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I've been cooking pizzas at home almost every day for months now, I figured that was as good as they get and dare I say they are quite good.

Recently I had an opportunity to use an oldschool wood fired oven though and that thing could get HOT. I'm not sure how hot exactly since there was nothing I could use to measure the temperature but it could cook a pizza in around 2 minutes as opposed to the 20 minutes it takes at home in my electric oven.

I gotta say, the difference it makes in my usual pizza dough is huge, the ones I made weren't just good but sublime pizza excellence once I got the hang of it.

Now I know for sure that I need to get hotter at home too. I looked around for high temperature ovens but they are damn expensive around here so I figured I could maybe tweak my current oven.

The simplest idea I had was to place a steel plate in direct contact with the bottom heating rods and cook my pizza on that. I'm looking for a suitable plate right now but I'm curious, has anyone tried this? Did it make the required difference?

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    Copper conducts heat better than steel. I'd be concerned about the part of the oven below your metal plate heating to temperatures far beyond its design limit. You're limiting convection here, and that can be hazardous. Wouldn't be too surprised if a slab of steel across the elements didn't blow a thermal fuse somewhere. you may find this Patent interesting: patents.google.com/patent/US4634841 Cover for cooking stove heating element
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Nov 12, 2018 at 1:01
  • I can't comment on the specific method of a steel plate, but I hope you are aware that your oven will not get as hot as the wood fired oven, you will just get a bit of an increase. As long as you know that and are OK with it, happy tweaking!
    – rumtscho ♦
    Nov 12, 2018 at 15:57
  • @rumtscho in theory the maximum temperatue of the oven is dictated by the energy going into the oven vs energy lost through insulation so with improved insulation, the only practical limit would be melting the heating elements or the wiring, neither of which are operating at maximum capacity right now. There are artificial limits too of course, mine is a simple model so I've only spotted a resistive sensor which I plan to tamper with next in case the steel plate doesn't deliver. I minored in electrical engineering, I almost know what I'm doing so no worries!
    – user81993
    Nov 13, 2018 at 17:02

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Using a baking stone is the more traditional approach than steel plate.

Here’s a video showing how to use a pizza stone.

There are some who say it doesn’t foo that much, though.

You can purchase them online or in store at many stores.

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    For pizza, a steel beats a stone. I have both...but don't have an electric oven, so can't comment on the original question.
    – moscafj
    Nov 11, 2018 at 20:02
  • Yeah I've thought about the baking stone but I came across an article a while ago that graphed the temperature of various things being cooked and according to it, the stone doesn't do much anything, didn't even recover the temperature any faster if the oven door was opened during cooking. What I'm hoping for with the steel plate though is due to its much better heat conductivity, I could reach higher cooking temperatures if its in direct contact with the heating elements.
    – user81993
    Nov 11, 2018 at 22:41
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    You need to consider thermal mass as well as conductivity, I think.
    – James McLeod
    Nov 11, 2018 at 22:44
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    @user81993 - I dunno what the article said, but I have a baking stone and I can assure you it's effects are nowhere near "not much of anything". Things bake about twice as fast with baking stone vs without, something about direct contact with heated surface vs heat reflected through the air. it was really easy to overbake stuff till we figured out the timing.
    – Megha
    Dec 22, 2018 at 1:33

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