Pizza Stones and Silly Cooking

[Guest Cooking Facepalm]

I know this is my lack of common sense, but can someone confirm?

 

I bought a pizza stone.  My first.  

I preheated and cooked a pizza on it.

Pizza 1 was good.

 

The (now I understand) normal spillover of Pizza 1 ingredients happened onto the pizza stone.

No instructions on the box.

Not understanding that you just scrape a pizza stone, or at best do a simple wipe, I soaked it in the sink trying to get rid of the stains.

 

Now, to the "face palm" part.

Having "cleaned" the pizza stone, and not understood it was porous stone and would soak up the water,

I immediately used my "clean" stone to bake another pizza, Pizza 2.

My thinking was any water on the stone would be vaporized during the preheat cycle.

Luckily the pizza stone didn't shatter in the oven.

However, the crust on the Pizza 2 never made it past fall apart doughy consistency.

 

Can I assume the following:

a.  The pizza stone was full of water from my soaking.  I steamed vs. baked the pizza crust on Pizza 2.

b.  If I let the pizza stone properly dry out, it's still usable

 

Thanks much.

[The Girls' Mom]

Yes, let it dry.  Then cook something moderately greasy on it.  Wipe/scrape clean.  It should be back to awesome.  

 

Mine is black from 15 years of use...nothing will stick to that baby now..lol.

[fraidycat]

Yes, let it dry. Then cook something moderately greasy on it. Wipe/scrape clean. It should be back to awesome.

 

Mine is black from 15 years of use...nothing will stick to that baby now..lol.

:iagree:

 

Except, I broke my first pizza stone that was nicely seasoned. A sad day it was. I'm now working on "blackening" my newer one.

[Tap]

If you have a cooling rack, I would just sit the stone on that and let the water evaporate over the next few days.  Putting it on a rack will help the air to circulate under the stone.

 

If you need it before then, you could warm your oven to 200* and turn it off.  Let the closed oven cool for 5minutes or so, and then set the stone in the oven. Leave in until the stone is warm and then prop the door open until cool or  set the stone on the cooling rack to allow the water to evaporate. Repeat as necessary.  I would avoid getting stone over 200*, since what you want to avoid is the water turning to steam. 

[AppleGreen]

 

 

Mine is black from 15 years of use...nothing will stick to that baby now..lol.

Yup, mine too. That thing has been going strong for 15+ years. Best kitchen goodie ever.  :001_wub:

 

I am working on seasoning a smaller stone to perfection.