Question

Pizza stones and pizza steels are used to bake pizzas and lead to crispier pizza crust than can be achieved in ovens alone. The pizza stone is simply a slab of stone, and the pizza steel is simply a slab of steel. They are preheated in hot ovens, and once heated, the pizza is placed directly on the stone or steel for baking. Food writer Kenji Alt has recently reported that the steel leads to faster baking of the pizza and a superior crust, and claims this is due to the fact that the baking steel has more thermal energy at 500◦F than the baking stone has at 500◦F. Both the stone and the steel have the same mass (1 kg), the stone has a specific heat of 900 J/(kg · K), and the steel has a specific heat of 400 J/(kg · K). Do you think Kenji’s explanation of the performance differences is correct? If not, is there an alternative factor that might explain the superior performance of the steel? Explain your reasoning in 2 or 3 sentences and state any assumptions behind your argument.

Answer 1

Kenji's explanation is not correct.

Why?

Since stone has a higher specific heat capacity than steel, to raise the temperature to a same level (here 500◦F), the stone will have more thermal energy and not steel.

Alternative factor that might explain the superior performance of the steel

A factor which can be the reason for the superior performance of steel is that it is a better conductor of heat than stone.