Baking steels make excellent pizza and bread, but because they transfer heat very rapidly, you have to watch food more closely than you might with a baking stone made of ceramic. Ceramic can hold more heat, and transfers it to the dough more slowly than steel. If you are a serious pizza maker, a baking steel is great to have. A steel can cook a pizza up to 30 percent faster than a baking stone, and the faster a pizza cooks, the crispier its crust will be, while its interior crumb stays moist and tender, not dried-out or tough. But we’ve learned that the best results don’t stop with a steel. For the ultimate setup, place your baking steel on top of a baking stone, and then preheat your oven (the temperature will depend on the recipe). The stone acts as a heat sink, keeping the steel hotter for longer, which allows you to bake multiple pizzas in a row without having to wait for the steel to heat back up. Just be sure to preheat the stone/steel combination for at least an hour to give it time to absorb enough heat.