Is slate toxic at high temps? For a pizza stone?

[rotuts]

oddly ive been using a 1/2 " piece of slate I got at HDepot for a pizza stone in my oven for a while. its $3.95 or so and i just like it a lot more than the $20 pizza stones that i guess are cement based sold at Cooking Megalomarts.

my stove (gas) is on the Fritz and it might be a while for me to get the 'element' replaced.

I have a Webber 3 burner model outside that has served me well for many years for Beet Can Chicken low and slow ribs etc.

I made Quite Good brownies on it the other day after a through "high temp Burn Off"

i thought smokey brownies might not be the thing, and where I took these two trays of Goodness no one could tell the dif. from these and my ususals.

So I thought i put that slate on the Webber and crank it up for Pizza.

I dont have one of those IR Thingies people have here (yet) then i thought id put the slate directly on those

"Flavor Bars" and start off at min. temp to let the slate expand the Crank Her Up. at full blast on those Bars it has to get Pretty Hot.

Id wear Goggles incase it shatters etc.

then i though is there toxicity to Pretty Hot Slate?

might not matter at my age but it rolls around the brain.

Merry Christmas to all and if not Very Happy Seasonal Holidays!

I found this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1569273/

but its on particulate inhalation issues. i actually understand this article but i think its irrelevant to the Webber.

[minas6907]

I'd just stop using the slate and pick up some quarry tiles

[scott123]

The question isn't whether or not a slate baking stone will crack, but when, and, when it does, how violently. Best case scenario is that it will just crack. Worst case is that there's some moisture in it and it explodes.

Another really horrible scenario that's suited especially to slate is that a shard flakes off, lodges itself in the dough and, for whatever reason, you don't notice it. I had a piece of refractory drop on top of a pizza and have a chipped tooth to remember the experience. Slate will chip a tooth just as easily.

At some point, baking stones had to actually be stones, but we live in a day and age where we don't have to roll the dice on a loaf of bread or a pizza. Real stones will always have variations in composition that make them unsafe for kitchen use.

And a Weber will annihilate quarry tiles. The only materials suitable for direct flame are firebrick and cordierite.

Edited December 25, 2011 by scott123 (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Most baking stones are made out of stoneware ceramic and will take direct heat IF it is completely dry, started to heat very slowly and evenly. A potters kiln shelf will work too but isn't cheap either. Several fire bricks will put quite s strain on the Weber grate because of the weight and will take a very long time to heat enough to be hot enough. It will hold heat for quite a while though. Someone on the cooking forum took a sheet pan and filled it with water, put some stilt brackets on it and put a baking stone on top of that. I would expect that to work on a gas grill but I imagine the lid of a Weber is to low to work with that arrangement.