This Is Why Your Pizza Stone Cracked Last Season - And Here's How To Prevent It This Year - Tasting Table

Pizza stones made from clay, ceramic, or cordierite can crack and fail due to thermal shock, trapped moisture or oil, or rough handling. Thermal shock occurs when a stone heats or cools too rapidly, especially when temperature changes happen unevenly, causing different parts to expand or contract at different rates and fracture. This can happen when a cold stone is placed into a hot oven, when a hot stone is set on a cool surface, when it is exposed to cold water, or even during baking if the pizza is too cold. Trapped moisture or oil can expand in porous areas, forcing the stone to shift as the trapped liquid seeks an exit. Prevention includes placing the stone in the oven before preheating so both warm gradually together.

"Thermal shock is an easy mistake to make. This happens when you warm up your oven, but forget to put the stone in. When you do, you quickly discover that your stone has sub-divided. Thermal shock happens when the stone heats or cools too rapidly, particularly when this transition happens unevenly. On a microscopic level, thermal shock is when part of a material expands or contracts with heat (or when losing it) faster than other parts, causing them to fracture."

"Of course, this can happen by putting a cold stone into a hot oven or even laying a hot stone on a cool surface or in cold water. It can even happen mid-bake if the pizza on the stone is too cold itself. Getting water or oil trapped is also a sleeper threat to pizza stones, as moisture can get stuck in porous nooks and expand with heat. With nowhere to go but out, that means the stone has to move out of the way."

"Pizza stones are typically made of clay, ceramic, or more durable materials like cordierite, leading us to wonder why they cracked in the first place. The three most common causes of pizza stone destruction are thermal shock, trapped moisture or oil, and general rough handling, which, for a fragile slap of ceramic, may not even be that rough."

"Knowing the pitfalls that can crack your pizza stone helps us to better prevent them. Of course, avoiding thermal shock can be time consuming and require a little extra preparation, but your unbroken pizza stone will thank you. Make sure you put the stone into the oven before pre-heating so that the stone and the oven heat up slowly together."

Read at Tasting Table