Fibrament D Review

Original new appearance in inset

    It's been nearly a year since I ordered and received the Fibrament D 16 lb. pizza stone that I had to have shipped to Starbucks as my home can't double for a commercial business address. It's thick and heavy and definitely can hold the heat. Anywhere from one to three times a week since April of 2010 I have had the convection oven running at a maximum 550º without a hint of a problem. Most of all, over the past 10 months, it hasn't broken. I had gone through no less than 3 inferior ceramic stones before searching out this one to satisfy my craving for home baked pizza. In that time I have tested and used it well leaving a number of battle scars that just show aging and perfection. For the most part I store it in the oven on the rack and only remove it when I might be baking or roasting something else. You know, one of those non-pizza items. Cleaning it is easy. Just a simple dry brush down to remove the old corn meal and a scraping of any cheese that may have oozed over  and baked on. I never use soap or water on it as it could soak in and cause it to crack while baking.

   The battle scars on it are telling a story. Let me explain. If I was to walk into your house to paint with new painter whites, a shiny new ladder along with buckets, tarps and brushes all spotless and perfect one would quickly and easily come to a conclusion that this might be my first job and my resume as a painter would be shattered. I know I would start to wonder that too if the roles were reversed. The blackened staining on the stone is merely a testament that I have used it often. I suppose it's true of an iron skillet, a messy desk or a painters' hat. I suppose also, by that reasoning, one could jump to the conclusion that I use my head a lot by the lack of hair on top!

   A very wise man once told me, that to do the job correctly that you need the correct tools. I guess you don't need to be Einstein to know that but it proves to be true even when baking pizza. (a good thing to remember Dad, thanks!) Anyway, I have used it for baking calzones and even lately, some sourdough bread, (a close cousin to pizza). If dad had all perfectly clean tools in his garage with glistening chrome, hanging perfectly in corresponding size with traced outlines on an immaculate tool peg board I would have concluded that he was talking in theory and not from practice. That was never the case. Orderly, yes... but with battle scars from countless jobs completed well.