Care and Maintenance (XLBGE

UCFFAN

OK BGErs.....! Let a pizza get away from me last night. Scorched the crap out of my stone. Who's done this and how did you restore the stone with damaging it?? Thanks a million!

buzd504

Flipping it and burning it at high temp direct should clean most of it off.  Other than that, if it's not coming off with that or a good scrub, I figure it's not going to come off on your pizza and I wouldn't worry about it.

cortguitarman

Just cook on it. Anything that would come off on your next pizza will burn off while heating it up again. You can also use your grill brush. It won't hurt the stone.

cortguitarman

Also, the blacker they get, the better they work.

RRP

cortguitarman said:

Also, the blacker they get, the better they work.

I agree! My 14 year old stone is a beautiful shiny solid black - actually looks like cast iron! It is veteran of many pizza cooks and I wouldn't think of trying to clean it other than a scrapping with a putty knife and then a wiping with a paper towel!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Mine looks like a meteorite and I'm going to do my best to make look even worse tonight. I'd say you are off to a good start.

UCFFAN

Great Feed Back You All......Thanks a million! 

UCFFAN

RRP said:

cortguitarman said:

Also, the blacker they get, the better they work.

I agree! My 14 year old stone is a beautiful shiny solid black - actually looks like cast iron! It is veteran of many pizza cooks and I wouldn't think of trying to clean it other than a scrapping with a putty knife and then a wiping with a paper towel!

You cooking pizza indirect with platesetter or without?

PNWFoodie

+1 black is beautiful.:)

RRP

UCFFAN said:

You cooking pizza indirect with platesetter or without?

Set up is always with plate setter with legs down, 3 green feet or at least 3 solid spacers such as 3 1" copper plumbing elbows on top of the PS and then the BGE pizza stone.  With that amount of ceramic needing to come up to temperature I give it at least an hour. Some folks will disagree and that's fine - I just know what works for me.

UCFFAN

So after a couple of years of Egging I've learned a lot from these forums and from just doing it! One BIG thing for me is A Clean Egg is a Happy Egg! If you want consistent performance from your egg and long slow cooks with no low fuel problems etc....Keep your Green Baby Clean!

After every cook I recover the charcoal keeping all the recovered coal that is larger than the bottom plate holes. Early on I found that the small chunks can lodge in the holes of the fire box plate reducing the combustion air circulation causing uneven burn and variation in temperature. (I run a DigiQ on almost every cook including high temp cooks like pizza) I clean the ashes and check all the side holes to be sure I have "as new" circulation for the next cook. ,I then replace the fire box plate and reload the charcoal for the next event. Every month or so I hit the inside of the lid with a brush to knock down the internal build up that can start flaking into your cooks if not watched. And of course I clean the grates after every cook and give them a nice rubdown with EVOO after I've cleaned them.

Keeping her clean assures me that if company shows unannounced I can fire up in a few minutes and be cooking something Eggtastic with no pre-prep necessary. Also insures excellent performance on those long-slows. Example...yesterday I did 3-10lbs Butts....  9-1/2 hours with 50% of my fuel remaining cooking at 275f.