December 23, 2014 - 11:57am
Should I clean a pizza stone?
I am not sure what got onto it but it now has black blotches that, since I never wash it, don't dry scrub off.
In that it is dangerous to place just any stone in the oven, can a pizza stone tolerate being cleaned in a self-cleaning oven?
Do I really need to be concerned about cleaning the stone?
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I brush mine off when it cools after using but beyond that its left alone. I've used it going on 4 years now no problem. It's thick though. It's a Fibrament baking stone.
The black blotches imply they are mostly carbon, and they get repeatedly heated to temperature that render them safe; you can leave them alone.
That said, in the past twenty or so years I've run two pizza stones through an oven's self-cleaning cycle repeatedly, and one Fibrement stone once with no apparent ill effects. Nonetheless, I'd advise checking the manufacture's cautions. If you know the name of the manufacturer you can probably find the user instruction online if you can't find paper that came with the stone.
I believe Fibrement cautions against it. I did it anyway when I left my Fibrement stone in the oven, baking a pie, and it leaked juice onto the stone. The mess turned to ashes in the cleaning cycle and left the stone clean.
David G.
I soak mine in plain water, and use a razor blade to scrap off stuck on dough or sauce. I don't scrape too hard. Wipe of dry. Thats it.
I have read strong precautions to not get them wet let alone soak them. One of the main reasons to not use just any stone/rock as an oven stone is that the internal water will attempt to boil and split, if not explode, the stone.
Even if this is proven to be wrong, I certainly will never soak one anyway.
I like my oven in the condition it is in....
I have cleaned my pizza stone when I clean my oven, and have never had any problems!
I am thinking that ceramic won't have problems as it was already heat cured. I understand that that in some cases, real stone is used. I have reservations about that use
My Pizza ceramic is 3/8 thick and I leave it in the oven all the time as I believe it helps regulate the temperature. It does take longer to heat the oven though.