Overall bake time drops—even though your oven air temp hasn't changed
This is why so many people go from "my pizza is pale and soggy" to "whoa… this looks like a pizzeria" the first time they use a baking steel.
Steel vs Stone: Durability
Beyond the performance difference, there's a practical advantage:
- Stones crack. Steel doesn't. Ceramic and cordierite are brittle, they chip, crack, or shatter from heat shock.
- Steel laughs at heat shock. Go from hot to cold? Steam? Broiler? Steel doesn't care.
- You'll buy multiple stones over a lifetime. You'll buy one baking steel.
A baking steel is essentially a lifetime tool.
Why Restaurant Pizza Hits Different (And How Steel Closes the Gap)
A true Neapolitan-style pizza is baked in a wood-fired oven around 800–900°F and cooks in about 60–90 seconds. Your home oven? It usually tops out around 500–550°F.
That extra heat in a pizzeria oven gives you:
- A super fast bake
- Leopard-spotted bottom crust
- Open, airy cornicione (the rim)
- Cheese melted, not obliterated
We can't magically turn your home oven into a 900°F pizza oven… but we can use physics to cheat.
If the air in your oven can't get hotter, the only move is: make the surface your pizza sits on transfer more heat, faster. That's where steel blows ceramic stones out of the water.
Thermal Mass & Heat Retention: Why Thickness Matters
Conductivity is only half the story. The other half is thermal mass.
Thermal mass is basically: how much heat a material can absorb and hold onto. The denser and heavier the slab, the more heat it can store.
A baking steel does two things at once:
- Heats up and becomes a serious heat battery
- Moves that stored heat into your dough very quickly
This really matters when:
- You're baking more than one pizza
- You're opening the oven door a lot
- Your oven struggles to recover temperature
Every time you open your oven door, you lose hot air. With a thin stone, the surface itself cools down fast and your second pizza can take much longer with a weaker crust.
The Baking Steel Original (1/4" thick) is what I recommend for most home pizza makers. It has serious thermal mass, recovers fast between pizzas, and will give you restaurant-quality results every time. This is the one that made us famous, and for good reason—it's all most people will ever need.
The Baking Steel Pro (3/8" thick) is for the avid pizza maker who's throwing down 4-5 pizzas in a session. The extra thickness means slightly faster rebound time between bakes. If you're hosting pizza parties regularly or just know you're going to be that person, the Pro is built for you. But for most home cooks? The Original is the move.
Every time you open your oven door, you lose hot air. With a thin stone, the surface cools down fast and your second pizza suffers. With either Baking Steel, you've got a heat reservoir that stays hot and keeps delivering. Both blow stones out of the water—the Pro just has a bit more in the tank for marathon baking sessions.
Myth-Busting: "Stones Absorb Moisture" and Other Pizza Legends
Let's clean up a couple of common myths:
"Pizza stones make crust crispy because they absorb moisture"
Sounds nice, but it's not really what's happening. Your dough is loaded with water. In a 500–550°F oven, water is flashing to steam almost instantly.
Crispy crust comes from:
- Fast heat transfer
- Proper starch gelatinization
- Good dough fermentation
A stone isn't "sucking water out" like a sponge—it's just a relatively slow, gentle heat source. Steel is the opposite: fast, intense, efficient.
"Steel burns the bottom before the top is done"
This can happen if your dough, rack position, or bake strategy isn't dialed, but that's not a steel problem—that's a setup problem.
Move the rack down a notch, switch to bake + broil combo at the right time, or adjust your dough thickness and you'll get: even baking, blistered top, and a crisp but not burnt bottom.
I teach this all the time in classes. Once you see it, it's easy.
What This Means in Your Home Oven
Here's what most people experience when they switch from a stone or sheet pan to baking steel:
- Shorter bake times at the same oven temperature
- Crisper bottom crust with better color
- More consistent results from pizza to pizza
- Better oven spring—the rim pops up more
- Less frustration, more "holy crap, I made this" moments
You're not changing your oven. You're upgrading the surface that actually does the work.
That's what the baking steel is: a performance upgrade for your home oven.
And It's Not Just for Pizza…
Once you have a slab of hot steel in your oven (or on your stovetop), you start to realize it's not just a "pizza thing."
- Bread—baguettes, boules, focaccia with amazing oven spring
- Smashburgers—restaurant-style crust, insane sear
- Roasted veggies—caramelized, not soggy
- Flatbreads & naan—puffy, blistered, fast
Same science, different food. Steel stores and moves heat better than almost anything else you can put in a home oven.
Which Baking Steel Should You Choose?
Quick rundown:
- 1/4" Baking Steel Original—perfect for most home cooks making 1–2 pizzas at a time. Plenty of power, faster to preheat, lighter to move.
- 3/8" Baking Steel Pro—more "horsepower." Ideal if you're baking multiple pizzas back-to-back, entertaining, or you just like having the extra thermal mass.
For most people, the Original is all you'll ever need. If you know you're the "pizza party" person, the Pro is a beast.
Check them out here: Shop Baking Steel
The Science You Can Eat
The Baking Steel isn't magic. It's just good physics applied to something we all love—pizza.
By combining:
- High thermal conductivity (moves heat fast)
- High thermal mass (stores a ton of heat)
- Serious durability (no cracking, no drama)
…you get a tool that can finally help your home oven punch way above its weight.
If you're ready to turn your oven into a legit pizza machine, grab a steel and then hit one of my dough recipes: Baking Steel Dough + Pizza Recipes
This is the science. The fun part is what you do with it.
About the Author
Andris Lagsdin is the founder of Baking Steel. A former restaurant cook turned steel nerd, he invented the Baking Steel in 2011 after realizing home ovens needed better heat conductivity to make restaurant-quality pizza and bread. What started as a backyard experiment with a welder became a company that's helped thousands of home bakers stop compromising on crust.
Andris teaches simple, repeatable techniques focused on heat, timing, and confidence in the home kitchen. He believes the best tools get out of your way and let you cook. When he's not testing new recipes or talking about thermal mass, he's making pizza with his family in Massachusetts.
