Featured Post

Quick and Easy Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Coffee and whole wheat toast are one of my breakfast mainstays. St. Patrick’s Day is coming up so why not whip up a loaf of Irish Soda Bread one of the greatest gifts this Lazy Budget Chef (who can’t proof bread to save her life) has ever known – the bread machine. As luck would have it I have more whole wheat flour than white and more raisins than normal because I went to a bulk bin without a container and bought more raisin than I thought. No problem. I’ll make a Irish style whole wheat bread featuring those those happy raisins sitting in my kitchen. I am using the bread machine to make and proof the dough for this recipe and baking the bread in the oven because I want the round shape of a traditional Irish style bread. You can bake it that way or you can bake the whole wheat Irish bread from start to finish in a bread machine. It will taste just the same although I personally think baking bread in the bread maker makes it a little more dense than when I bake bread machine do

My Pizza Stone Tastes Funny and How to Wash It

I absolutely love my baking stone (I have a square pizza stone similar to this one because it is more versatile than a round one.) I use it all the time and for pretty much everything I put in the oven. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)

Which I learned is a mistake.

The food I bake on my pizza stone is starting to taste weird. The stone smells and smokes when I put it in a hot oven.

Why?

Because baking and pizza stones are porous. That’s how they do their job of creating perfectly baked bread and pizza crusts. But the porous stone can also absorb and trap the fats and oils in the food baked on top of it. Over time, the oil heats and releases into the lovely seasoning you created by baking on the stone and makes your pizza or bread taste awful and/or fill your kitchen with eye watering smoke. Bleach!

In other words, I should have used a metal baking sheet to make oven baked French fries and not my baking stone. Oops.

why does my pizza stone smoke taste funny
Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

How to Fix a Pizza or Baking Stone that Smokes or Has a Bad Taste

You should not wash a pizza stone with soap and water because the same porous surface that absorbed the oil or fat (like cheese) will do the exact same thing with dish washing detergent. Then your baking stone will taste like rancid oil and soap. No thanks.

The best and easiest way to remove the bad taste and wash a baking and pizza stone is in the refrigerator case of your favorite grocery store - a tube of biscuits or crescent rolls! I suggest buying the cheapest tube of rolls you can find because you will throw it away (I composed mine) when you are done.

1. Remove the biscuit dough from the tube.

2. Cover the entire pizza or baking stone with the dough. I used two rolls of Aldi crescent rolls to cover the entire surface of my pizza stone.

 

how to fix a baking stone that tastes weird
It doesn't have to look pretty, just completely covered in dough.

 3. Bake the dough according to the oven temperature and time on the package. As the dough bakes it will draw the rancid fat and oil from the baking stone and into the dough.

4. Remove the stone from the oven. Allow it to cool until it is safe enough to handle. Scrap the dough from the baking stone with a spatula and discard the dough.

 

why does my pizza stone stink and taste funny
Don't eat the rolls! They will taste terrible.

 You can prevent your pizza stone from tasting bad by putting a piece of baking parchment paper like this kind  in between the stone and the item you want to bake on it. Oh and learn from my mistake and only use your baking stone to bake bread and pizzas.

Looking for more pizza stone and cast iron skillet cleaning ideas? Check out the following options – and more! - below!

Did you like this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Lazy Budget Chef RSS feed

Comments

Michele Morin said…
The wonders of parchment paper!