safety of using chamotte stone from hardware supplies store for baking
Should I be concerned about heavy metal poisoning when I use said chamotte stone in an electric home oven? The dough would be placed directly on the hot stone.
I didn't want to buy a dedicated Baking Stone, because the dimensions didn't match as well as the prices seemed to be too high. So I picked up a chamotte plate from a hardware store.
Best Answer
General consensus is that you should not use something that is not food safe for cooking.
And in particular something made for construction/building, it probably contains lot of non-food safe chemicals, and they are probably not obligated to list the ingredients; so you do not know what is inside.
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Which stone can be used in oven?
Ceramic: This classic baking stone absorbs moisture during baking and delivers a crispy crust. However, if not handled carefully, these stones can crack or break. This option is also the most cost effective one.What is chamotte stone?
Grog, also known as firesand and chamotte, is a raw material for making ceramics. It has a high percentage of silica and alumina. It is normally available as a powder or chippings, and is an important ingredient in Coade stone.Can I keep baking stone in oven?
Yes. You can avoid a lot of hoisting and heaving by simply leaving them in the oven on a rack most of the time, where they act as what engineers call \u201cthermal ballast\u201d to help hold the oven temperature steady. This may add a few minutes to preheating times, but it will improve the steadiness of your oven's heat.What happens if you put a stone in the oven?
When you throw a cold pizza stone into a hot oven, your stone experiences the dreaded "thermal shock," which basically means your stone can't handle large temperature changes. Since it's usually made of ceramic, that can cause a fracture in the stone. Sometimes it's evident immediately.Pizza Stone Bricks VS Steel (15% Cooking difference)
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Answer 2
I'm going to disagree with Max and say that I would use it. My current baking stone is a slab of cordierite ceramic made for ceramic kilns, the same material many baking stones are made from. I got it because custom-cut kiln shelf is less expensive than a custom-cut baking stone.
However, there is a serious risk there. For both chamotte and cordierite, there is the possibility that the material contains traces of toxic heavy metals, particularly since they are good at absorbing metals from the environment. Supposedly, ceramic materials sold for food preparation are tested to make sure that they don't contain any, whereas ones used for other purposes are not.
My personal experience, though, is that (at least in the US) testing practices around things like baking stones are extremely lax, and I made the assessment that I was not reducing my risk by using a stone made "for cooking". I cannot back that with any science, though, so this is a personal assessment of risk. And if you're cooking for someone with elevated risk (such as someone with kidney disease), even the smallest risk isn't worth it.
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