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We have 5 year old a pizza stone that use to make homemade pizzas, pita bread, etc...

For as long as I can remember every time we preheat it in the oven (before adding any food on it) it produces a huge amount of smoke. The oven is clean.

Depending on what we're using it for the temperature varies, but on average I'd say ~400°F. I'm not 100% sure of the stone material, but I would guess Cordierite because it looks similar to this stone.

Is there anyway to prevent the smoke?

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    A pizza stone shouldn't be smoking. Could you provide more details? Does it smoke before the food is used? What temperature do you put it at? What is it made of? (I don't mean to insult) Is your oven clean? Many modern ovens have self cleaning modes that help to get rid of residue that could cause smoking.
    – Wolfgang
    Aug 7, 2017 at 21:18
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    I was going to suggest that what ever was causing the smoking could be burnt off by leaving it in the oven for many hours til the smoking stopped. But if you've been using it regularly for 5 years it should have burnt off anything already. Unless it is pizza drippings that are being reapplied. So maybe sticking it in the oven for 12 hours is worth a try.
    – Frames Catherine White
    Aug 8, 2017 at 2:02
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    I can only guess at what might be causing the smoke, so I won't try. If you have an outdoor gas grill of sufficient size you might try putting it on the grill on high heat just to see if you can 'burn it off'... short of that I would think about replacing it.
    – Cos Callis
    Aug 8, 2017 at 2:03
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    Did you buy this stone yourself, and are you sure it's a pizza stone? Could it be another material that looks like one? How are you using it, and do you frequently get pizza toppings on it?
    – GdD
    Aug 8, 2017 at 7:49
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    Pizza stones work as well as they do because the material is porous. They are able to absorb moisture from the food on it so the bread/crusts crisps from the direct contact with the stone instead of getting steamed from beneath. As such, a scrape and wipe probably leaves some food materials in the stone, itself. Maybe a more vigorous water rinse and scrub with a nylon brush. I use unglazed tiles, myself, and do the rinse, scrape and then dry it out in the oven between uses. But I do expect some smoke each time, regardless.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Aug 8, 2017 at 20:55

2 Answers 2

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(1) Wikihow suggests "As a last resort, soak your stone in water," and also "Baking soda is a sodium bicarbonate and is great for cleaning off dirt and grease," and lastly, an a one-shot hail mary, "Using The Self-Cleaning Function."

http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-a-Pizza-Stone

(2) Caveat: I've not tried any of these methods myself. I bake pizza on a flat cast iron pan, which I use for everything else. It works fine, you can put a bit of oil on the bottom of the pan.

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Does it smell like pizza grease? I'm guessing it's probably absorbed a lot of oil from your pizzas. You can try to burn it off by leaving it in a hot oven until it stops smoking.

If you're able to get it back to its original state, cleaning it in between uses is a good idea if you don't do that already. If something spills on it while it's cooking, thoroughly dampen a paper towel, grasp it with a pair of long tongs, and use that to rub the spill away. I've used that trick both at home, and in commercial stone-decked pizza ovens, and it works great.

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    Soaking porous stones with chemical cleaners is often not good advice, it can prove very hard to get all of it out again. unless you were otherwise going to discard the stone anyway.
    – rackandboneman
    Aug 8, 2017 at 8:32
  • @rackandboneman Fair enough. I did some reading and edited my response. I have 20 years of experience cleaning commercial food surfaces and have worked as a pizzaiolo, but I admittedly don't have a ton of experience with home cooking equipment.
    – ChefAndy
    Aug 8, 2017 at 15:29
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    Thanks for removing the part about degreaser! My gut feeling is that especially in a stone pizza oven you would never use chemicals but burn off all spills the towel didn't catch. At least that's what I do with my wood-fired bread oven. Same rules apply for an unglazed baking/pizza stone at home.
    – Stephie ♦
    Aug 9, 2017 at 6:40

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