ottawa foodies

Now that we've all had the opportunity to get reacquainted with our ovens (if that was ever an issue), some of you may have noticed that you aren't getting even heat throughout or would like to get better performance.

I took a big sheet of soapstone that I had kicking around the shop, covered it in tinfoil and stuck it at the bottom of the oven as a big heatsink. It holds onto the heat during pre-heating and helps distribute it in a more even fashion during cooking. The soapstone itself should be pretty easy to clean, but I'd been using it as a drilling base, and it has a lot of grooves in it. That's the only reason I covered it with tinfoil.

I've been keeping all the odd bits and bobs of soapstone from my DrinkPucks creation and now have 20 pounds! I thought I'd offer them as 2 10-pound lots to whomever wants to do something similar. Just put the pieces into one of those aluminum takeout trays you can get at the grocery store, cover it with foil and you are pretty well doing the same thing.

It will increase your pre-heat times, so you might want to only use it when you are doing fussy baking or long-term baking. Up to you, obviously.

No charge, but you have to get your own oven-safe container(s).

I'm going to probably have enough to make 3 more lots by the end of the month. Send me a private message if you are interested and I'll start a list based on order of interest.

I'm also looking at the idea of making big sheets of soapstone with grooves in it for grill tops/BBQs, with one flat side for pizza or flatbread baking. This may not happen, because the cost of materials is almost $60/ft². Making an 18" round grilling stone for a BGE would be an investment of about $130 before I even start to work on it. Depending, I'd probably have to charge $200. I think that's a bit outrageous for a BBQ grill top. Maybe not. I don't know. Even heat distribution, no flare ups, easy to clean (if a bit heavy), naturally non-stick with a bit of oil.

I keep a pizza stone and baking steel on the bottom rack of my oven for a similar effect. They're both too large and heavy to store anywhere in my kitchen, so that's a second bonus!

Brazilianice.com

I know a guy who does custom-sized cuts of really heavy gauge rolled steel - but he only does it for the club :-) He manages a local machine shop and when things slow down he'll do custom runs of these things. He takes your measurements and lays it all out with a CAD program for a big sheet of the metal, and that feeds it right into the computer that runs the cutter. It does any rectangle with either square or rounded edges, as well as any sized circle (with circle pricing set to the square that it would fit into, because of the greater wastage).

I got 2 different sizes for my big green egg, a couple of different sized pizza steels for my oven, as well as some really small pieces for my Coleman stove which I have not tried yet but i'm hoping will fix the heat distribution problems I have with really large carbon steel pans. I think all told it was all about 60 bucks.

These suckers are heavy as hell. But I guess this info does not really do you any good unless you are in the club :-) But if you happen to know someone who works in a machine shop you can ask them about doing something similar. Seems like it is really easy to do for someone in the position.

Thanks, Bobby.
Shit.
I guess I need to find a way to get my stone cheaper.

Still, anyone wants those stone bits just let me know.

Here's a pic for those who wanted more info.

just a newbie here .... but if your using a true electric convection oven ... this will burn out your hidden bottom element, and will cause a huge heat build up during self clean ..

d-mo

If you are using a convection oven you should not need this because heat by definition will be even

Yes. Obviously.

This idea was for people who really NEED it. If your oven works well or has a convection option, you wouldn't be enticed.

You would take it out during self clean. Again, obviously.
Not on the bottom of the oven, on the bottom rack. This isn't rocket surgery.

Rocket surgery, I like that!

I finally got a few stores to carry my new CavePlates™.

So far, Manotick Village Butcher, Kitchenalia, and Brian's Butchery (née, Around the Block Butcher Shop).

I have 2 sizes:

ICE CavePlate™
9"x6" with cork feet
Good for cheeses, charcuterie, cool drinks. Put in the fridge for an hour before use to chill.
$30

FIRE CavePlate™
9"x12"
Barbeque topper will sear a couple of steaks, cook a dozen huge shrimps, 6 burgers, 6 strips of bacon (easily). I use 2 when making pizza.
$60

Unlike a lot of other stone out there, soapstone will not crack with the heat. They use this stuff to make ovens!

As always, my contact info is in my profile. I deliver. It's all part of the Really Horrible™ service guarantee.
"We're not happy until you're not happy."

... or something.

I wonder if you can use this trick to use the oven to make yogurt in a pot? Heat up the oven with the stones inside, then turn off and when it's warm put in the pot of innoculated milk.

Well, sure you could. However, it isn't necessary in my experience. Just the light in the oven is usually enough. The problem is that you want it to be warm, but not too warm. Heating the stone up would certainly radiate heat for a while. Start it at the lowest temperature of your oven when you begin to scald the milk, then turn the oven off before you put the milk in the oven. That should certainly be enough to get it going. Leave the light on, though.

Water is your best heat sink in this application. In fact I already posted videos about it in this thread

Forum - making yogurt?

Thanks Zym.