Pizza stone won’t stop smoking

[u/PetalbrookMayor]

Hello!

My parents recently gave me an old pizza stone they had. I’ve used it a couple times already but I’ve noticed that it smokes once it’s been heated up in the oven.

After researching, I found maybe it had some oils seeped into it and it was recommended that I basically just put it into the oven and let it all smoke out.

However, I’ve been doing that for over an hour on 475° and the pizza stone is still smoking. It’s not a heavy smoke but when I open the oven there’s definitely some smoke that comes out.

What does this mean? Should I just let it go even longer? Or is it done for and I should just buy another one?

Thank you!

[u/Unholyrage619]

Depending on how clean it was before you used it, there could be dirt that's adhered to it. And if you didn't clean the stone before using it the first time, depending on where the dust is, it would smoke til it's completely burned away. When my stone hasn't been used in awhile, I'll wash it real quick to remov any dust, and then heat it as normal in the oven before placing the pizza on it.

My suggestion...let it cool completely, take it out, wash it with hot soap and water to try and get off anything on the outside surface, top and bottom, and then cook it at 475 for the next 2 hrs...if there's any smoke, it may be from oil they used that seeped into the stone, and you just need to cook the oils out completely, so just leave it til there's no smoke, or barely noticeable smoke. Then you can use it like normal from that point on.

[u/flightist → u/Unholyrage619]

I wouldn’t wash a pizza stone and then put it in a 475 oven unless I had too many pizza stones and wanted an excuse to trash one.

[u/Unholyrage619 → u/flightist]

lol I meant put it in and turn the oven on, like you normally would do...pizza stone into a cold oven, then turn on the heat. Nothing will happen to it, other than it heats up, and the water evaporates off it, and then you let the stone heat thru like you would if you were going to actually be using it

[u/Markblasco → u/Unholyrage619]

This is not necessarily true. If water has seeped into the stone at all, putting it in and turning the oven to a normal temperature can absolutely crack the stone. I know this because of personal experience, and now own 1.8 pizza stones. If you get it wet at all, let it air dry for several days, or put it in a very low temperature oven for a long while. Wet stone changes temperature at a different rate than dry stone, and turning the temperature above low is a great way to figure out where it wants to crack.