Forum: cooking.stackexchange.com
Tags: <equipment><pizza><barbecue><pizza-stone>
Title: How do you clean a pizza stone?
Question: I have a charcoal grill (Big Green Egg) that has a ceramic insert that can be used as a heat shield or as a pizza stone.  My stone is black from drippings and smoke.  I'd like to cook some pizza on it, but I'm not sure what I should do to clean it.

Answers:
sents: text: Perfect.
text: Sounds
text: like your pizza stone is nicely seasoned.
text: Scrub it with your stiffest brush, rinse with water, no soap, done.
text: If you're paranoid about germs, cook it before cooking on it .
text: Throw it in the oven at a few hundred degrees, for 15 minutes or so.
text: Ideally, you're supposed to heat the stone (thus sterilizing it) before slapping the pizza upon it anyway (although that requires a pizza peel ).
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/358/raven
score: 20
sents: text: I concur with all of the people above that the black burned on parts aren't at all a problem.
text: However if you want that buff color back, I got it back on one of mine accidentally.
text: I had a pizza stone that basically lived in my electric oven.
text: During some holiday or another I stuffed it under the lower burner of the oven, and forgot it.
text: Later I ran the electric oven self cleaning cycle.
text: When I opened the oven I was shocked to see a big buff colored disk in the bottom of the oven!
text: It had been black for so long
text: I hadn't seen it when I pulled out the thermometer before cleaning the cycle and had forgotten it was down there.
text: I don't know that it won't break your Big Green Egg Plate Setter.
text: I use the aforementioned pizza stone on top of mine to keep the BGE part cleaner.
text: I have used this technique a few times to clean up pizza stones others thought were "ruined' or "finally seasoned."
text: But with an Egg part I suppose I would worry that it might break, and I would have to replace it.
text: Pizza stones are much cheaper than Big Green Egg parts.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/2045/Laura Thomas
score: 7
sents: text: As long as the black stuff won't rub off on the pizza, blackness shouldn't matter.
text: You should probably heat it for a while to burn off any rancid fat that has been sitting on it since you last used your grill.
text: After its cool, a putty knife and a Brillo pad should clean it up enough.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/624/Adam Shiemke
score: 6
sents: text: I scrape any crusted-on stuff (like pizza cheese)
text: then rinse with water to get any soot off.
text: Never use soap on a pizza stone - they're porous, so it'll pick up a soapy taste that'll take forever to get out.
text: Nothing wrong with it turning black - it's just becoming seasoned.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/219/ceejayoz
score: 6
sents: text: I've had many disasters on my stone.
text: I used to freak out and would spend a lot of time trying to clean it.
text: All you need to do is scrape off the crusted on dough/cheese once the stone has heated off.
text: The rest will burn away next time you heat it up.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/2098/raji
score: 4
sents: text: Generally, I prefer putting it in an oven and using the self-cleaning function when there is a fewer amount of oil or baked staple foods stuck on the surface of a pizza stone.
text: You can also use a pizza scrubber brush .
text: Wash with baking soda.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/64615/Luisa Adelia
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
The black colouration should not be a problem as long as it does not rub off on the pizza, so brush with a stiff brush or pizza brush, then rinse with plain water. You can also use baking soda, or the self-cleaning function in an electric oven to remove food stuck on the surface.
The blackness is not a problem for cooking pizzas. However, you can use water and a scrubbing brush for any burnt on bits or try the self-cleaning cycle on your oven.