The best pizza stones you can buy

Why you’ll love it: The Love This Kitchen Ultimate 16-inch Round Pizza Stone features a helpful stopper that makes it easy to remove the pizza and grab the stone.

The pizzerias make using a pizza peel look so simple. They just shove it under the pizza and pull it out. Yet, you know this seemingly effortless skill takes plenty of practice if you’ve ever sent a pizza flying to the back of your oven.

Enter the Love This Kitchen Ultimate 16-inch Round Pizza Stone with its raised no-slip stopper. With this, you have a lip that blocks the pizza from falling off the stone, saving your oven a self-cleaning mode or two.

This stone also has a unique design on the bottom that directs the heat so the center cooks first. This is helpful because the center of the pizza is usually the last part to cook. The stone is also an impressive 0.83 inches thick and can withstand temperatures up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Love This Kitchen backs the quality of this product with a 60-day full refund if not satisfied and a limited lifetime guarantee.

Best Reviews recommends the Love This Kitchen Ultimate Pizza Stone because the no-spill stopper did an excellent job of keeping the pizza from sliding off in their tests. However, the reviewer did note that the stone produced an off-putting chemical odor.

Cookware Junkies recommends this stone because the porous cordierite does absorb the moisture well to create crunchy crusts. Yet, the reviewer found that it was too large for some ovens. In its review, Morning Chores notes that the stone makes excellent cookies, flatbread, and baked bread.

Approximately 85% of the people who reviewed the Love This Kitchen Ultimate Pizza Stone on Amazon gave it a positive rating. Vicente Velazco, the most helpful reviewer, gave it five stars because the stopper makes it easy to get your pizza on the peel, and it distributes heat evenly and retains the heat. He didn’t like that he couldn’t wash the stone like other pans since the porous surface retains the odor of soap.

Buyers also appreciate that the stopper makes the stone easier to move around, but one reviewer noted that the lip doesn’t heat up as quickly as the rest the unit.

Pros: Features a stopper that makes moving the stone and removing the pizza easier, produces a crispy crust, handles temps up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit

Cons: Complaints of a chemical odor, your oven must be at least 17 inches deep

Buy the Love This Kitchen Ultimate 16-inch Round Pizza Stone (Stone Only) on Amazon for $41.90 Buy the Love This Kitchen Ultimate 16-inch Round Pizza Stone (Stone and Peel) on Amazon for $59.95 Buy the Love This Kitchen Ultimate 16-inch Round Pizza Stone (Stone, Peel, and Cutter) on Amazon for $72.95

Why you’ll love it: If you are looking for an affordable, non-traditional pizza stone, consider buying the evenly heating Lodge 14-inch Cast Iron Baking Pan.

Many experts consider Lodge to be the best manufacturer of cast iron cookware, and the Lodge 14-inch Cast Iron Baking Pan appears to be no exception. This “stone” comes pre-seasoned and is designed for decades of cooking.

As with other cast iron, you wash it by hand, dry it promptly, and wipe it down with a light layer of cooking oil. The pan features two large handles on either side for easy removal from the oven. A rim around the edge keeps ingredients from spilling onto the oven bottom.

Serious Eats recommends the Lodge 14-inch Cast Iron Baking Pan over traditional pizza stones because it’s more durable and produces better crusts. The reviewer also liked how the built-in handles made it easy to move. However, he didn’t like that the rim made it hard to slide pizzas on and off.

The reviewer at Wide Open Eats recommends this pan because she was impressed with the nonstick properties of the Lodge and appreciated the fresh taste offered by a seasoned cast iron pan.

More than 1,600 Amazon buyers have left five-star reviews of the Lodge 14-inch Cast Iron Baking Pan. The most helpful review comes from Chef TK. He recommends the pan because it’s easy to clean, heats evenly, doesn’t stain, makes the best pizza he’s had, is pre-seasoned, and can be used for a variety of purposes. The only negative he found was its weight.

