No I'm pretty sure it's not granite that you should use. I think the quarry tiles referred to are those which a heavy, usually red, flooring tiles - I think they are ceramic in composition, but are a particualr type of stoneware so are durable. Granite wouldn't find a home in my oven - it is radioactive and if some dust from it gets in your food then it will probably contain some alpha particle emitting chemicals, not what you want if you want to 'live long and prosper'! PLus the fact it will probably crack given the crystalline nature of it and the flaws it will contain.

in sw france where i live most roofs are with half circular red terracota tiles same material as plant pots. I put one in oven to heat at same time as warming oven and use another lined with Ali foil to help form loaf. after rising transfer to hot tile and cook.
I have also cooked in flower pots as with Paul Hollywoods (100 great breads)pepper and onion flowerpot bread. That looks great for a BBQ.
manxman

Quarry tiles are genreally considered safe to bake on. The concern is with glazed tiles which may contain and may release lead in your oven - not a good thing!

Unglazed quarry tiles are thick and are made of fired clay, basically as it comes from the ground. Thus it has other things in it besides clay.

Ceramic tiles are generally thinner and but stronger. This is because they are made from "refined" clay in a powdered form. The end result is a more uniform tile, thus it is stronger.

Both types are made entirely from earth materials, and if unglazed, should be fine for baking on. Do not bake on glazed tiles!!!!! Particularly if from a foreign source. If in doubt contact the manufacturer.

Notable Exception: I am aware of one handmade baking stone on the market that is glazed. There likely are others.

See www.armchairworld.com for this crafty stone.

But one of the advantages of baking stones and quarry tiles is that they are unglazed and thus allow moisture to pass out of the bread bottom, for better crisping. So, at least for bread and pizza baking, I don't get the glazed stone thing.

Part time Pizzameister - Full time Geologist

Oh. So quarry tiles are actually made with the same stuff as the terra cotta flower pots?

I guess i'll go ask my local tile shop about that. Hopefully they'd understand.... :)

Btw, how long does it take to heat up/ preheat a tile prior to baking?

I used quarry tiles with good success until they cracked into smaller and smaller pieces from using steam in my gas oven. I have switched to rectangular bread tiles/pizza stones. If you shop around, they can be had for about $13-15 a piece, I use two, one under the bread, the other above. Works great and I no longer have to assemble a jigsaw puzzle before baking.

I generally heat my stones for an hour at 500 degrees, high as my oven will go, before baking. I get great crust and crumb.

now good stores have a tile slab, one peice,!! even have a slab for each side & the back of your oven,, that makes it somewhat of a hearthoven. takes alittle longer to heat ,Isuppose. what a difference in performance, think about it. hotbred

I've used unglazed quarry tiles for years in my oven--I just leave them there all the time. One or two a year might break, but at $1 or less each at home improvement stores, they're easy to replace. Much of the time I slide my bread in on parchment paper, but I've often baked directly on them with fine results.

Much cheaper than a larger, more "official" pizza stone or such, and I'd guess the results are similar.

Nancy

What about just using fire brick, it is expensive up here but then it has all ready been shipped. They are thick and if the ones in my wood stove are any indication very tough. Just a thought

If you have a potter's supplies near you, there are ceramic sheets to go into kilns on which pottery is fired . These are ceramic and made to withstand high heat and come in a variety of sizes.

Searching my local area for unglazed quarry tile, without luck. I finally broke down and bought a FibraMent stone. It's 17 1/2" x 14 3/8", a whopping 3/4" thick, and comes with a 10-year warranty and free shipping.
Well worth the $46, IMHO. I figure my time alone is worth that much.
Fibrament Homepage
-Joe

Joe, Thanks for the link. I just bought the same stone you have. I can't wait to get it! I've been using a round pizza stone (also 3/4" thick) for nearly 10 years. Great for boules, torpedo shaped breads but not so great for the baguettes.

So? Didja get it yet? :)

-Joe

Nope, not yet. I am hoping it will get here by the weekend. I have a nice starter going and want to make some sourdough baguettes.

I have the unglazed red quarry tiles and have put them on the bottom rack in the oven. Should I be placing the bread directly on parchment paper on the tiles and cook the bread on the bottom shelf? Or, should I put the tiles on the center shelf and cook the bread there?

If I place the bread in a tin, should I put the tin directly on the tiles? And on what shelf should I be cooking the bread in the tin?

I went to Home Depot here in the Washington DC USA area and they didn't know what a saltillo tile was. All they had was concrete and similar things.

I bought a big flat piece of slate and I am having it cut to fit the oven. I think that will hold the heat and doesn't have any manmade chemicals in it. 

