Better pizza

Making better pizza is a journey rather than a destination.  One of my correspondents recommends a pizza stone of steel!

- A 1/2" thick piece of A36 steel cut to fit on your home oven rack is better than any pizza stone.  Preheat for 1 hr at max temp your oven will do.  Most fabricators will do this for you.  Just make sure you wash the hell out of it before first use.

- All pizza/bread doughs using commercial yeasts (dry instant yeast, dry active yeast, fresh cake yeast) are MUCH better (tasting and handling) if you do a day (or more) retarded fermentation in the fridge.  You'll need to cut down the amount of yeast used and take the dough out of the fridge a couple of hours before use.

I've used mine for a few years now and haven't seasoned it.  However, it is VERY dry here in Denver, as I'm sure you know.  Obviously, seasoning wouldn't hurt.

I'm not a steel industry guy, but have practiced environmental engineering for 30 odd years, so I'm a bit paranoid.  I think all flat top grills are A36 steel, so no worries there.  I did the following when I got my piece from the fabricator:

- made sure there was no slag left (knocked off any loose sh$t)
- Washed/scrubbed it in the sink with detergent until a white cloth came up clean
- put it in the oven @ 550F for an hour figuring that would burn off an[y] volatiles

So far so good.  My piece weighs about 32 lbs.  If I were to do it again, I'd cut the piece in half perpendicular to its long axis.  It would be much easier to deal with in two 15 lb pieces!