Even if you don’t plan to make pizza often, Baking Steel’s products earn their keep in plenty of other ways

• I tested the three best pizza makers for homes in the US

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

You don’t need a kitchen full of expensive specialty gear for exceptional homemade pizza: a basic peel goes for $35, and a stand mixer is convenient and efficient, but optional. The sole truly indispensable piece of equipment is a pizza steel.

This thick slab of steel sits in the bottom of your home oven, soaks up its heat and then zaps it to the dough, creating the crisp, well-browned crust and leopard-spotted underside that are the hallmarks of a proper bake.