How to Clean a Pizza Stone

By Robert Parsons August 25, 2020

Pizza stones are well-known for their ability to deliver mouthwatering Italian style pizzas with a perfectly crispy crust. Imagine having an Ooni Karu Pizza Oven that you could easily transport from place to place. Essentially, this is what a pizza stone is! Regardless if you live in an apartment or isolated cabin in the woods, it will convert your kitchen into a pizzeria.  

While this is a great gadget to have in your kitchen tool belt, it also requires special care. They cannot be soaked in warm soapy water overnight or scrubbed with chemicals. On the contrary. You want to keep your pizza stove away from soap and water as much as possible. 

So, if you cannot use soap or water, how do you clean a pizza stone? We will cover this next.

What Should You Use to Clean a Pizza Stone? 

Pizza stones are flat and made from stone, ceramic, or cast-iron. These materials absorb any substance it is cleaned with. Consequently, these substances will impact the flavour of your food. 

A big reason you should not use water to clean it, is because it will affect the crispiness of the crust. Naturally, they absorb moisture from the dough when it is being heated. If there is water trapped within the stone, it will not allow the crust to cook to a crisp. 

Before we jump into how to clean a pizza stone, let’s cover the tools you’ll need. You probably already have them in your kitchen: 

  • – Blunt table knife
  • – Metal spatula 
  • – Plastic spatula 
  • – Bench scraper 
  • – Stone brush
  • – Sandpaper
  • – Scouring pads
  • – Toothbrush 

These are all great tools to have in your cleaning kit, however, you don’t need to use them after every use. Many of them like the blunt knife or scraper are intended for those situations where you cannot remove stuck or burnt food pieces some other way. Using them after every use can scratch up your stone. 

Step-By-Step Pizza Stone Cleaning Process 

Pizza stones can survive extreme temperatures. This alone kills off germs and bacteria. 

Don’t worry about your stone becoming smelly or “germy”. This won’t happen because of the high temperatures you’ll be using. Bacteria multiply between 40℉ and 140℉. The temperature you will be cooking your pizza at will be at least three times as hot. 

Even though germs and bacteria won’t be given room to grow, you still want to give your pizza stone a quick clean after every use. Cleaning a pizza stone is easy. Just follow these 5 steps:  

  1. Let it cool down. Make sure your stone has had enough time to cool down. Heat can easily be trapped in it so make sure it’s cooled completely to avoid burning your hands.  
  2. If needed, add a SMALL amount of water. We mentioned staying away from water, however, if there is a lot of hard to remove food stuck on your stone, wet the surface with a small stream of hot water. Use very little because it will need to dry completely before storing it away. 
  3. Use a stone brush. Using your stone brush, scrub the pizza stone thoroughly and wipe away all particles with a damp rag.
  4. Allow the stone to air dry. Before storing, you want to be sure your stone is 100% dry. You can use a clean towel to speed up the process.
  5. Store it away. To lower the chances of it breaking between uses, we highly recommend storing your pizza stone away in the oven.

Pro Tip: You have several other cleaning tools ready to use. If you can scrape away the food without the use of water, always take this alternative.  

How to Remove Stains

Stains on a pizza stone represent all those delicious pizzas you’ve created! They are stamps of good times, and many people like being reminded of these good meals. A darkened pizza stone also means more seasoning, however, if you can’t stand the sight of them, here is what you can do:

  1. Using a spatula or brush, scrape away all pieces of food. 
  2. Create a paste that consists of 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp baking soda. 
  3. Scrub your homemade paste on the stains. Using a brush, work the past in circles.
  4. Once stains are removed, wipe away with a damp cloth. 
  5. Let it dry completely. 

We highly recommend using baking soda because it will remove stains without affecting the flavour of your pizza (like soap does!). 

Conclusion

And there you have it! Everything you need to know to properly care for your pizza stone. We hope this short guide has served useful and you continue to enjoy this game-changing tool for many years to come!