Ham Sulu wrote:
> Bob (this one) wrote:
>
>>
>> I can't imagine doing a pie on a stone or tiles. Too hot against the
>> bottom of the plate. Air moving against it will transfer only a
>> limited amount of heat to the plate. Tiles and stones will transfer a
>> great deal more heat in the same time and I'd be afraid of burning it.
>> I've never heard of anything like that, but it's not the first thing I
>> didn't know about.
>
> Here are a couple of links. I did some searching around and I think the
> recipe that was sent to me was a bit off about where to put the
> stones/tiles as these links say to put them on the bottom rack. Should
> have done some research first and even the experts and experimenters
> differ.
>
> http://www.usaweekend.com/01_issues/...cooksmart.html

Pam does a lot of research for her recipes. Always has. She
used to work for Cook's Illustrated and do all those tests.
Nowadays, she "deconstructs" recipes and figures out what's
going on and why things happen. I'd trust what she says,
recognizing that she represents one way of getting there and
that there are others.

I suspect that using the heavy-duty aluminum sheet
materially affects the process.

Pastorio

> "Baking on the bottom oven rack just wasn't enough to brown the pie
> bottom. I also tried baking it directly on the oven floor, but browning
> was uneven and part of the pie was borderline burned in just 20 minutes.
>
> Ever since testing bread and pizza for my book The Perfect Recipe, I've
> lined my oven rack with unglazed quarry tiles. In The Pastry Bible,
> baking expert Rose Levy Beranbaum suggests cooking pies on a pizza stone
> to improve the bottom crust. Because I don't own a pizza stone, I tried
> four 9-inch unglazed quarry tiles (purchased at Home Depot for about 55
> cents apiece), preheated on the bottom rack for about 30 minutes. It
> worked. The bottom crust browned beautifully."
>
>
> --
> Original citation from Rose Levy Beranbaum author of the The Pie &
> Pastry Bible:
> http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/20...own_botto.html
>
>
> "i bake the pie directly on the floor of the oven for the first 20
> minutes of baking and then raise it to the bottom shelf. different ovens
> bake differently so you may need to leave it on the floor of the oven
> for a longer time. the best way to find out is to use a pyrex plate the
> first time you do this so you can see through it and gauge when
> sufficient browning has taken place. if your oven is electric and has
> coils on the bottom, the best alternative is to use a baking stone on
> the lowest shelf and preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes to ensure
> that it is heated fully."