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.

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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.

 

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.

 

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!

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