Slate was used tradtitionally here in UK for old fashioned wood fired ovens in older houses - the floor is of slate, walls of brick. My dream is to have a thatched house with inglenook and faggot oven - which I would use, for bread.
So if its good enough to use slate in a traditional oven, it should be good enough for a modern one.
Andrew

Like the Moroccan Bread on stones- Farina , it was perfect for us , here:http://momsrecipesandmore.blogspot.com/2006/08/ive-never-eat-farina-bread-before-i.html

 Chanit

  http://momsrecipesandmore.blogspot.com/

You can get them at almost every hardware store, for example,
Home Depot. These come at US $11 a box. Splurge on one
or 2 boxes, depending on your oven size, and lay as many whole
layers that you can. The tile manufacturer for Home Depot is in the
US, and states that the tiles are food-safe.

The extra-thick combined tile layers has improved the quality
of my breads dramatically. Even baking/browning, constant
temperature, etc, are just a few of the benefits of using this
baking tiles. Forget the fibrament. Get 1 or 2 boxes of
white kitchen tiles (if unglazed can't be found, get the glazed,
and lay the tiles with unglazed backside up).

BTW operating an oven with ceramic tiles is like operating
a hearth oven - - it needs to be preheated with ample time.
In my case, I need a 1-hour pre-heat. The lengthy but proper
tiles and pre-heat are worth it, because I now feel like I have a
commercial Blodgett!!

The trouble with eating Italian food is that 5 or 6 days later you're hungry again.

I am new to pizza baking and have a few questions regarding my choice of stones.  Presently I have a cheap pizza stone and aquired some quarry tiles for future use. I would appreciate any answers to the following questions:

What is the gray inner core of a Saltillo quarry tile (visible when cut)? 

Do specialty pizza stones contain asbestos?  Asbestos and heat always seem to go hand and hand.

What is the best temp for pizza?

Should there be a stone/tile above the pizza too?

Is steam needed, considering the chance of cracking the tiles/stone?  If so, is there a safe way to introduce it?

I would appreciate any answers to any of these questions.

Floydm and Sphealey, Thanks for the good advice and input regarding my newbie questions.  Having a two year old, I am very cautious about any health hazards.  Since the closure of the best NY style pizzaria in my neighborhood, We started to make our own personal pizzas and garlic knots on my cheap, thin pizza stone. My daughter loves making her own and seeing the results, good family time.  Since I havn't been able to find any specification or MSD Sheets on the quality stones or tiles, I was wondering if CAST IRON has worked for anyone.  I know that it has great heat retention qualities and can be cleaned easily, if seasoned properly.  I have read many comments about porous surfaces drawing moisture, but do not suspect any moisture would rest on anything of that temperature.  Any comments, advice?

Mike 

Some day I would love to do a complete Cooking for Engineers-style investigation of the whole question of baking surfaces. I have read many theories and tried some experiements myself, but I am not convinced that we amateur bakers really know what is going on when the dough hits the flat hot part.

But until then, my thought would be that cast iron has substantially different heat transfer properties than ceramic, and I suspect it would not work well. Plus you would be handling a huge chunk of cast iron.

King Arthur is now carrying a reasonably-priced 14x16 pizza stone in addition to the Hearthstone [1] and I am sure their customer service would talk to you about food safety. Why don't you look at that one?

sPh

[1] The Hearthstone works very well for me when I preheat it to 525 using the convect setting, but it is very large, heavy, and expensive.

works superbly. In my last oven - which was larger than my present one - I used a Le Creuset crêpe pan which gave excellent results - super heat retention, even heat distribution and extremely good oven spring! I felt it was the nearest I'd get to an Aga cooker (http://www.aga-rayburn.co.uk/57.htm) which of course uses cast iron throughout its ovens.

Unfortunately it doesn't fit in my present oven and I've still to find a piece that fits with room for heat to circulate round one, but when I do... At present I'm using a pizza stone - good, but not as good.

So if you can find a piece of cast iron the right size, and about the thickness of a crêpe pan, grab it. You won't be dissappointed. (Probably mild steel would work well too.)

Lodge has a cast iron pizza pan:

http://tinyurl.com/y47ywj

The Hearthkit oven insert works exceptionally well for me (its expensive, but I'm lucky, mine was a gift).  The only problem is the weight and though they state that it can remain in the oven at all times, I found that cumbersome and take it out when not in use.  But that said, the crust and crumb are the best!  But I've wondered if by putting quarry tiles up against the sides of the oven and a pizza stone on the shelf you might be able to mimick the effect.

