Emile Henry Rectangular Baking Stone - Black

Updated Review (Jan 2023): A decade of use and this baking stone is still the absolute best ever! It continues to be in almost daily use. Emile Henry is the epitome of quality craftsmanship! Updated Review (Dec 2014): I've owned a lot of stones because most tend to break easily. I have stone baked fresh breads daily and pizzas or calzones weekly for several years. Until we purchased our Emile Henry, we lost about a stone every other month - some shattered due to thermal shock, some split under the 500 plus degree heat required for good pizza crusts, while others simply cracked from frequent use. None of these are a problem with the Emile Henry stone. It handles the broiler and I've even removed it from a blazing oven to stovetop without issue. We've used our Emile Henry stone almost every day for two years! While other stones may cost less, investing in an Emile Henry can save you big in the long run! Original Review: Prior to purchasing the Emile Henry Rectangular Baking Stone, we cracked numerous cheaper stones. We finally made the smart decision to invest in a quality stone and I'm glad we did. I believe we are actually saving money! In the months we've owned the Emile Henry, we probably would have gone through two more of the cheap stones. Thermal shock is not an issue with this stone. For best results, I recommend pre-heating your baking stone thoroughly (30 minutes, perhaps). You can pull the Emile Henry stone directly from a 500 degree oven and use it for cutting and serving. We have not yet cooked with the stone on an outdoor grill, but we use it several times a week for oven baking breads, pizzas and calzones. We currently own the red. Next time, however, we will probably purchase this stone in black. I find that removing sauce stains can be difficult. While the red is beautiful, with such frequent use this color doesn't look much better after use than the cheaper beige stones. In spite of my clean-up issue, I still think the Emile Henry deserves a 5 star rating and I highly recommend it for all your stone baked foods.