A baking steel is a flat slab of carbon steel that sits in your oven and does the job a pizza oven’s floor does: it soaks up heat during the preheat and passes it into the base of the pizza when the dough lands. Thickness doesn’t make the steel any hotter. It changes how much heat the steel can store, how long it takes to heat through, how long it takes to come back up after a pizza, and how much it weighs.
What thickness changes
The heat a steel stores is proportional to its mass. On the same footprint, a 3/8-inch plate stores 50% more heat than a 1/4-inch plate, and a 1/2-inch plate stores twice as much.
That cuts both ways:
- Holding temperature. Each pizza draws heat out of the steel. A thicker plate has more in reserve, so a single pizza drops its temperature less.
- Coming back up. Once a thick plate has cooled, the oven has more metal to reheat. Modernist Pizza puts it plainly: thick steels hold their temperature better than thin ones, but take longer to preheat and to recover from a drop.
- Preheat and weight. More metal takes longer to heat through and is heavier to install.
How those trade-offs play out depends on your oven, how many pizzas you bake and how long you wait between them, so treat the “suits” column below as a starting point rather than a capacity rating.
Thickness at a glance
| Thickness | Weight, 14 × 16 in | Weight, 16 × 16 in | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3/16 in (4.8 mm) | 11.9 lb | 13.6 lb | Occasional single pizzas |
| 1/4 in (6.4 mm) | 15.9 lb | 18.1 lb | One or two pizzas at a time |
| 3/8 in (9.5 mm) | 23.8 lb | 27.2 lb | Several pizzas in a session |
| 1/2 in (12.7 mm) | 31.8 lb | 36.3 lb | Long sessions, if you can handle the weight |
Weights are calculated from the density of carbon steel (7.85 g/cm³); a maker’s listed weight will differ a little with the exact size and edges. The Baking Steel Pro, a 16 × 16-inch, 3/8-inch plate, is listed at 27 lb, which matches.
What Modernist Pizza recommends
The book’s conclusion is that a dark (not shiny) steel plate 12 mm thick, just under 1/2 inch, gives the best crust, though it is very heavy, and that a 10 mm plate also works very well, is far more manageable and preheats faster. A 3/8-inch plate is 9.5 mm, so it sits in that lighter category.
Why steel works
Carbon steel conducts heat far better than a pizza stone; Modernist Pizza puts a baking steel’s thermal conductivity at more than five times a stone’s. How fast a surface pushes heat into dough also depends on its density and heat capacity, and steel is dense, so it delivers stored heat into the base quickly. That’s why a steel can brown the underside of a pizza in a home oven that tops out around 500 to 550°F.
Two practical consequences:
- Cast iron is a fine alternative. Modernist Pizza says baking pizza in cast-iron pans and planchas works just as well as a steel and is more economical. Check the size and weight of the particular griddle before you buy, since they vary a lot.
- Plain carbon steel is the usual choice for baking steels. Stainless steel conducts heat less well, and most baking steels are made from carbon steel.
Sizing it to your oven
Measure the rack, not the oven. Leave space on every side so hot air can circulate, check that the door still closes with the steel in place, and follow your oven’s guidance on what its racks can carry. A 16 × 16-inch, 3/8-inch plate weighs 27 lb, and two plates add up quickly: from Baking Steel’s listed weights, two 1/4-inch Originals come to 30 lb, an Original and a Pro to 42 lb, and two Pros to 54 lb. Check the rack’s load before you commit. Baking Steel asks owners to confirm their oven can support its heavier plates.
Put the steel in and take it out only when the oven and the steel are completely cool. Steel holds heat for a long time after the oven is off, and makers’ instructions call for letting it cool fully before handling. Most people leave the steel in the oven between uses.
Brands
Sizes and weights as each seller lists them, checked October 14, 2026. They are not our measurements, and prices change often, so check the seller.
| Steel | Size | Thickness | Listed weight | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baking Steel Original | 16 × 14 in | 1/4 in | 15 lb | Baking Steel |
| Baking Steel Pro | 16 × 16 in | 3/8 in | 27 lb | Baking Steel |
| NerdChef Steel Stone | 16 × 14.25 in | 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2 in | 16, 23 or 32 lb | Amazon: 1/4 in, 3/8 in |
| Dough-Joe Shogun | 15 × 15 in | 3/8 in | about 24 lb | Amazon |
| Steelmade Pizza Baking Steel | 14 × 16 in | 1/4 in | 17 lb | Steelmade |
NerdChef’s size is from its maker’s page; its Amazon title gives 14.5 inches, so measure your rack if space is tight. The Shogun’s weight comes from its Amazon listing. Beyond thickness and size, these differ in finish, edges, handles and the factory seasoning. Follow each maker’s own care and seasoning instructions for its product.
A plate from a metal supplier
A baking steel is essentially a flat piece of mild steel, and some people have one cut to size by a local supplier. A supplier may quote less for raw plate, but compare the delivered, finished cost with a ready-to-use baking steel. If you go that route, talk to the supplier about your use: ask for plain, untreated carbon-steel plate with no galvanizing, paint, coating or oil residue, and suitable for contact with food once cleaned. If you can’t establish that, buy a steel sold as cookware instead. Smooth any sharp, cut edges before use, and season it following a maker’s published procedure; Baking Steel’s care guide seasons its plates at 400°F.
Preheat and placement
Baking Steel’s broiler method puts the steel on an upper rack, about 6 to 8 inches below the broiler, so the steel cooks the base while the broiler browns the top. Check which rack positions and broiler use your oven’s manual allows.
Then heat it properly. An oven’s air comes up to temperature quickly, but its walls and anything heavy inside take much longer. In Modernist Pizza’s infrared photos, an oven that had beeped “ready” after 22 minutes still showed clear cold spots, which is why they recommend preheating for at least 30 minutes. A thick steel needs longer: the Pizza Planner allows 45 to 60 minutes at the oven’s hottest setting, usually 500 to 550°F, and Baking Steel’s own instructions for its 3/8-inch Pro call for 60 to 75 minutes. Follow your steel’s instructions where they differ.
An infrared thermometer is handy, but bare or shiny metal reads low on most of them. A well-seasoned, dark surface reads more reliably. Use readings to compare one session with the next rather than to chase the number on the dial.
Two steels
Baking Steel describes a two-steel broiler method for long sessions. It works like a production line: each pizza starts on a steel on the upper rack, near the broiler, and moves down to a second steel on a lower rack to finish while the next pizza starts above. The maker says this can turn out about 20 pizzas an hour, which is its own result with overlapping bakes, not something we have tested.
Before trying it, check that your racks can carry both plates and what your oven’s manual allows for broiler use. Move the pizzas between racks, never the hot steels.
Steel or stone?
For pizza in a home oven, steel browns the base faster than a stone. A stone is lighter and won’t rust. The full comparison is in pizza stone vs. pizza steel. If you bake in a portable pizza oven rather than a kitchen oven, the comparison changes, and the oven guide covers those.
Sources
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1, printed pages 389–393: preheating and cold spots, steel against stone, thick and thin steels, the 12 mm and 10 mm conclusion, and cast iron.
- Baking Steel: Original and Pro product pages (sizes, weights, preheat), care and seasoning guide, and its two-steel method. Checked October 14, 2026.
- NerdChef: Steel Stone product page (sizes, weights, cooling before handling). Checked October 14, 2026.
- Dough-Joe Shogun: its Amazon listing (15 × 15 × 3/8 in, 24 lb). Checked October 14, 2026.
- Steelmade: Pizza Baking Steel product page. Checked October 14, 2026.