When i initially tried the cheap Home Deopt route on for baking stones, i went to Home Depot and asked for unglazed tiles and was sold one large slate tile.  I took it to my cousin's house, with a quick electic oven, and tried it.  The tile, more or less, exploded during the preheat which was an admittedly fast one.  It was going to 500 degrees in five mins.  No damage to people or equipment.  Just lots o' embarassment.

 I went back to Home Depot, after finding this site and reading this blog, and specifically requested unglazed quarry tiles.  After a bit of looking, the sales associate and i found them.  There were 4x4 inch red tiles.  The tag on the shelf said specifically "unglazed quarry tiles" and they looked like red terracotta tiles.  It reminded me of a flower pot.  I bought six of these, at 33 cents a piece, and they have been great.  No explosions.  I have an older gas oven which heats much more slowly than my cousin's electric one and i think this helps. The money saving is certainly worth the initial explosion.   

It does need to be bone dry and needs to be warmed slowly and thoroughly before you take it up to high temp. Once you've done that, I've learned, it's pretty reliable, although not as tough as tiles.

"I am not a cook. But I am sorta cooky."

Ref: Pizza by James McNair

For gas ovens: Unglazed quarry tiles should not be placed on any rack in a gas oven, but rather on the floor of the oven.

For electric ovens: Place the oven rack on the lowest position and line it with the unglazed quarry tiles.

Measure your oven and leave about an inch border around the edge of the floor of the oven for air circulation.

Instead of local home development centers like Home Depot, check out your local ceramic tile suppliers for the unglazed quarry tiles.

Look for tiles that are just slightly less than 1/2 inch thick. Tiles thicker than that take too long to heat up, and thinner tiles may crack from the intense heat.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees for 1 hour before baking is the standard rule.

My gas oven only goes to 500 degrees, but heats up to that temperature in about 20-25 minutes (monitored with an oven thermometer placed on a rack about mid oven), so I typically put the pizza into the oven at about 30 minutes, and bake for about 18 minutes, i.e. when the crust is brown and the top sizzling!

-- Tom

I've been using 6" square quarry tiles (1/2" thick) from ColorTile on the middle shelf of the oven which gives great results.  Using the middle shelf keeps the tiles from being too close to the heating elements which can lead to cracking of the tiles from thermal stress.  I also think you get better heat distribution.

I had 2 tiles of the 6" tiles cut in half which allowed me to tile the 15" x 18" shelf while allowing about an inch all the way around for air circulation.  I also have a 12" square quarry tile that is thicker (3/4") that I use when I'm doing a single large round loaf that does even better for giving oven spring.  I put a shallow pan on the lower shelf where I put hot water before and during the first few minutes of baking.  It is important not to put water on the tiles or directly on the bottom of the oven.  Right now I am looking for thicker tiles to cover the shelf and place on the sides, as I am sure the results will be much better.

sourdough_john

I made the Napoletana pizza dough from Peter Reinhart's "American Pie" book and it was the best thin crust, but not much oven spring in my electric oven without oven tiles.

Now that I am seriously looking at getting tiles for my oven do you remove them or leave them in for regular baking and cooking (cookies, pot roast, etc.)?

-Nancy

I leave my tiles in the oven all the time, no matter what I'm cooking. They are pretty cheap at the home stores and I think I've only had to replace one in the last eight years. Be sure you leave a few inches of clearance on the sides for good air circulation in the oven.

Teresa

My husband just bought me a fibrament stone--I'm a beginning baker--and I'm doing the initial heating of it now. The fumes coming out of it make me very concerned, we've worked hard to make our home as non-toxic as possible and this product seems like it could be very toxic, both in the fumes it produces and in contact with our food. I read the company's statement about how anybody wanting to know the composition of the stone would have to buy the company and now I am incensed. I'm still waiting to hear back from them, but does anybody know of any hard data on the composition of the stone? I'm ready to hurl it back at the company, performance be damned.

The fumes did start to go away even as the temp got higher, and while I still think it's rather inconsiderate of the company to dismiss questions about the stone composition they way they do on the site (yes, I realize they were trying to be funny), I'm starting to think that now that the stone is fully dried, I won't get any more fumes.

I'm glad that they're NSF rated, but I still maintain enough skepticism to question the rating, especially in the face of what my senses are telling me. Like Teflon, for example, which is also intended for culinary use, but over the long term, it's a health threat and an environmental threat. Which is why I was trying to find actual composition info. on the Fibrament stones. I'm hoping they'll write or call back as respectfully as others have indicated and that I can get some more concrete info.

Thanks again for your insight--and your humor.

Rachael