new stone is smoking??

[mmac06]

Hello,
I recently purchased a new baking stone. I'm not sure if I can post links, but here it is:
http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-685883/Charcoal-Companion-Rectangular-Pizza-Stone

It's the Charcoal Companion Rectangular Pizza Stone from Sur La Table. When I got it, I first rinsed it in cold water. I let it dry. I then spread olive oil on it (not EVO). I put it in the oven about at 500 for 30 min or so. It was smoking at letting out a strong sort of plastic smell that burt my eyes. I repeated this and it happened again. I've now used the stone to make a couple of pizzas and am still getting that smell and smoke -- although it seems to have lessened somewhat. I checked and there are no stickers or anything on the stone that would be burning. This does not happen when I use the oven without the stone.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it normal? Does it go away?

[scott123]

You never want to put oil on/season a baking stone.

Eventually the oil should bake off, but, until then, you're stuck with the smoke. Cordierite can be sanded, but with cast refractory, I wouldn't do it. It's already incredibly weak structurally, so sanding could introduce more weak points. Oven cleaner would most likely permeate the stone and make the food taste odd. A grill would heat the stone unevenly and it would break.

[mmac06]

You never want to put oil on/season a baking stone.

Eventually the oil should bake off, but, until then, you're stuck with the smoke.

Crap. I thought I heard you're supposed to season your stone. Did I make that up? Any idea how long it might take to bake off? A ballpark figure would be helpful if you can swing it.

[scott123]

Pizza baking temps are above the smoke point for most oils, so any oil that gets on stone will smoke the next time pizza is made. Cast refractory is pretty porous, so it probably absorbed a good dose of oil. This is one of the many advantages to less porous stone materials- when the oily cheese gets on the stone, it can be cleaned off without smoking up the house on future bakes.

It probably won't help much, but you can give it a good scrubbing with baking soda.  Make sure you're working with a clean sponge and baking soda only, no soap.

Keep in mind that if you get the stone wet, you'll need to heat it very gradually in the oven. I would use the drying instructions found here:

http://www.equippers.com/pdfs/specs/HJ0001.pdf

After scrubbing it and thoroughly drying it, you should be able to put it on the bottom of the oven and crank the oven to the highest temp for about 2 hours. That should burn all the oil off. Turn on the exhaust and/or open lots of windows.