Oven Slab

Your oven isn't the problem. The surface is.

A baking stone holds heat. Steel delivers it — conducting roughly 20 times faster, so the moment your loaf lands, the bottom crust sets hard and fast, the way it would on the deck of a professional bread oven. Open crumb, blistered crust, proper oven spring. In a standard home oven, at the temperature it already reaches.

This is [X] kilograms of New Zealand mild steel. Laser cut in our Drury workshop, edges machined smooth, seasoned with food-grade oil and ready to bake on day one. No coatings, no cleverness — just thermal mass that does the work.

It will never crack like a stone. It will never wear out. Drop it, scrub it, leave it in the oven permanently — it gets better with every bake as the seasoning builds. This is the last baking surface you'll ever buy, and it'll outlive the oven it lives in.

Not just for sourdough. The same slab turns out blistered pizza, crisp-bottomed focaccia, flatbreads with a proper char, enriched loaves that actually brown underneath, and roast vegetables that caramelise rather than steam.

The details

• [X]cm × [X]cm × 6mm New Zealand mild steel
• Weight: [X]kg — it's called Slab for a reason
• The full rectangular surface fits a standard banneton loaf with room to score
• Food-safe seasoned finish, no synthetic coatings
• Laser cut and finished in Drury, South Auckland
• Fits most standard NZ ovens — check your rack measures at least [X]cm across before ordering

Care

Wash with warm soapy water, dry thoroughly, wipe with a light coat of oil. That's the whole routine. The surface will darken with use — that's the seasoning, and it's exactly what you want.

Heavy by design.