So what are the steps for restoring your Ooni pizza stone? Do you wash it? Do you heat it and do something else?
So you have bought an Ooni pizza stone, and we need to congratulate you on that.
By doing so, you have made a fantastic purchase, which leads to your need to know all about one thing.
Knowing how to correctly clean a pizza stone will mean it lasts longer than you may have anticipated.
Thankfully, taking care of your pizza stone does not have to be a tedious task. We reckon it’s going to work out to be a whole lot easier than you anticipated.
So, what we are going to do right now is take you through the steps required to correctly restore your pizza stone.
By the end, we promise you will feel far better equipped to go ahead and do this and do so with absolute ease.
But what we have done here is to ensure we provide you with the easiest and safest method for your Ooni pizza stone.
It’s free of chemicals, and even though it will require some work on your part, it’s not too difficult.
Well, that’s unless you have failed to clean the stone for some time and have completely charred pieces of pizza stuck on there.
However, even with that, there’s a good chance you will find you are capable of getting your pizza stone spotless once again.
The First Tip: Avoid Moisture
But we must first say that you must avoid putting too much moisture on a pizza stone.
That means you cannot go out and wash it as you do with other dishes. The water will end up inside, taking forever to dry out.
Also, it would then increase the chances of the pizza stone cracking if you go ahead and use it again before it has had the opportunity to dry out completely.
You certainly don’t want to go through that particular fiasco if you can avoid it.
That aside, let’s get on with the cleaning method we recommend for your Ooni pizza stone.
Step 1: The Cooling Period
The first step is to make sure the pizza stone has had a chance to cool before you go ahead and start trying to clean it.
That means taking it out of the oven and leaving it alone. Now, a pizza stone is always designed to retain heat.
That means it’s not going to take just a few minutes to cool. Instead, this can take a couple of hours to cool down completely.
You cannot simply go by how it feels to the touch. Instead, the heat can be held within the middle of the pizza stone for a prolonged period.
Ultimately, it’s best to take some real care over time aspect.
Step 2: Brushing Off Crumbs
Using a relatively stiff brush, your next step after cooling is to brush off the loose crumbs on the surface of the pizza stone.
Admittedly, some may be stuck on there and burned to the point where you wonder how you can get them off, but don’t worry, we have a trick for you.
However, we recommend brushing those crumbs to let you see what is left behind. Also, you can start to work out those areas that require additional work.
We have found that the best motion for brushing off the crumbs is in more of a circular manner. It helps dislodge more crumbs than expected, and we feel it gets better results.
Step 3: Dealing with the Tougher Crumbs
So you find yourself at the stage where you need to tackle those crumbs and food particles stuck to the stone. I know it’s not easy, but we can help you to get most of them off.
Also, don’t worry about not getting the stone pristine. It doesn’t have to look as if it’s brand new to continue functioning perfectly well.
But these tougher crumbs require a bit more work, and one option is baking soda.
Now, you must take care here because it does involve the smallest amount of water, but you need to wet the baking soda for it to get to work.
The grains in the baking soda work well at breaking down grease and disrupting those food particles stuck to the stone.
However, you should only use a few drops of water to moisten things. Use a cloth, and wipe in that circular motion you used when brushing the stone.
Once again, the circular movement makes a difference in how effective it is, and you should see some of those tougher marks starting to come off.
Step 4: Removing the Baking Soda
After you have scrubbed the stone, do not rinse it under water. You only cause more problems that way.
Instead, what you need to do is to get a cloth and make sure it’s only slightly damp.
You will shake as much of the excess baking soda off the stone as possible and then wipe over it with a damp cloth.
That should do a good job of removing a lot of the baking soda, but you must leave the stone to air dry for a couple of hours.
Yes, even with a small amount of water, you need to leave it for a prolonged period to ensure it’s dry.
Baking Soda Helps Grease As Well
We have also found, and others report this, that the baking soda paste works exceptionally well at removing those grease stains off the pizza stone.
You should leave the paste on the stone for around 10 to 15 minutes before you think about cleaning it off.
By leaving it for this time, you allow the baking soda to work on breaking down the grease.
We guarantee you will see a significant difference once you have wiped off the broken-down grease.
Just remember not to soak the pizza stone, as we mentioned earlier. Wipe the grease away with a damp cloth, then rinse it and do it again to remove more.
Optional Step – Scraping the Stone
We do have an optional step that some people prefer to do before they go ahead and use the baking soda method.
Using a plastic spatula and effectively scrapping the pizza stone is an option.
You will struggle to damage an Ooni pizza stone using this method, which is also why you need to use a plastic spatula over anything else.
Holding the spatula at a slight angle, use a bit of force to scrape off those pieces of pizza and food stuck on the stone.
It may require a bit of force and doing this several times, but you can work a lot of the pizza stains off the surface.
Alternatively, you could use this method after the baking soda method. That’s a great approach.
The baking soda loosens it, and then the plastic spatula comes along and finishes it off.
Final Key Tips on Cleaning Your Pizza Stone
We do have a couple of final key tips to help when it comes to cleaning your Ooni pizza stone.
First, we know people can become bored waiting for things to dry correctly. So, you can use some paper towels to speed up the process a bit. However, this changes the time slightly, so it’s not a big deal.
Also, don’t use an overly stiff brush. Plus, you don’t want to constantly damage the stone’s surface.
However, a soft brush won’t do much either, so we recommend going for something in the middle.
Finally, we do suggest cleaning your pizza stone after every use. It just prevents a building up of crumbs and grease, which would make life a lot harder for you when cleaning it.
We figure it’s best to take a short period to get things right at the outset rather than making life more difficult in the long term.
Overall Conclusion
As you can see, cleaning an Ooni pizza stone is very easy to do. The hardest part is having the patience to wait for it to completely cool before you get to work.
But we don’t want you to stress too much about bacteria. The temperature this pizza stone operates at goes far beyond the temperature that bacteria can thrive at.
So, you will effectively kill them by using the pizza stone in the future.
However, it’s just way more hygienic to go ahead and clean the pizza stone correctly for future uses. At least now you know exactly what to do.
