Introducing ChefSteel
According to the strict rules of the Neapolitan Pizza Association (AVPN) the real Neapolitan pizza should baked within 1-1.5 minutes at over 450 Celsius. One would run to the family's precious oven, that the secret behind the perfect pizza is revealed, only to find out, a home oven is only capable of reaching 250 Celsius. NOTHING IS LOST! The solution lies in the speed and consistency we can delivery that heat to the pizza in order to bake it quick enough not to dry out, but still have a crispy bottom.
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Heat conductivity
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The legendary Neapolitan brick oven builder, Stefano Ferrara, uses bricks made out of the ash of the Vesuvius on the bottom of his ovens to create a surface that can guarantee the 90 second baking time. Many of us use baking stones in our oven to bake bread and pizza, but at 250 Celsius a better heat conductor is needed to create that desirable crust.
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The A36 carbon steel material which ChefSteel is made from is 18 times better at conducting heat than ceramic baking surfaces. In turn, it is much better than stainless steel as well. This is one of the main reasons why you can bake Neapolitan style pizza on your ChefSteel even at 250 Celsius-it retains heat!
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Heat capacity
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One other big secret of Italian pizza ovens is that their temperature is incredibly stable. This means they don't even need to put a door on their ovens. True, it takes hours to heat them up but once they are hot, they stay hot until the next day. The main reason for this thermo-stability is the sheer weight of the pizza ovens. On the other hand, once we open the door of a domestic oven, the temperature drops tens of degrees instantly. This is why ChefSteel is a great option for those home chefs who need to maintain and stabilise the heat of their ovens!
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ChefSteel's weight (due to the 6 or 10mm thickness) balances great heat capacity with a heat up time of 30-40 minutes. It is capable of keeping our oven's temperature very stable which allows you to bake one pizza right after another without any breaks, this is especially good if you are doing a pizza party! If you are extreme ChefSteel users like us, we leave our ChefSteel on the bottom shelf of our oven which helps us cook anything more evenly, including veggies and any type of meat. We especially love heating up our oven baked fish fingers on ours, leaving them beautifully cooked and super crispy on the outside!
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