NerdChef 3/8" Steel Stone Review

Compared to the complex design of other pizza ovens featured in our review, the NerdChef is exceptional based on its simple design, making it much more affordable and therefore much more accessible to many home chefs. We tested the 3/8"-thick (listed as 0.375"-thick) steel, capable of baking up to 14" pies — though it is much more comfortable baking 12" pizzas. It is important to note that this steel is remarkably hefty for its size, weighing in at 23 pounds.

Performance Comparison

Cooking Performance

Ceramic pizza stones have been a staple of many kitchens for a very long time. While they certainly can produce adequate homemade pizzas, it is always apparent that the pie did not come out of a professional pizza oven. Even though a ceramic stone helps crisp the bottom crust better than an aluminum baking sheet, it still often takes more than 10 minutes. And in a dry oven environment, that often leads to stiff crusts and withered toppings.

We were skeptical of the NerdChef Steel at first. How is it possible to change the final product so drastically when you are only swapping out what amounts to the base of your oven? Well, we admit our first impressions were proved entirely wrong. This pizza steel is, in fact, capable of producing nearly perfect, Neapolitan-style pizzas from your average oven. Although the crust is not quite as pocketed as other highly ranked ovens, it is still soft, light, and airy. Our friends consistently remarked that this is by far the best pizza they've ever had from a standard range oven.

The NerdChef takes considerably longer to preheat than most dedicated pizza ovens — the 3/8" steel takes at least 45 minutes underneath the broiler to reach average center stone temperatures of 752°F. Though it is much more time-consuming to heat, this is incredible considering that even at maximum output, our oven only reached an average internal air temperature of 574°F. These temps show that this simple innovation is working as it should: to absorb heat and directly transfer that into cooking fantastic pizzas.

Output Power

We are almost certain that the NerdChef Steel inventors and our testers have shared the experience of poorly baked homemade pizza. Instead of settling for subpar pies, the designers harness carbon steel's conductivity and heat capacity to cook pizzas faster and at higher temperatures. NerdChef claims that these steels have twice the heat capacity and 20 times more conductivity than your average pizza stone. While we have no reasonable way of verifying these claims, the results speak for themselves.

Steel has a significantly higher density than any stoneware and a much higher conductive capacity. Effectively working as a BlackBox radiator in your oven, the NerdChef Steel Stone will capture radiative heat put out by the broiler, and in turn, transfer that energy conductively to your homemade dough. This quick heat transfer results in a fast-rising crust that is softer, airier, and considerably less dry due to its decreased baking time.

By positioning the Steel Stone on the highest rung of the oven, directly underneath the broiler, you can effectively shrink the cooking space of your oven to bake more efficiently. Although it takes quite a long time to preheat, this steel has an even heat profile similar to a finely crafted cast iron skillet. The evenness of the output energy is somewhat dependent on your oven. Still, the steel averages 686°F — just under that of some of the best Neapolitan-style ovens we tested — and often has a center temperature in the range of 750°F, the ideal temperature for this style of pizza.

Control

Control is a bit of a funny metric for this particular design, and it earned an average score due to its reliance on the quality of your home oven. We recognize that rather than being a standalone oven, the NerdChef Steel relies on the capacities of your range oven. Obviously, the better quality the oven, the more likely it is that this pizza steel will help you churn out beautiful pies. However, some critical aspects to the design greatly benefit your control over this Steel Stone.

The thickness of this precision-cut steel offers excellent temperature consistency across its surface, producing beautifully charred crusts that crackle when you cut into them. By taking several measurements with an infrared thermometer and then using a standard deviation method to compare it to pizza stones in other ovens, the NerdChef Steel will arguably cook your crust more evenly than some of the top models we tested. One downside to this pizza steel is it is incredibly heavy. While the company recommends lowering the oven rack if the pizza is cooking unevenly, we can't quite imagine safely maneuvering an awkward, 23 pound, 750°F piece of steel.

Ease of Use

The NerdChef definitely has its pros and cons. Likely, the above recommendation to try various rack levels to control temperature and cooking time from one firing to the next is a sound one. But based on the weight alone, it is not a bad idea to consider leaving this steel in your oven full-time. Relative to other options, the NerdChef Steel could be regarded as lightweight; many dedicated pizza ovens tip the scales at more than 30 pounds. On top of that, this steel certainly requires much less setup than most other options.

Since you are not dealing with actual fire, among other concerns of high-fire ovens, this simple pizza steel is much more accessible to your regular at-home cook or baker. Some recommend baking pizzas on a convection setting and then switching over to broil to finish the toppings off. However, we had success — and significantly improved baking times — by simply cooking the pizzas under the broiler the entire time. Although the average three-minute cook times don't exactly give you the time to prep pizzas to cook in back-to-back rounds, it is best to allow both the steel and your oven to come back up to optimal temperatures between firings anyway.

Should You Buy the NerdChef 3/8" Steel Stone?

The NerdChef Steel is an altogether simple design compared to some of the other best pizza ovens we've covered in this review. As a result, it is much less expensive than other options while remaining a remarkable competitor in terms of performance. Suppose you only really plan to cook pizzas at home, or you live in a smaller space. In that case, this relatively inexpensive accessory may be your entry point to baking Neapolitan-style pizzas.

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