I've worked my way up to baking four pizzas at a time over the last twenty years. So in my dual 30" convection Therms I have three mismatched 14" x 16" pizza stones from different manufacturers, all fairly thick but not the same, and my fourth most recent purchase was the same size baking steel to try that out for comparison. And for the most part, they all pretty much do the same great job with slight time variants that you can account for with your eyeballs. My first eighteen or so years I was all about the corn meal for moving the pizzas off of the peels and onto the stones. Then I bought one of the aluminum peels and the cornmeal flat out didn't work - the dough stuck no matter how much corn meal I used. And you know - corn meal on the 500 degree stone eventually talks to your smoke detectors. Out of necessity I tried parchment instead - and it works brilliantly! I've completely switched after all these years. Allows me to pre-prep four pizzas on parchment, (there is no risk of sticking to the peel while making the others), the pizza cooks right on the stone through the parchment, and after four or five minutes I'll slide the aluminum peel under each and slip out the parchment to extra crisp the crust. I keep the parchment aside and use that under each pizza when I slice it to absorb dripping/steam and keep the crust crisp. I preheat the oven and stones to 500 or 525 for at least 30 minutes before the first batch, and my pizza is super thin crust, about 6-8 minutes baking. Oh, and the parchment also works to get pizza and flat bread transferred over and started on the grill - directly on the grates. That stuff is magic, not just for cookies.

I wish I knew more about how the combi oven works, but some on this forum have mentioned the concept of "dry steam" that allows for browning. This is very different from wet steam. It would be nice if you knew exactly what was going on in these cycles and could adjust it a little. A preset button may not be optimal for your recipe or the size or thickness of the pizza. Some might like the top brown that that setting provides while you do not. As to perforated cookware-the holes may actually cause sogginess. The holes allow steam to escape which would seem to keep what you are baking from getting soggy but cools those areas. Somewhere I saw a pie baked in one of these pans and the parts over the holes cooked less than the other parts. I think America's test kitchens did a piece on this. It is probably more of a learning curve on this appliance because there probably is more to it than the concept of wet steam that we usually think of. At the very least you have the interaction of steam and convection which is different from most other ovens. You seem like you need a little more heat from the bottom of the oven. The trick would be how to get it from that oven. Maybe an auto baking mode would be better. The bottom rack is good only if the heat is coming from the bottom. If it is coming from somewhere else, that won't help. Maybe Wolf can tell you what cycles have heat more from the bottom, so you can make your own recipe setting.

Awesome, Berlin! I'm trying to get a CSIA chimney sweep to come in and look at what I have before do anything. But Rumfordizing is what I want to do. My fireplace will be more for entertainment than as a serious heating appliance. So, efficiencies be durned... You say a rumford throat is essential and I understand that. The only difference I see between my iron throat and a real rumford throat is that mine isn't curved on the front part. Mine is a flat piece of metal at a 45 degree angle. Sorry I don't have a camera to take pics. The back part of the throat is right at about 12.5 inches deep, in other words, spot on for rumfordizing. So, I will be able to have the depth of the fireplace right and be able to angle the side wall right. I just don't have the curved bit in the throat and the fireplace is about 6 inches too short but on my test run the flames didn't get that high anyway with the way I run a fire. I also wonder about the smoke chamber above the throat. Mine is angled back a bit so that the flue clears the roof eave. I hope I can find a sweep that is knowledgeable about Rumford fireplaces. If there's anything you think I need to consider, please let me know.

OK, I know this sounds like an insane idea, We love pizza! This solution was so simple, cheap and utterly a joke when my husband and I first came up with it many years ago before the idea of marriage, or new kitchen was even born yet. I went to the local home store. Purchased a dozen unglazed eight inch floor tiles. Put them on the oven rack. Preheat while prepping. The tiles were less than a dollar a piece. I don't have to wash them because the heat from the oven turns any residue to ash. Just brush with a dustpan brush (only for the oven) when the tiles are cold. If I'm doing a turkey or baking, I just remove the tiles & put them back in if we're doing pizza. The bottom crust is so perfect! Preheat to 500F then turn it back to 450F when the pie goes in.