Cooking on a stone?

JRP3 · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 386

I'm looking for a flat stone or ceramic that can be placed in the firebox of my fireplace insert to heat up and then pull it out and cook on it. I'll probably start out trying one of those ceramic pizza stones, but I'd like something thicker that would retain heat longer.
Something like this: http://www.hotstones.com/ or this http://www.blackrockgrill.co.uk/ maybe, but cheaper hopefully.
I don't want to just grab any flat rock for fear of water entrapment and explosion, and I don't know if those above can handle the heat of a fireplace insert. Anyone have experience with this concept?
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cynthia · Heavy Crude Joined: May 29, 2005 Posts: 344

I've cracked two pizza stones in my oven using them to make naan (east Indian bread). I preheated the stones but the high heat from the electric element did them in anyway.
I wonder if fire bricks might be a better idea. They come in varying thicknesses. We have the thin pavers on the floor of our cob oven because the store was out of the thicker (I think 3") size. They don't take as long to heat but it seems they cool down faster.
Good thread.
cynthia

strider3700 · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:30 pm Post subject: Re: Cooking on a stone?

my wife calls it raclette. You put the stone in the oven and heat it up then place it on it's stand at the table and use sterno to keep it cooking hot then cook in place.

We've done it a couple of times at her parents. The stones/stands where found at a kitchen store and only cost about $30 last year. The rocks should handle the fire easily. Overall the meals took forever but was a social type of thing. They tasted damn good.
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anthem · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 02, 2005 Posts: 91

I suggest you go to your local brick supplier and buy several fire bricks, the kind that are used to line fireplaces. The come in various sizes/thicknesses. I bought six (9 X 4.5 X 1.25 in) and line the lower rack of my oven with them to bake pizza. The bricks were about $1.50 each. I scrubbed them down with hot water and a stiff brush. I let them dry for a day in the sun before trying to bake on them.

For a fireplace, I would suggest fabricating a metal pan from heavier sheet metal, just the size for the number of brick you need, and lay the bricks in it. Perhaps you can even find a pan just the right size. That will keep the bricks even with each other.

Then, when you want to cook, slide the whole pan with bricks inside into your firebox on top of the coals. You probably need to let the bricks heat for a good half hour, if not longer. Then you should be able to place any sort of dough on the bricks to bake.

After baking, if you're brave you can try to extract the pan of bricks while hot or let it all cool and get it out later. I like to use a putty knife to scrape my bricks after baking to remove any residue from the pizza and other things I bake on them.
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JRP3 · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 386

Thanks for the ideas. It looks as if raclette covers many different ways to heat up raclette cheese, and I don't really want the burners. I thought about the firebrick idea but I'd like to do more than just baking on the stone, grilling as well, and I think I need a smoother tighter grained surface for that. Some research led me to volcanic basalt, which led me to this:
http://www.vermontcountrygrillstone.com/
I think volcanic rock should be able to handle the heat, I may give this a try if I don't find anything else. I'd like something thicker but maybe this will be enough.
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Blacksmith · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: Cooking on a stone?

A cast iron grill will work as well for a fraction of the cost particularly if you can find a used one.
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JRP3 · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 386

I just wonder if the cast iron will hold the heat as long as a stone. I do have a cast iron frying pan I can experiment with, probably will stay hot enough for stir fry.
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anthem · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 02, 2005 Posts: 91

Hey JRP3..

I looked at your grillstone and it sounds good, but that's the point of marketing, is it not? I think the firebrick is your best option, both as a cooking surface and economically speaking. No fire you can build in your fireplace will damage firebrick and the surface of the brick is actually quite smooth and "tight".

I'm afraid you'd be disappointed with the limited surface area of a single grillstone, but maybe you just want to do a couple of shrimp or something. I can tell you, though, that the pictures on the website you posted are fake as a three dollar bill and the text is pure BS. No flat stone is going to produce the grill marks pictured, and the comment "The Grillstone requires very little time to heat up and will retain heat for an extended period of time. " suggests that the stone defies physics. Either the material heats up quickly or it holds heat a long time, not both; that's not how heat capacity works. It's all marketing and I can almost guarantee the product will not work as advertised. Save your money, buy a few bricks and find out how cooking on a solid surface works.

To address the other comments posted about cast iron: Putting a cast iron pan or grill directly in a fire will cause warping and possibly cracks in the iron. This is not recommended. Plus, heating cast iron that way will burn off any seasoning and will cause your food to stick permanently to the pan. You will be very disappointed if you try to cook that way.

I cook for my family on a charcoal grill about 3 or 4 nights a week and am very familiar with the process. We also use cast iron pans heavily and bricks in the oven. I have cooked in a wood furnace using a grill as well, but never a fireplace/hearth exactly. There is definitely a learning curve so if you're thinking this is a replacement for whatever you did before, you're wise to start practicing.
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Blacksmith · Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 4:53 am Post subject: Re: Cooking on a stone?

Colonial Americians cooked on fireplaces and used cast iron extensively.

Any grill, pot, dutch oven or frying pan must be thick and of good enough quality (lack of sand in the iron) to stand direct exposure. The only time you will crack or warp cast iron is if you cool it too quickly.

Now as for loosing the seasoning it will be only lost in that portion exposed to fire. My grill is over an inch thick and has been used in my fire pit for years.
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JRP3 · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 386