I know some people love these things but for me it was a hassle to have one. If you use it for pizza there will be cornmeal on it after you remove the pizza, same goes for bread, depending the type. Parchment is only good up to 425 degrees and then there is a chance of ignition (ie fire) since all my pizza and bread are cooked hotter than that its not an option. So you have to clean the thing and you have to let it cool before you do, so really unless you never actually cook on it I have no idea how people just leave it in the oven all the time. I just found it a real pain and while the crust was good it was not worth it for me.

we use ours all the time. we have a peel (the big wooden board), on which we prepare our pizza while the stone is getting good and hot in the oven. we use cornmeal on the peel so the dough doesn't stick as we're composing the pizza, then sprinkle a little more onto the stone just as we're about to transfer the pizza from the peel to the stone (if you cornmeal the stone too early, it'll burn). a few jerks of the peel, and the pizza is on the stone and on its way to crispy, bubbly deliciousness. we also use the peel to remove the pizza from the stone, and let the stone cool in the oven. once cooled, i brush the remaining cornmeal off (into the sink or garbage) and store the stone in a plastic bag (to catch any remaining remnants) in our stand-up storage. we've never had an instance where we've felt it necessary to clean it - a few scrapes, sure, but nothing more.

Mrs beat me to it. I too use a stone all the time and it's no trouble at all. Once you learn how to flick the bread or pizza off the peel onto the stone properly, nothing sticks. After baking I turn the oven off and let the stone cool inside the oven, then brush it clean and put it back in. Easy-peasy. And the crust on my bread is deliciously crunchy.

It's the taking it in and out that bother me, its a bit unwieldy and out of sight out of mind. Mine was one of the round ones with handles so it was never going to be just left in, but what would happen is the next time I go to preheat the oven I find this nasty charring smell as the remnant cornmeal blackened and then I had a piping hot stone I had to remove, that was unpleasant. When people say they just leave them in there all the time I was under the assumption that they never left the oven.

I leave my stone in the oven all the time. I put rolls, spanikopita, pizza and lots of other things directly on the stone. It now has a bake on layer of "seasoning". Nothing could possibly stick to it now.

The key to success with a baking stone is letting go of the notion that things have to be meticulously cleaned.

I've had my stone for a few years, though I will now admit that it has only been getting regular use just recently. I don't remember which blog let me to the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, but I can't thank them enough. I had never made bread before, now I have a fresh loaf a couple of times a week, and every Friday is now Pizza Night using the same dough.

http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209588914&sr=8-1

Ditto pidgeon!
I am using my stone all the time now because of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. For a freeform loaf or pizza it works wonders and I often keep it in the oven and place baking dishes etc directly on it.

I use a peel and have only had an issue if I forgot to cornmeal the peel before sliding the pizza in. Nothing sticks to the stone that can't be easily wiped off.

<A HREF="http://www.brakeforbread.blogspot.com/">Here are some of the breads I've made lately</A>

I figured out last night that if I let my pizza crust do its last (short) rise on an oiled cookie sheet, I could flip it onto the preheated stone without much problem. Of course you have to top it afterwards, but that's how I've always done it anyway. It was a lot easier than trying to put it on by hand.

And I don't use cornmeal on mine - Like sleepydweller's, I think it's seasoned enough that nothing sticks! It's actually burned almost black. So ugly, but all the better for it.

I use unglazed quarry tiles (I leave them in the oven all the time). Tiles were purchased at Home Depot.

They are great for pizza & breads but also great for reheating (amazing how good slice of pizza reheated directly on hot stone (tiles) is.

I, also, use a pizza peal sprinkled with a little cornmeal. It is really easy to get pizza off of peal and onto stones.

I used to have a cast iron griddle in my oven for similar use as a baking stone. It did a great job, plus I could take it on the stovetop and flip it to the grill side for cooking other things. With occasional rubdowns with oil, and perpetual residence in the oven, it seasoned itself in no time.

Then I dropped it one day and it cracked. How it didn't damage the tile floor is beyond me.

I'm with sfmitch about the tiles - it works great, and I love that it's a fraction of the price of a pizza stone.

I have a baking stone in each of my ovens and leave it there all the time. It has a beneficial effect on temperature stability too, so even if I'm not baking a pizza or loaf of bread I move it to the bottom shelf to even things out.

I've used unglazed quarry tile but like the even surface of the fired stone better. I've never found a 12 inch unglazed tile so I was always making a grid of 6 inch ones. The resultant seperation lines can't heat as evenly as a baking stone. I still use the unglazed tile in my outdoor grill sometimes.

I have always purchased Old Stone Oven in the past and found them quite good, though I have cracked a couple over the years.

The last stone I bought is the Fibrament and doesn't seem like it is as fragile. One thing that is very different with the Fibrament oven stone is that it has a chemical odor (maybe epoxy) when you first get it that you have to 'dry' out of it. That process takes six hours, an hour each at 100,200,300 and 400 degrees followed by two hours at 500. You'll want the exhaust fan on for this process. Once it was curred (dried out) it had lost about 6 ounces of weight. After the tempering the odor was definately gone.

The Fibrament stone works well, but I think the information about having to do the drying step this is too sketchy on the Fibrament site. They mention the gradual tempering process without any details or mention of the odor. The instructions warn of the odor. I like the Fibrament and use the it almost every day. Alll in all I think it was worth it.

I am a recipe tester for Peter Reinhart, and as a member of this group I also host a gallery and forum about baking. Please visit the gallery and forum if you like. You'll find lots of beautiful pictures of bread. www.breadtechnique.com/gallery