The Adventure of the Pizza Steel

The pizza joint  down the road specializes in Napoli pizza and the toppings are amazing. Pear, prosciutto, and blue cheese. Artichoke, ham and fior de latte. Pancetta and crispy Brussels sprouts. Rosemary roasted potatoes and slow cooked onions - like a perogy on a pizza. I kid you not. So good.

Part of the appeal is the crust. A proper Napoli pizza dough takes 2 days to proof. Also, instead of regular mozzarella, you use the softer, more delicate fior di latte and top it off with just a few high quality ingredients.

I love this pizza so much. But sometimes I can’t be bothered to get in the car and drive to pick it up. (That's what happens after a year and a half in a pandemic.) I mean, surely I could do this at home. How hard could it be?

I read about a million recipes and watched endless videos to get ready. There’s even an International Napoli Pizza Regulation website that’s a little over the top but gives you an idea about how serious some people are about their pizza. The art of  making Napoli pizza is even included on UNESCO's list of "intangible cultural heritage." I’m telling you, seriously good pizza.

The actual making of the dough doesn’t take long, with only 4 ingredients: flour, water, salt, a little yeast. No sugar and no oil. But you do have to plan ahead. Not my strong suit.

Undaunted by all the rules and regs, I decided to go for it. After 2 days in the fridge my dough was ready and so was I.

I preheated my oven to 500º F with my pizza stone on the floor of my oven. I cooked the Margherita pizza for 6 minutes and then transferred it to the top rack and broiled it for 2 minutes. Topped it with fresh basil. Exquisite.

I declared the experiment a success, except for one thing. My pizza stone got so hot sitting on the bottom of the oven, that it cracked right down the middle. I shed a tear or two as I said goodby to my perfectly seasoned, 25 year-old stone.

The search for steel

Hmm. I didn't want to sacrifice any more stones to the pizza gods so I decided to purchase a pizza steel. The idea is that you heat the steel in the oven for 45 minutes until it gets super hot. When you place the pizza on the stone, the heat transfer is pretty close to replicating a pizza oven in Italy. Especially if you're listening to Con Te Partirò or Mambo Italiano.

Should be easy, right? They are readily available, but the problem is they cost upwards of $169. Paul shook his head in disbelief, “It’s just a chunk of steel. We could probably just make one.”

Could we? I wondered. I started calling local metal fabricators asking for a 14”x16” A36 steel plate to make pizza on. After a couple of dead ends, I lucked out with Tri-City Metal Supply.

“Just come by and I’ll make you one,” said Mike, the metal guru.

So I did. And he did.

Mike used a giant magnet to transfer the steel "plank" to the cutting machine. I don't know if you can see the bend - but this was one heavy piece of steel.

 

 

I originally wanted a 14"x16" piece but the steel comes in a 12" width.

Lubricant and vibrating blading made it easy to cut. Then Mike took it to the back room and smoothed out the edges.

I was now the proud owner of a 20 pound chunk of steel - for 30 bucks - which was dirty and covered with “mill scale.”

 

The steel was covered in a rusty coating called mill scale. It needs to be removed.

The cleaning of the steel

I honestly don’t remember how we did things before the internet. No matter what I decide to DIY, someone has already documented how to do it and posted it. I just had to choose a method to follow. I didn’t have muriatic acid (who does?) but for reasons I won’t go into, I had a few gallons of vinegar. I gave the steel a nice bath for 24 hours.

Paul was 100% on board so after we took it out of its vinegar bath the next day, he scrubbed it with a steel brush. Then we immediately rinsed it with a baking soda solution and hosed it down.

Lots of scrubbing with wire brushes

Nice and clean in baking soda solution and waiting for the rinse

It looked all shiny while we rinsed it, but the rust started to form immediately.

Next we got shop-cloths and quickly wiped it down before popping it into a 450º oven to dry it out as fast as possible. We could actually see the rust starting to form as we rubbed it dry so we had to work fast. And don’t forget, it’s really heavy. I wouldn’t recommend this activity for relationship building if one of you is a perfectionist and the other. . . isn’t.

The seasoning of the  steel

“Seasoning” is defined as baking oil onto metal to form a natural, easy-release cooking surface that helps prevent rusting.

In case you find this stuff as fascinating as I do, Here’s a link on the how and why of seasoning a pan.

In a nutshell, we applied a thin layer of flaxseed oil to all 6 sides, wiped off the excess and then baked it for an hour at 450º. Then we turned the oven off and let the steel cool for a couple of hours. Repeat: Add a thin layer of flaxseed oil. Wipe. Bake. Cool.

The internet people said to do this between 3-6 times. I did it 4 times. And be warned: It stinks as the oil bakes on.

Funny story. I went to 4 stores in search of flaxseed oil and couldn’t find any. I ended up buying a bottle of flaxseed oil capsules. We clipped the ends off a couple of dozen capsules and poured the liquid into a cup. Inefficient, but effective.

There may have been some additives, but it was the best we could do.

Was it worth it?

Yes.
For $30 and a bit of effort, I’ve got a great baking surface. Sure, it doesn’t have dragonflies etched into it and it looks a bit rustic, but it does the job perfectly.

I'm also thinking of building a pizza oven using the steel, a couple of bricks and my BBQ. But I need bricks and I don't want to go to the store. I guess I could make some bricks. . .

What about the dough?

I tried using regular pizza dough on the steel and it was “fine”. But to get a crust with superior flavour and texture, I’ll be be going with the long fermentation period as recommended by the Neapolitan pizza dough nuts. It’s a little more work, especially to hand shape it to the regulation (😂) "35 cm roundish" shape, but definitely worth it. 

According to the rules, you have to shape the dough by hand. For me, this is the hardest part, but one of my children has the patience to do this.

Margherita pizza cooking nicely.

Also got a paddle at the Ming Wo closing out sale. Saves singeing my arm hair off.