Pizza stone cleaning

I once read someone warn against this, but I've been doing it successfully for years. When I pull the last pizza out of the oven, I turn the setting to "Self Clean" and let it go (my cycle is 4 hours). I don't scrape anything off or anything... In the morning, The stone is clean and any food is in the form of ashes on the stone. I pull it out, brush the ashes of and put the stone away. It's the easiest piece of cookware I have to clean!

I believe there is some problem if you heat it up when it's wet; at least that's usually advised against for porous ceramics. I used to use a stone, and I left it in the oven- only possible problem; if you roast meats in the oven, the stone is likely to absorb some grease over time. I still use one in my outdoor pizza oven; just brush it off before use. I stopped using a stone indoors; I've found that a perforated pan actually works better in a home oven, and you don't have to preheat for an hour.

Your oven, if electric probably has a self cleaning cycle.

When it's really cold like bone chilling cold. Turn on the self cleaning cycle. It'll clean the stuff on the oven and keep the pizza stone in there too. It'll clean off all the cheese drippings and oil stuff and after it's finished you just dust it off. and keep it in the oven.

But save the 'self cleaning' thing of the oven when it's really cold. So it will heat the house.


Personally. don't care about the stains or stuff on a pizza stone. I think pizza stones should be beaten up and looked used...heck they're heated to 500 or so when they're used.

Any thing that lives through that temp would probably slither off and kill you in your sleep.
I like the stained pizza stone. It's loved and used...cleaning to remove stains and stuff would be like trying to get rid of the seasoning on cast iron.

Okay..that's not quite right. Just don't put it in the dishwasher or soak it or use lots of water on it...just use a damp rag---maybe a paste of salt to scrub bits off...but don't go wild with soap and stuff and soaking it.

Just use a damp towel to get the dust out of it.
A pizza stone shouldn't be pristine. A well loved pizza stone has the scars of many pizzas on it. I don't you think you should ever wash it..I've never washed mine---it lives in the oven as a heat diffuser and just gets dusted off sometimes. Never washed. No water. Ever.

Pizza stones are designed to ensure high heat. Some of them can survive charcoal-fired grills whose temperatures approach 900 degrees (way more than your typical residential oven which tops out around 600 degrees).

I keep my pizza stone in my oven upside down on an unused rack at the lowest level.

If I were in your situation, just scrub it (no soap) and rinse it off, let dry for 24 hours, then stick in the oven upside down on the lowest rack and forget about it until you need to use it.