If you do a Google search for “season pizza stone”, you’ll find a long list of how to season a pizza stone guide, luckily you clicked on this article. Because adding oil to a pizza stone is not a good idea!
You should not season your pizza stone! The reason is that pizza stone manufacturers say their pizza stones don’t require any seasoning. Or even advise you to not add any oil to the stone, as this can ruin it. In addition to that, seasoning of a pizza stone doesn’t really have any benefits.
What Does Seasoning Mean?
Seasoning, in the context of cookware, is the process of adding oil and baking it into the cookware by applying heat. The goal of seasoning is to add a protective layer, that will both reduce sticking and protect cast iron from rusting.
An example of an item that you should season is a cast iron skillet. Cast Iron skillets are made from cast iron (obviously!), which may rust if not if it’s exposed to water. To season a cast iron skillet, you add a thin layer of oil, coating the whole pan, then bake it for 30 minutes to an hour in the oven. What happens when you apply heat, is polymerization and carbonization of the oil, which creates a protective layer on the pan.
Does a Pizza Stone Need to Be Seasoned?
I’ve been curious about this for a long time since I’ve heard conflicting advice. In many places online, you can read what you need to season your pizza stone. But after digging a little deeper, I started to see some pizza enthusiasts warning people from seasoning pizza stones with oil. So I decided to get to the bottom of this!
The short answer is no, pizza stones don’t need to be seasoned. Actually, I haven’t found any pizza stone manufacturers that recommend seasoning their stones with oil. Several of them discourage you from doing so, or even claim that application of oil can ruin the pizza stone.
What the Pizza Stone Manufacturers Says
I have looked through a long list of pizza stone manufacturers, and here are some examples of what they’re saying about seasoning their pizza stones:
- California Pizza Stones: “We do not recommend using any oil of any type” (http://www.californiapizzastones.com/pizza/files/Conditioning-A-Pizza-Stone.php)
- Pizzacraft: “Never season a Pizzacraft pizza stone. This is a mistake we see many people make! While other stones may need to be oiled or seasoned, this will ruin the Pizzacraft stones and cause them to smoke or have a bad odor.” (https://www.pizzacraft.com/blogs/pizzacraft-blog/how-to-properly-use-a-pizza-stone)
The only manufacturer that’s talking about the seasoning of their ceramic pizza stones is Pampared Chef (their homepage: pamperedchef.com). On their website (here), they’re talking about how baking high-fat food will naturally season their Pampered Chef Round Stone (affiliate link). So I reached out and asked Pampered Chef if they recommend seasoning their pizza stone with vegetable oil. And got the answer:
“For stones that are new, you can build up the seasoning:
1. Brush lightly with oil (Vegetable is fine) Or
2. Bake high-fat foods (e.g. refrigerated biscuits).
This will help season.”
But as you can see from their answer, they don’t actually recommend doing it, just mention it as an option.
In conclusion, most manufacturers don’t recommend seasoning their pizza stones. There are however some manufacturers that don’t explicitly advise you not to. Some stones can be seasoned without being damaged, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it.
Why You Don’t Need to Season Your Pizza Stone
I have talked a lot about whether you can season a pizza stone, but the real question is perhaps do you need to? There are two main reasons why you want to season cookware: to make it last longer and to make food stick less.
Seasoning Your Pizza Stone Doesn’t Make It Last Longer
I haven’t found any information that supports that the seasoning of a pizza stone will make it last longer. Whenever seasoning is mentioned, it’s always about creating a non-stick surface on the stone.
Pizza Will Not Stick to the Pizza Stone
Actually, pizza will not stick if a pizza stone is used properly. The reason is that a pizza stone needs to be really hot to bake pizza on it, and at that temperature, the pizza will get crisp and not stick (I’m explaining this in detail in the article: How to Preheat Your Pizza Stone). Therefore, you don’t need to season your pizza stone to achieve a non-stick surface.
Natural Seasoning
The pizza stone may however be seasoned whether you want it or not. Natural seasoning can occur when you bake food that contains a lot of oil on your pizza stone. When this oil drips on the stone, it will be absorbed. This may cause odor and flavors from those fats to contaminate other food that you’re baking on the stone. This is most common for pizza stones made from clay because they absorb oil more than ceramic stones.
So, Should You Oil Your Pizza Stone?
From what I’ve found most pizza stone manufacturers don’t recommend applying oil to their pizza stones. Some even advise you to not do it, due to the fact that most pizza stones will retain oil, something that can result in smoke and bad odors.
In addition to that, I haven’t found any benefits of seasoning a pizza stone. Seasoning doesn’t appear to make the stone last longer, and creating a non-stick surface for pizza baking is not really necessary. I therefore personally don’t season any of my pizza stones.
You should however not be too scared of the natural seasoning of your pizza stone. It will retain some oils, but I haven’t experienced any smoke or bad odors just from the few drops that have ended up on my pizza stones.
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