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