I just bought a pizza stone without any directions. Do I pretreat it with oil before use, and how do I use it?

Like, do I preheat the oven to 500F, put the pizza stone in the over for an hour and then put the pizza on it to cook?





ThanksI just bought a pizza stone without any directions. Do I pretreat it with oil before use, and how do I use it?
Pizza stone rules:


1) never use soap to wash your pizza stone. I do rinse mine occasionally


with water, but never soap.


2) Preheat your stone--this is really the whole advantage of the stone.





General directions:





Preheat oven (with stone on lowest baking rack) to 450 or 500. Preheat


15 min to 30 min if time (it works better if the stone is truly hot).





Sprinkle cornmeal (to prevent sticking) on a pizza peel (wooden paddle)


or cookie sheet (with no edges). Put your dough on the peel and then


decorate as desired. Shake the peel a few times to make sure the dough


isn't sticking to the peel.


Now open the oven door and slide the pizza onto the hot stone (this takes


a little practice). Your pizza should only take about 10 minutes. When


it's done, slide it back onto the peel, slice and eat!I just bought a pizza stone without any directions. Do I pretreat it with oil before use, and how do I use it?
450 and cook it for about 15 mins directly on the rack of the oven
oil will make your oven smoke use like you would the regular oven preheat 375 or 400 about twenty minutes ..then make your pizza NOT NOT 500 because 500 goes into your broiler stage nothing over 400 degrees
DO NOT PUT A COLD, FROZEN PIZZA ON A HOT PIZZA STONE! IT WILL CRACK!
First, you should bake something like sugar cookie dough on your stone. This will help season the stone. Do not preheat the stone and then put a cold pizza on it because it will break.


Don't wash it with soap or put in the dish washer. Just put under warm water and scrape off.
What a bunch of bad info…..





The point of a pizza stone is to hold the heat so that when you put the item to be baked in the oven the temperature stays hot. The stone will only help with the cooking if you pre-heat it in the over for at least 30 minutes. Pizza stones are nice but the same effect can also be achieved with flat unglazed terracotta tiles from the home improvement store.





There is no prep of the stone needed other than a rinse under water to clear any dirt from shipping. The stone must be completely dry before placing it in the oven or it could split as the water steams. You should never bother cooking a frozen pizza with a stone since they are designed to be cooked on a sheet in the oven.





Different types of bread / pizza cook at different temps .. go figure. Dinner roles cook in the 400 range while pita bread is more like 550. The general rule is the thinner the dough the higher the temp. By the way broiling is heating from top element in the oven and is not good for Pizza baking. Convection cooking is also not the way to go with a Pizza. A pizza is just bread with stuff on top.





You will need to use corn meal to keep the dough from sticking if you place the dough directly on the stone. You can also use thin metal pans that transfer the heat fast to get the same effect. In all cases a wood or aluminum peel is a giant help in moving the large hot pizzas





You should try cocking other bread item on you stone since nothing tastes like fresh bread.





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“To prevent cracking of the stone by thermal shock, the pizza stone should be placed on a cold oven and heated over at least 45 minutes, and it should be allowed to cool down slowly inside the oven after switching it off. Because of the possibility of rapid temperature change, pizza stones should not be left in an oven while it is in self-cleaning mode.”





From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_stone
Do not pre-heat or oil your stone. NEVER USE SOAP ON IT, it will absorb it if you do. because it will absorb liquid you never need to oil it, it gets oil from the foods you cook.
I've never preheated my pizza stone, or heard of anyone else doing that... Use it just as you would any other pan, but the stone will stay warmer longer (that, and making foods crispier, are the advantages to using stone). I don't think preheating would be good for your stone. You can also use it for cookies, french fries, pretty much any frozen appetizer, etc. and you wouldn't want to put them onto a hot pan, so I definitely wouldn't recommend it. I also occasionally use soap, it's not going to kill it- just don't do it every time. I only use soap when it's extra messy, and mine still stays well seasoned. Be careful about setting your stone on the counter, it will scrape it. I leave mine on the stove, or I also bought a rack that I can set on the table. Hope this helps~