What is Lava and the difference between Stone & Rock?

So you’ve had or heard about hot stone cooking and want to enjoy this experience yourself. In addition to offering the original and best range of products, there are a few other things that make STEAKSTONES products extra special.

It’s all about the Lava, so here comes a little Geology. Igneous rock is one of the three main rock types, and is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma. Igneous rock may form below the Earth’s surface as intrusive, plutonic rocks or on the surface as extrusive, volcanic rocks.

Intrusive igneous rocks are formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the Earth’s crust. When the magma solidifies this way, it cools slowly forming coarse textured rocks, such as granite and the mineral grains in such rocks can generally be seen with the naked eye.

The slower cooling of this coarser rock creates more air pockets within the rock and these cause problems, such as cracking, when you heat the stone directly, which is why you can’t avoid cracks with any products using granite, which are popular with certain companies.

Extrusive igneous rocks are formed by the cooling of molten magma above the Earth’s surface. Lava is the name given to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption, and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling, and this formation cools and solidifies much quicker than intrusive igneous rocks.

The quicker cooling forms rocks that are smooth and fine grained and we use these rocks to create STEAKSTONES. The super tight bonding of the minerals creates an extremely strong and dense product, and one that allows us to guarantee that it will never crack under normal use.

The difference between Rock and Stone is that Rock refers to raw material in situ whilst Stone depicts human intervention. Basically all stones have been rock at some point, but not all rocks become stones. They’re a bit more special.

Since STEAKSTONES launched in 2005 others have tried to copy our concept, but nothing else matches the quality of our Lava or the other, strong, sustainable and brilliant materials we use.

Please be very wary of anyone selling Hot Stone Cooking products using the term Rock in their brand. If they don’t even know their Rock from their Stone, it’s unlikely their products will have been thoroughly tested as safe to use and carry the lifetime guarantee of STEAKSTONES.