Why SteakStones is the best Hot Stone Cooking Brand for Restaurants
At SteakStones we use only the very best quality Lava for all our products and this allows you to ensure that your guests will always have a fantastic experience when cooking live at the table with our products. There are other companies and products which use other materials such as granite and marble, but due to the way it is created (through incredible natural forces), Lava can tolerate much higher heating temperatures with no risk of cracking, which will happen to all other stone types if heated directly (click here for more geology!). Over 20 years it is inevitable that customers of ours have looked elsewhere and may be bought cheaper, but they have soon come back to us after realising our products last well over 10 times longer than any other products on the market. But well, buy once holds true.
What temperature should I heat my SteakStones too?
As Lava is denser than other stone types, SteakStones products hold their heat for longer than any other brand or product. To enjoy the perfect experience, we recommend to heat to between 320c and 350c (600 – 660f) and this is done most easily by heating your SteakStones Lava Stones in our custom-built Ovens. A fully loaded cold oven will take around 1hr30mins to get all the stones inside up to full heat and once the oven is up to heat a stone placed inside will only take around 45mins to get up to 350c. In certain situations you can heat our stone directly on or under a flame and there is no risk of the stones cracking with SteakStones Lava Stones.
Why does Steak cooked on the Stone taste better?
Cooking on the stone is all about searing in the natural flavours and succulence of your chosen cut. When you place the Steak on the Stone, it instantly sears in all the moisture and flavour, so you will enjoy all of this delicious flavour, without the need to add lots of others.
What about resting the Steak, all the experts say I should do this?
Correct, for a traditionally cooked steak, as the cooking process pushed the moisture to the centre of the steak and if it is cut before the juice has had a chance to dissipate back through the steak during resting, then all the moisture will be lost. However, when you place a Steak on a 330c plus heated Lava Stone, the Steak is instantly seared/sealed and this repeats for every slice and bite you cut and cook. So the moisture and flavour is always trapped inside every bite, rather than left in the pan or lost in your grill.
I’ve heard you should heat to 440 or 450 degrees C?
There is a myth that you can only enjoy Steak on the Stone on a stone heated to 440 or 450 degrees C. This is simply not true. The reason this myth exists is that certain companies sell vastly overpriced Ovens which heat to this temperature and make a lot of profit from Restaurants who buy into this story. Ironically, these same companies now sell products direct to consumers who have absolutely no way of heating to this exaggerated temperature at home, especially as their inferior quality stone cannot be safely heated on a direct source. Additionally, any produce put on a stone that is this hot will burn rather than sear the food and this is also why you often see these companies putting lots of salt on the stone, to stop the product touching so much, when the whole point is that you want a complete sear of the outside of the steak.
Do I need burners under my stone?
Anyone selling products that have burners or candles under the stone are taking you for a fool. If you were to try and heat a stone via this method you would never even get a temperature close to 100c in the stone, so having this futile heating method under the stone will do almost nothing to keep the operational heat of the stone for any longer than simply not having them at all. Again, it’s all about honesty and not just making a quick buck and that’s why SteakStones have been the World’s top selling Hot Stone Cooking Company for the past 20 years.
