How To Clean A Pizza Stone (2023)

If you have never used a pizza stone, this simple piece of cooking equipment can essentially recreate the effect of cooking a pizza in a stone oven, only in a standard oven.

You will get deliciously crispy crusts with some nice char without it being too much.

By just having a pizza stone you can completely transform how you cook pizza in your home and this can lead to some amazing results.

However, even though these pizza stones get amazing results, they also need to get some special care to ensure that they stay in the best condition while you use them.

One thing which should be kept in mind when looking after your pizza stone is that it should not be cleaned like most other cooking equipment, and something you want to avoid is letting it soak in hot and soapy water as this will not get the desired results.

In fact, you want to make sure that you keep soap completely away from your pizza stone.

Do Not Use Soap

So, now most of you are probably wondering how to clean a piece of cooking equipment if you can not soak it, and you can not use soap.

This means that some people worry about pizza stones getting smelly, or picking up germs. However, this is not actually the case.

This is because your pizza stone is able to survive incredibly high temperatures when it is being used.

The temperatures you will be using to cook your pizza will be much higher than that at which bacteria can survive, so you do not have to worry about your pizza stone contaminating any food.

But, in spite of the fact that your pizza stone will be able to kill off any bacteria with the heat it is cooked at, this does not mean that they should not be cleaned, or do not get dirty.

This is why it is recommended that you still clean your pizza stone after every time you use it!

How To Clean Your Pizza Stone

As you know your pizza stone is flat, but what you may not know is that this is actually made from a porous material. This is usually either cast iron, stone, or ceramic.

Because of it being porous, this means that the stone can pick up and absorb whatever you are trying to clean it with.

This also means that if it has absorbed too much, it could end up impacting how your pizza tastes.

It will also impact the texture since the moisture will stop your crust from getting properly crispy.

Keep in mind that before you start cleaning your pizza stone you need to make sure it is completely cool.

A pizza stone can retain a lot of heat, which means they can be dangerous.

Because of this you want to make sure that before you try anything that the stone has completely cooled down! Once you are sure of this, you will want to gather your tools.

Luckily, the best tools for cleaning a pizza stone can already be found in your kitchen!

The best thing to use is something which is thin, and will be able to slide under any pieces of food which are stuck.

Or, alternatively, something which is abrasive enough to be able to scrub away at any pieces of grime which are stuck onto your pizza stone.

We are going to list a few possible tools, so hopefully you will have a couple available to use!

You could try using:

1. A bench scraper
2. A table knife which has gone blunt
3. A metal spatula or a plastic one
4. A stone brush is ideal
5. Sandpaper, but not too rough to damage the pizza stone
6. Scourer or scouring pads
7. An old toothbrush, this is not something you will want to put back in your mouth

As mentioned, a couple of these could damage or scratch your pizza stone if you do not use them carefully, so only use them when and where appropriate, for example, on a really tough piece of grime.

It is worth pointing out that you should not use any chemicals for cleaning this stone, or any soap either.

These will help with cleaning, but they will also be absorbed into your pizza stone, and their taste will make your next pizza disgusting.

When you are cleaning your pizza stone the only liquid which you should use is water, and as mentioned, you only want to use what you need and no more, and definitely no soaking for extended periods of time.

Take as much care cleaning your pizza stone as you would cleaning your

So, let’s go through step by step to make sure you get the process down.

Cleaning A Pizza Stone Step By Step

1. First, you want to get the dirty surface of your pizza stone wet with a limited stream of hot water. You want to use as little water as possible as you can not use your pizza stone again until it is completely dry. It even needs to be completely dry before you store it otherwise it could become damaged.
2. Then you want to use a stone brush, or a similar tool to scrub the dirt off your pizza stone, do this thoroughly enough to get rid of all dirt, but not enough to damage the pizza stone.
3. After this wipe away any leftover particles or pieces of food or dirt using a dampened rag.
4. Then, if you want to let the surface of your pizza stone completely dry, you can use a clean towel to get most of the moisture off, however, to get the rest you want to let it air dry for a few hours.

Sometimes you can clean it without using any water and just a brush depending on how much dirt there is, but this depends on the circumstances.

Some people recommend storing your pizza stone in the oven, this will mean it gets seasoned between uses, and this will lower the chances of your pizza stone breaking when you use it.

However, this will slow down how long it takes for your oven to preheat.

Sometimes users are intimidated learning how to use an Ooni pizza stone, but properly caring for a pizza stone can also be intimidating! Follow these steps and you will be good to go.