I have a pizza stone I use a lot, but it's gotten greasy and lately when I preheat it, it smokes and sets off the fire alarm I've heard soaking it in detergent is a no-no, and I haven't had a lot of luck trying to clean it just with water, or wiping it down while it is hot.
Do you have a scrapper? That helps...................m
October 25 2006, 8:44 AM
Are you supposed to preheat them? I hadn't heard that, so I don't and my stuff comes out fine. I have also used a little soapy water and lightly washed it with a Dobie sponge adn nothing tastes like soap.
Hugs,
Andi
Daniel Isaac 3/15/00 , Katherine Grace 10/30/02 & Adam Thomas 2/28/05
it seems to be more sunken in than that - it's not really on the surface anymore.
I don't usually preheat it except for one application. I buy Trader Joe's frozen naan and the way you heat it up is to preheat the oven to 450 and then cook the bread for 1-2 minutes. I find it's perfect if I cook it on a preheated baking stone as opposed to directly on the oven rack. I"m kind of a naan junkie, so I've been using the stone that way a lot since I discovered TJ's frozen variety.
Maybe I should just put a new baking stone on my Christmas list...
That may give you some ideas. I never really cared for the pizza stone or the other stone things they offer (baking pans, etc) for just the reasons you stated. Also, they are so HEAVY and hard to store imo.
You really don't want to put any kind of oil or grease directly onto the baking stone. That being said, you >can< use soap and water on it, just try to avoid it. It's a lot like cast iron in that it gets better with use, even though it looks kind of gross. Really what you want to do is scrape off the surface, try to get off the big chunks, then put it back in the oven at 500 degrees for at least 30 minutes to season it. I also preheat every time I use mine, 500 degrees for an hour, then turn the temperature down to the correct baking temp for what I'm making. All that heat will tend to burn off surface stuff and make it so food doesn't stick (except for pizza cheese. No help for that. *sigh*)
I had the oven self-clean for the first time in years. Unfortunately, it was all finished by the time I remembered that I had wanted to put my baking stone in it
The other weird thing is that there are now brown stains on the front of my oven. Neil thinks there was just so much junk in the oven that it had escape somewhere when it burned off. I don't know if he was just being facetious, but something burned all over the front of the oven, and it's taking more than a little elbow grease to get rid of it.
I've heard soaking it in detergent is a no-no, and I haven't had a lot of luck trying to clean it just with water, or wiping it down while it is hot.
Hugs,
