Pizza Stone Question

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baltimoreberry

Assistant Cook
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
2
I received a pizza stone for Christmas and after using it my wife washed it with Dawn liquid soap.I detected a soapy smell the next time I used it and decided to read the instructions,isnt this typical,and read DO NOT WASH WITH SOAP but no remedy if you do.I have baked several pies since then and get a strong aroma of soap when I do but do not seem to taste anything.I have tried to soak it out with plain water but to no avail .Has anybody in the worid done this or am I the only one?If you have a cure I would apprciate resurrecting my poor stone instead of declaring it dead and watch it being relegated to the bottom of my wifes plant stand.Thanx for any help!
 
Try soaking it for two or three days in clean water. Change the water ever few hours if you can. Then maybe...:angel: try a weak solution of baking soda and water. Watch the stone's reaction and if it starts to fizz wash off immediately. Maybe this will work.
 
I've had my pizza stone for many years. In that time (yeah, I know you're not supposed to wash it with soap) I've washed it quite often. Especially since after baking a garlic pizza, I want to bake something sweet. I've never tasted a soapy flavor. I suppose if you still feel like the dish soap is lingering, scrubbing with a baking soda paste may do the trick. However, I wouldn't soak it, as the stone's porosity may prove to be a hinderance.
 
Give me your pizza stone. Within a couple of weeks it will crack, and you'll have an excuse to buy a new one, which you WILL NOT WASH WITH SOAP!
 
I'm curious - why would it crack, Caine?
Mine has never even chipped and I believe I've had it at least 10 years.
 
Pizza stones are very pourous (if i spelled it right) :). That is why you do not want to wash them in dish soap. Actually you do not want to wash them at all. Same goes for wooden peels. Anyways, i would not throw it away unless you can taste a soapy taste to your pizza. This is how i clean my peel. After i cook pizza i let them cool (of course) and i scrap it with a dough scraper. Works pretty good and you soon have a pizza stone that looks pretty good. Anything thing you can do is leave it in your oven when you do the self-clean cycle. Then just wipe it clean when its done. I prefer the dough scraper method but any of them work great.

Ncage
 
Umm i very likely dought you are right on this one. THere are two things that causes pizza stones to crack:

1) Big temperature changes. Say you heat the stone to a scortching temperature on say a good gas grill that gets hot like a weber genesis. I know my grate temperature can get well passed 650. Anyways open the lid (especially when its cold out or if you open the lid all the way to let a lot of the heat out) and you could crack your stone.

2) Get something wet on the stone when hot. Say for example your sauce is to watery and it spills over on the stone. This definitly could cause a crack.

3) Lots and lots of use where it heats up and cools down. Of course this takes a long time especially with a good quality stone (thick).

The soap might cause a bad after taste but i very very unlikely it will cause the stone to crack.

Oh ya you might be able to soak your stone in water if you do have a soap after taste and as long as the soap residue disolves (might want to give a good soak time (48hours)) through the basic scientific principle of osmosis (the tendency of a substance to go from a area of higher concentration (your stone) to an area of lower concentration (the fresh water) until equilbrium is reached.). If you do this method you might want to flush with fresh water as often as you can to keep the soap moving from the stone to the water outside. If you do this make sure the stone thoroughly dries before you use it again (especially if you cook your pizza at rocket hot temperatures like i do 550F). Don't think because the stone is dry on the exterior that some of the pores could not have retained some of the moisture. It might be safer to put the pizza in the oven at its lowest temperature for 30 min to make sure its thoroughly dry before you try high temperatures again.

Hope this helps,
Ncage
Caine said:
Give me your pizza stone. Within a couple of weeks it will crack, and you'll have an excuse to buy a new one, which you WILL NOT WASH WITH SOAP!
 
Try a little lemon juice with your baking soda and see it that doesn't help. I've never tried it myself but other friends with stones swear by the combo for cleaning. Once the stone is well seasoned, a little soap won't soak in and shouldn't be a problem but I still wouldn't use soap on a regular basis for cleaning.
 
I don't think there is actually "soap" on the pizza stone but the fragrance from the product.
I was given an off brand dish soap six months ago. My cutting board was washed with it. My cutting board smelled like a bouquet of flowers. I didn't really notice the smell until I used it. The veggies that I was cutting did not smell like flowers and were okay. I rinsed everything that I was cutting chunk style. I have this one good large cutting board and two smaller ones. I had to finish on another cutting board. (I don't like the smaller ones because they are too hard.)
I poured white distilled vinegar on my cutting board and scrubbed it with a brush. After I rinsed it, the smell was not as bold. I gave my cutting board the vinegar wash each time before I used it for about three weeks.
The smell is now gone.
 
I thought your pizza stone was like your cast iron and just a simple wiping off of debis was all that was needed. My older one is has a sheen similar to cast iron and my newer one is just beginning to shine. I do give it a scraping if some cheese happens to bake on to it but they never see water.

JDP
 
jkath said:
I'm curious - why would it crack, Caine?
Mine has never even chipped and I believe I've had it at least 10 years.

Nobody seems to be able to explain it, not the people who work in the places I buy them, and not the manfacturers, but it seems every pizza stone I buy ends up cracking within a few weeks. I've pretty much given up, and now I just fit the broken pieces together, like a jigsaw puzzle, and continue to march.
 
Many thanx to all.I shall try your advice and if all else fails there is always Dominoes(UGH!)Going fromItalian to Irish-not a far leap,anybody have a good recipe for crubeens?
 
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