I regret every day I've made pizza without a @BakingSteel

—Nick Kindelsperger (@nickdk)

Four years ago to the day — which I just realized as I was writing this ? — I wrote about the Baking Steel, a flat slab of food-grade steel that works like a traditional pizza stone but is more heat-conductive and far more durable. J. Kenji López-Alt himself once called it “the most impressive home pizza product I've ever tested.”

The version of it I'm linking today, the Modernist Cuisine Baking Steel, isn't new. (In fact, I believe they released it a few months before my original post.) But it's still worth a mention since, at 22 pounds and ⅜" thick, it basically splits the difference between the 15lb original (¼") and the whopping 30lb "Big" (½") model.

What this amounts to is even better heat retention than the original Steel, without jumping all the way up to the 30-pound mark. Not that I would consider 22 pounds "light" for any kitchen tool, but those 8 pounds do make a difference. Having the minds of Modernist Cuisine behind its design doesn't hurt either.

Get this version of the Baking Steel for $109 on Amazon. Happy pizza making! ?