Quick and Easy Way To Clean Your Pizza Stone: Power Sander

Pizza stones tend to get dirty quickly – spill some sauce or cheese onto the 600ºF surface and it almost immediately turns into a burnt black mess. I usually clean my stone passively, scraping any excessive residue with a dough scraper and letting the high heat do the rest of the work for me.

At a certain point, a brown and black stone becomes unsightly and may even affect the moisture-absorb cooking aspect that a clean stone provides. When you reach that point, do NOT wash it in the sink or dishwasher. The material that stones are made from are porous and sand-like and will absorb and store the moisture inside, even after letting it dry for a period of time. That internal moisture will turn to steam and crack or break the stone as it expands.

When I bought my stone a few years ago (which I love, by the way – it’s outlasted all previous stones I’ve owned, and cooks great with the 5/8″ thickness), it came with a photocopied “Use and Care” sheet that suggested using a belt sander to clean the stone periodically. I decided to test this out with a palm sander.

The results were interesting: the surface returned to a smooth and clean feel, but it looked as if there may be a top veneer layer that gives an even appearance. Some of the spots that I sanded seemed to show a larger grain underneath as I sanded. I’m not concerned about this in any way at all. But I am going to keep my eye on a small crack that seems to be developing.