THERMICHEF by Conductive Cooking Square Pizza Steel (3/8" Deluxe Version, 14"x14" Square)

If you want to make NY style pizza in your home oven, the Thermichef pizza steel is for you - look at that crust - you can't get this with a pizza stone! Just be sure to measure the depth and width of your oven before you select a size. My oven just barely accommodates the 16" X 16" steel

Crisps the bottom of the pizza wonderfully, and seasoning adheres to the steel quite securely! It is pretty heavy and awkward though. Also, the edges aren't bevelled like I think they should be. Which makes it kind of rough around the edges. It also holds onto heat extremely well. (Kind of the point) But I'm finding it to be overkill, because I don't often throw "pizza parties" with people over. The 1/4in thick one would likely have suited me just fine for heat retention/transference and due to it being thinner and lighter, would rebound quickly anyway. In hindsight, I think I shouldve went with the 1/4 inch thick model. Maybe I will gift this one, and get the 1/4in thick model in the future! We'll see! If you love pizza, this is a fantastic kitchen tool and will improve the crisp of your home made pies a lot! (Works for breads too) It was great, but wasn't IDEAL for me, so it gets a 3 star. But it could be a 4 or 5 for you, so give it a try!

I got the XL size because I wanted to be able to use it as a 2-burner griddle, and for that, it works perfectly. Just in the first few days of owning it, I cooked 6 tortillas at once for tacos, browned 3 lbs of chicken in one go, and slowly caramelized 6 onions while keeping other pots and pans free for other tasks. For pizza, its intended use, it produces crisp crusts like a champ, and its size and shape make it perfect for chilling and using as a pastry slab for croissants. It's the ultimate "pan" for cooking for a crowd, and it makes my 12-inch cast iron skillet look small and cramped by comparison. Downsides? It's a thick slab of steel. It is quite heavy and, despite its versatility, it isn't enjoyable to move from oven to stove to fridge to counter all the time. Second, it takes a long, long time to properly heat and cool, which is why I wouldn't want to leave it in the oven permanently. Its heat sink abilities work against you in this way; it takes a lot for this thing to change temperature, and that's good if you're making bread or keeping something cold, but it's also a drag when you're trying to get it up to temp. If I'm using it as a griddle, I'll turn on the burners before I even get out the flour to mix the tortilla dough. Definitely not good for impromptu or short-notice cooking. These downsides come from the same qualities that make this steel so great, so they're not at all surprising. This is a tool that is both versatile and specialized: versatile because its ability to store heat on a large surface is useful in myriad applications, but specialized because that ability to store heat comes with some significant practical drawbacks for everyday cooking. This steel will get you great results for a particular set of tasks, and if you have the ability and luxury to plan ahead, it can't be beat.

I have been making pizza at home for a very long time. I have used several different kinds of stones all with decent results. I kept hearing about the steel but I didn’t see anyone talk about it being so much better. It is so much better! I heat it for a good hour before use. It cooks the pizza quicker and it produces a much nicer bottom crust. I leave it in the oven and for other uses, I just do normal preheat and It helps to stabilize the temperature. Seasoning is not a big deal, it delayed me but don’t let it delay you. This is a good value. But beware, it is heavy, much heavier than the stones.

I’m not sure if the 3/8” steel was overkill, but it got the job done very well. We made 5 pizzas in the oven back to back. Each one took around 7 minutes at 500 degrees to cook. The bottom of the pizzas were brown and crispy, and everyone in the family loved them. I personally would’ve liked for them to have more char to them, I will try letting the steel heat up for longer next time as we only let it heat up for about 45 minutes. Hopefully that will result in some char forming on the bottom, but either way the pizzas came out excellent.