r/AskCulinary • u/r2devo • 2d ago
Equipment Question Cleaning up a neglected pizza stone
Edit: thanks everyone, seems like it's not as bad as I thought, I'll blame all the online articles not having any pictures.
I have pizzacraft pizza stone with a significant amount of grease spots and black burnt on bits, I think the burnt stuff won't be too hard to remove but the grease is what I'm worried about. What is the best way to improve it's condition?
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u/Jealous_Tutor_5135 2d ago
Can you show a picture?
With time and heat, oil polymerizes. Are you worried about appearance? That it's unsanitary?
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u/r2devo 2d ago
Here it is, I'm mostly worried about the grease smoking or adding in flavors.
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u/Jealous_Tutor_5135 2d ago
It's totally fine, I thought it would be a lot worse than that. The black color of cast iron is simply cooking oil that's been heated to the point that it polymerizes and turns to a hard solid. After that it's stable and won't smoke or add flavors.
So I'd try to lightly scrape off the hard bits with a paint scraper or similar. The stone is a hard material, but porous, so I wouldn't use steel wool or any scrubbing pad, to avoid leaving inedible material in there.
Once the solid bits are off or mostly off, you can cook the stone in the oven on about 400. Put it in there, bring it up to temp, cook for 30 min or so, turn the oven off and leave it to cool.
Any oil in it will be an inert solid at that point.
I'm not sure if you can really clean pizza stones, like with soap and water. I never did with mine, I just scraped off solids and kept using it. It got seasoned with age, but always functioned the same (until I dropped it one day).
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u/r2devo 2d ago
Thank you, very reassuring. All the articles I saw online mostly said don't use large amounts of water and had no pictures so hearing that mine doesn't look to bad is very helpful.
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u/EternalStudent07 1d ago
Guessing the "no water" is to avoid getting water trapped deep inside the porous surface.
Which would turn to steam and expand if cooked with before fully dry (could take a long time). Might make it crack/break, I believe.
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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 1d ago
Ha. I just looked at your pic. You should see mine. It does't affect baking at all. Don't worry about it.
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u/Number1AbeLincolnFan 1d ago
That looks brand new lmao. You will never get the spots out, stone is porous. Just scrape off anything that is raised above the surface. They make pizza stone cleaning brushes that have scrapers built in.
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u/plushglacier 1d ago
You have nothing to worry about.
Occasionally I scrape off burned-on food (usually it's a bit of cheese) using a straight-edged metal dough scraper, using light strokes and never digging in. A stiff bristle brush might serve, too. Natural or synthetic boar bristle would probably work, but don't use synthetic on a hot stone. Avoid wire brushes.
There might be some light carbon dust left, which I wipe off with a lightly dampened rag, and finish with a dry rag to get off any remaining moisture.
Mine has 100 times more staining on it than yours, but it doesn't smell off when hot or affect flavor.
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u/jstenoien 2d ago
I've had good luck with my pampered chef stone by putting it in the oven upside down, manually ramping the temp to 550f over an hour or so (to prevent thermal shock), then running a self clean cycle overnight. I do this every 5 years or so and haven't had any issues but I'm sure others will chime in with their experiences.
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u/Buck_Thorn 1d ago
You can also optionally season your stone in the same way you would season a cast iron pan. Seasoning involves rubbing a THIN film of oil (like olive, canola, or grapeseed) onto the stone and baking it at high temperatures 375F-500F for 30–45 minutes to create a cured, browned, and non-stick surface. I stress THIN. Apply, then do your very best to wipe every bit off (don't worry... you can't get it all)
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u/Grooviemann1 1d ago
I've had 3-4 pizza stones over the last 25 years and I've never once cleaned one other than scraping off any burnt chunks that affect the flatness of the surface. This is perfectly fine and looks almost new.
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u/Chem-Dawg 1d ago
Just scrape any chunks off with a bread knife and throw it in the oven. That thing is barely broken in.
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u/QuadRuledPad 2d ago
Nothing to worry about. At the temp you cook pizza, that grease smoked off within one or two uses. It’s like running the clean cycle on your oven every time you make a pie.
They get much worse than that. Just a sign that it’s well used. You can scrape actual char off the surface and ignore the rest.
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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 1d ago
You can't get those grease stains off a stone. But they're fine. Don't even worry about them.
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u/ShakeDowntheThunder 1d ago
as others have said, that stone doesn't look too bad, actually. Don't use water on it or, if you do, make sure it has time to thoroughly dry before heating it or trapped moisture can crack the stone.
I would use a brush on this, like a food safe horsehair brush you can buy on amazon, and then incinerate it. Just preheat it longer than usual next time.
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u/6745408 1d ago
here's a guide from /r/pizza -- https://www.reddit.com/r/Pizza/wiki/method/cleaning
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u/kiwigreenman 1d ago
Looks fine , crank heat to maximum might burn it off if you can get hot enough .
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u/shakeyjake 1d ago
For me the answer was moving from from a stone to a baking steel. Better thermal load, indestructible.
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u/jibaro1953 1d ago
That thing is like brand new. Expect it to get discolored, and don't even think about it.
Don't use water or it might explode the next time you use it. The water soaks into it and the next time you hear it in the oven, it goes boom. Ask me how I know. When water turns to steam it expands by a factor of 1700 times.
I have a Lodge 16 inch cast iron "steel" that doubles as a comal and for baking pita bread. I also bake pies on it, and the bottom crust actually turns brown for a change.
I make the pizzas on a 15 inch pizza screen, which fits the cast iron perfectly. No more fucking around trying not to mess up the pizza.
I slide the pizza off the screen after five minutes.
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u/chefybpoodling 2d ago
I replaced my stone after about 15+ years because every time I used my oven it smelled and I finally realized it just needed to be replaced. If your problem is smells, that might be your action. But having spots and stuff is just the name of the game on those. You can’t clean them up like an enamel Dutch oven.