Another buyer said she had to do a fair amount of work to get the cast iron seasoned, but once it was, it produced restaurant-quality dosas.

Pros: Affordable, even heating, nonstick, cleans up easily

Cons: Rim may make it hard to slide pizzas off

Buy the Lodge 14-inch Cast Iron Baking Pan on Amazon for $39.90 (originally $60)

Why you’ll love it: The Original Baking Steel is essentially a slab of steel with a matte finish that can cook your pies quickly and deliciously.

In the book series "Modernist Cuisine," author Nathan Myhrvold notes that compared to a brick oven’s stone, steel is a more conductive surface. Pizza lover and steel company worker Andris Lagsdin read this and used a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch The Original Baking Steel.

This is essentially a 14-by-16-by-¼-inch slab of steel that weighs a hefty 15 pounds. It comes pre-seasoned and works under the broiler, on the grill, and in the oven in temperatures up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also freeze it to use the steel as a cold plate.

Cook’s Illustrated recommends The Original Baking Steel because it radiated heat more intensely than traditional stones in their testing, which gave pizza crust a flavorful charring and taller profile and cut down on baking times in their tests. Yet, the bottom of the crust may brown too quickly if you are not closely monitoring it.

The reviewer at Chowhound was surprised by her home oven’s ability to deliver high-quality pies when using this steel. Though she recommends it, the reviewer notes that the steel is hard to store, heavy, and expensive.

Around 92% of the people who reviewed The Original Baking Steel on Amazon gave it four or five stars. Rupert noted that the slab of steel differs from something you could get from a metal shop because it has nice rounded corners and a beautiful matte finish, which does an excellent job of holding seasoning oil. He did find that you have to clean it after each use to avoid black soot building up.

Others recommend cranking the oven up to its highest temperature and letting the steel preheat for up to an hour before putting your pizza in. Pizzas take between five and 10 minutes according to several buyers.

Pros: Durable, quickly cooks pizzas with delicious crusts, attractive appearance

Cons: Expensive, heavy, hard to store

Buy The Original Baking Steel (1/4 inch Thick) on Amazon for $79 (originally $89) Buy The Big Baking Steel (1/2 inch Thick) on Amazon for $129 Buy The Original Baking Steel (3/8 inch Thick) on Amazon for $99 Buy The Original Baking Steel (16 inch Round) on Amazon for $109

Why you’ll love it: The Old Stone Oven Rectangular Pizza Stone has a track record of not only producing mouthwatering ‘za, but it has also proven that it can help with bread, meat, and other baking.

At a little under 10 pounds, the Old Stone Oven Rectangular Pizza Stone is relatively light compared to the other stones featured in our guide. The light weight along with the built-in feet make it easier to remove from the oven. At 16 by 14 inches, it should fit most ovens.

Made of cordierite, the stone is designed to also work on your grill. It has a heat core that helps the center of your pizza cook faster for a more even bake. The company Honey-Can-Do recommends using this for pizza as well as vegetables, breads, and desserts.

The Old Stone Oven Pizza Baking Stone is Cook’s Illustrated’s most highly recommended pizza stone. The reviewer appreciated that dark and light turkey meat cooked evenly on it, and bread and pizza were crisp and deeply golden brown. Also, the raised feet built into it made it effortless to maneuver and grab. For nearly a decade, this stone has held up in the test kitchen.

More than 1,000 Amazon buyers have left four- or five-star reviews of the Old Stone Oven Rectangular Pizza Stone. The most helpful reviewer gave the stone one star and complained of a foul chemical smell that was so strong, he had to give up on the product. This does not appear to be a common complaint, though.

Many of the reviews focus on its ability to produce impeccable crust. One buyer found that storing the stone in his aged oven did a great job of helping other baked goods come out better.

Pros: Relatively light, heats evenly, durable

Cons: The built-in feet may sit unevenly on your oven rack

Buy the Old Stone Oven Rectangular Pizza Stone on Amazon for $30.09 (originally $49.99)