How To Properly Use A Pizza Stone

How To Properly Use A Pizza Stone 

A Pizza Stone is the perfect alternative if you do not have a pizza oven. Yet, many people who buy them either use them wrong or end up ruining their stone from trying to season it or clean it wrong. This blog will clear some things up and answer some common pizza stone questions. 

This is how a pizza stone should look after many uses and correct care. This stone has been used to cook hundreds of pizzas. 

Why use a pizza stone?

Unfortunately, conventional ovens and grills were not made to cook pizza correctly on their own. They both lack the high initial heat needed to make the crust crispy without overcooking the toppings. These heat sources cook too slow, making soggy dough pizzas that are no better than some cardboard crust takeout.

A pizza stone changes the game by acting as a point high heat transfer in an oven or on the grill. When used properly, the stone heats up and holds very high temperatures. When the pizza is placed on the stone the crust begins to cook immediately, mimicking the cooking style of a traditional brick oven.

Using a pizza stone will ultimately give you faster cook times and far better crust. Our ThermaBond® stones are manufactured with Pizzacraft’s exclusive ThermaBond® technology; specially formulated to eliminate thermal shock breakage, promote even heat distribution and retention, and stronger durability for consistent cooking on the oven or grill.

As useful as they are, there are some common mistakes people make when using pizza stones. We’re here to clear up those issues and get you making phenomenal pizzas in no time!

Seasoning a pizza stone 

Never season a Pizzacraft pizza stone. This is a mistake we see many people make! While other stones may need to be oiled or seasoned, this will ruin the Pizzacraft stones and cause them to smoke or have a bad odor. The Pizzacraft Pizza Stones come ready to cook with! There is no need to put flour or semolina on the stone. 

How to use a pizza stone in the oven or on the grill

1. Preheat the stone until it reaches 550° F (Pizzacraft stones can withstand 900° F) The correct oven temp for a pizza stone should exceed 500° F if possible.
2. Place room temperature pizza in the center of the stone (do not season stone).
3. Cook for 5 min with grill lid/oven closed.
4. Turn the pizza 180 degrees with a pizza peel and cook for another 5-7 min.
5. Let the stone cool in the oven or grill before removing to clean.

How to clean a pizza stone

1. Use a stone brush and hot water. Don’t soak your stone by fully submerging it underwater.
2. Use a small stream of water to wet the surface followed by a thorough scrubbing with the brush. (Never use soap!)
3. Air dry the stone instead of baking it dry because any absorbed water being forced out in the oven can potentially cause the stone to crack. 
4. To clean super tough baked on and burnt bits, we recommend our heavy-duty pizza stone scrubber.
5. For a full guide on cleaning pizza stones visit our blog How To Clean A Pizza Stone 

NEVER - Clean a Pizza Stone With Steel Wool or other metal abrasive cleaners

Pizza stone giveaway

As part of our monthly giveaways at Pizzacraft, we are giving away a free ThermaBond® pizza stone this Friday, March 16th! If you missed it - don't worry! We do giveaways every month on our Instagram. For more details on how to win - check out Pizzacraft Instagram @_pizzacraft