pizza stone mess

[franwake13]

hey whats up everyone, what do you guys do when a pizza sticks to the peel and sauce and cheese and stuff get all over the stone. it happened to me today and it make a HUGE  mess. im just gonna try and burn off the sauce and scrape/brush it clean. what would you do if you were in the middle of a rush? thanks alot!!!!
-frank

[tinroofrusted]

It really is the worst!  I always give the pizza a few good shakes before I put it on the stone to make sure it isn't sticking. If it seems to be sticking then I gently add a bit of corn meal underneath the part that is sticking. This usually works.  As far as cleaning up the mess, I would say use a spatula and scrape off what you can, then soak it for a while and have another go at it. 

Best regards,

Tin Roof

[franwake13]

soak it? i was told to never soak pizza stones, i got 2 bloddget pizza oven, i would die if the stones broke

[tinroofrusted]

soak it? i was told to never soak pizza stones, i got 2 bloddget pizza oven, i would die if the stones broke

Those are extremely high stakes, so I retract my advice. 

Best regards, 

Tin Roof

[chickenparm]

hey whats up everyone, what do you guys do when a pizza sticks to the peel and sauce and cheese and stuff get all over the stone. it happened to me today and it make a HUGE  mess. im just gonna try and burn off the sauce and scrape/brush it clean. what would you do if you were in the middle of a rush? thanks alot!!!!
-frank

Burn it off and scrape as you stated.Its all you can really do.Turn the oven up higher if you can to speed it up.A metal dough scraper helps too.Might be like fingers on a chalk board but it works well for me.Been there and done that!

[Jackie Tran]

You can wash it with water and take a scouring pad to it if you want, just don't use soapy water as the soap can soak into the porous stone.

If you do get your stone wet, just let it air dry and the residual moisture will bake out next time you're preheating the oven.

But baking it off with the cleaning cycle is easier.

[Ronzo]

Soaking them is bad mojo. Heat it up. Scorch it. The stuff will come right off with some persuasion after it cools. The miniscule residual that is left will help season the stone.

[Frankie G]

i agree....  burn it.

you may want to sprinkle a little cornmeal on it to assist soaking up any grease... (that's what they do in pizza restaurants with deck ovens.)

turn your fan on HIGH....   open the windows... and have a glass of wine

[Ronzo]

i agree....  burn it.

you may want to sprinkle a little cornmeal on it to assist soaking up any grease... (that's what they do in pizza restaurants with deck ovens.)

turn your fan on HIGH....   open the windows... and have a glass of wine

or five...

[PizzaHog]

Or, bake the stone on the oven's self cleaning cycle.  Just leaves a little white ash to brush off and looks like new.  Of course, this is just what I do with a cordierite stone so no guarantees accross the board.  And this also requires a full bottle of wine...
Hog

[Frankie G]

Cool idea Hog... I think that one is the winner.

[chickenparm]

Do those Bloddgett Ovens have a cleaning cycle?

[Pete-zza]

Using the clean cycle is a good idea but franwake13 has Blodgett ovens which, to the best of my knowledge, do not have a clean cycle. I was going to suggest that franwake13 check with the members of the PMQ Think Tank (I knew that franwake13 was a registered member there) but as I was about to make the suggestion I checked with the PMQTT and saw that franwake13 had already posted there, at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10270&sid=4f213c2af7cb3661cee84203af38f0d6. I see that no one answered what to do if there is a pizza stone mess in the middle of a rush. One solution is to have a second, backup oven or a double stack. Some operators do that so that they aren't put completely out of operation if their oven goes down for any reason.

Peter