How to Clean Pizza Stones

 

Cooking the perfect pizza is a long-practiced art that many people spend a lot of time trying to get right. We’re not talking about just heating up your average frozen pizza here; cooking the perfect pizza is a labor of love that involves making your own crust, spreading your own choice of toppings, and baking it perfectly and evenly for a bubbling crust and toppings that absolutely melt in your mouth.

Standard ovens are not built to create the perfect pizza; their shelves unevenly scorch pizza crusts and toppings droop or fall from the pizza. The solution to cooking the perfect pizza? The pizza stone. Designed as a stone, ceramic, or even salt slab that evenly heats and cooks food, pizza stones replace baking trays or other pizza cookers as the superior method of cooking and heating pizzas.

However, constant exposure to pizzas means that plenty of food and oven grease builds up on pizza stones, making them extremely challenging to clean. Our team has researched and came up with the best way on how to clean pizza stones, returning them to top condition and making it easy to clean and reuse your pizza stones time and time again.

 

Scraping Off The Remnants – Step One

Materials Needed:

• Bench Scraper/Plastic Spatula

• Stone Brush

• Sand Paper

The first step to successfully cleaning your pizza stone is going to be scraping off any external food remains, scum, or other debris that’s clinging on to the exterior of your pizza stone.

Begin by wetting the entire surface with warm water. One simple and easy way to begin breaking apart the initial layer of gunk is to use a bench scraper and simply shear off the exterior coating of food debris. You can also use a plastic spatula for displacing looser dirt and food remnants or if you don’t want to risk scratching the surface of your stone.

If you’ve got seriously cooked debris still sticking around, you can also reach for sandpaper to literally sand down the surface of the stain until it’s gone. This would be useful for cooked oil stains or other burnt remnants that have really caked themselves into the surface of your stone.

Finish all of your scrubbing and scraping by rubbing your pizza stone with a stone brush. Stone brushes are designed to carefully and naturally polish and scrub the surface of stone, making them the perfect material to clean off any remaining remnants

 

Scrubbing Off Surface Stains – Step Two

Materials Needed:

• Baking Soda

• Vinegar

• Scouring Pad

• Microfiber Cloth

When it comes to scrubbing off harder to clean stains, pizza stones are very delicate. They absorb moisture and retain it for long periods of time, so you can’t just stick your stone in the dishwasher or sink and call it a day. You also can’t use detergent since stones absorb the moisture and scent profile of soaps that wash over it causing your pizzas to begin to taste like detergent.

For a natural cleaning product to use on your stone, sprinkle baking soda over the entire surface, then spray lightly with vinegar until the surface is wet and paste-like. Spread the paste evenly over any dirty areas you’ve missed using gloves and let sit for a ten minutes. Next, grab your scouring pad and begin scrubbing the paste firmly into the stone surface. Apply steady pressure and elbow grease until you notice the dirt beginning to wash off the stone.

End by wetting a microfiber cloth and wiping off any residue from the baking soda mixture. Rinse by spraying down with warm water and drying again.

 

The Bake Method

Another popular method for busting that hard to clean stone stain is to give it a deep clean using the bake method. Set your oven to five hundred degrees and place your pizza stone inside. Let the oven cook for an hour, then check on your stone. You’ll likely see grease or other moisture bubbling or popping out, which is a good sign.

After an hour, set your oven to the auto-clean cycle and allow your stone to cook and finish cooling. After said time, wipe down the entire surface with a cool cloth and put it away for storage.

 

Mold and Mildew Removal

Materials Needed:

• Baking Soda

• Vinegar

• Stone Brush/Scouring Pad

• Microfiber Cloth

If you’ve noticed your pizza stone starting to sprout some fuzzy or unwelcome growths, don’t be dismayed- that’s normal. Pizza stones when exposed to too much moisture can eventually start to mold or mildew. Being made of stone or cooler materials, when left in storage your stone might be breeding grounds for mold or other bacteria. Getting rid of mold and mildew is relatively simple. Begin by mixing up a baking soda and vinegar paste and applying it to the entire stone, paying special attention to the fuzzy mold and mildew areas. Allow your paste to sit and then scrub with a stone brush or scouring pad until all the mold and mildew has been removed. Wet a cloth with water and then wipe off remaining paste residue and allow to dry.

 

What Not To Use on Your Pizza Stone

Maintaining the clean and pristine appearance of your pizza stone is important, but there are a few things that absolutely should never be used to clean your pizza stone.

– Stay away from water- that can literally flood your pizza stone and makes it far more likely to mold or grow mildew.

– You should also avoid soap; as we’ve written above, pizza stones are highly absorbent and soak in the molecules of materials around them. If you use dish soap on your stone, anything you bake afterwards will taste like dish soap. However, if either of those are used on your pizza stone, there’s still hope. Try the bake method to dry out any remaining moisture inside your pizza stone. As far as removing the taste of soap, take absorbent breads like crescent rolls or pieces of sandwich bread and spread them all over your pizza stone. Bake it for fifty minutes and let the breads absorb the soap scent and flavor from your stone.

 

 

Pizza stones are a useful tool for crafting the perfect pizza experience, but cleaning them can be a pain if you don’t know how to properly cleanse them. Our team’s carefully tested methods are designed to provide you with effective, affordable, and versatile cleaning solutions that will return your pizza stone to fresh, top-notch quality and condition in no time!