Been wanting a baking steel recently after seeing them on a few YouTube cooking channels so I reached out to ROC Baking Steel, who make baking steels in OZ, to negotiate a deal for the OzB community. I managed to talk them into doing a 20% off on their 10mm steel for the month of July!
The baking steel on offer is 38 x 36 x 1cm and is flat on one side for making pizza/sourdough and with a griddle channel on the other. If you look at the original baking steel manufacturer in the US @ bakingsteel.com it's roughly equivalent to their Pro model which goes for ~$250AUD.
Why should I get a baking steel?
Baking steels have been a thing in the online cooking community for a few years now as they allow you to get close to pizza oven quality pizzas in a standard home oven, this is because while they won't get as hot as a traditional pizza stone they are better at transferring that heat to the pizza base. They also won't break and they're easier to clean than a pizza stone and it can also be used as a griddle plate for your stovetop.
I figure that by getting one of these I can negate the need for an expensive outdoor pizza oven like the Koda/Roccbox while also giving myself the ability to make smash burgers on my stovetop. So it will save me about $2k and a bunch of storage space.
For some more info on baking steels you can read through this SeriousEats writeup - https://www.seriouseats.com/the-pizza-lab-the-baking-steel-d…
The two videos that really sold me on a getting a baking steel….
How I Bake NY-Style Pizza Without a Pizza Oven - Charlie Anderson
First Person Cooking: Ultra-Smashed Burgers -
J. Kenji López-Alt
Hard question….