My Baking Steel Rusted, Is It Ruined?
Let me guess: you found some orange on your steel and your stomach dropped.
Relax. Rust is the number one thing steel owners write me about, and here's the answer up front: surface rust is cosmetic, it's completely fixable, and your steel is nowhere near ruined. This thing is a slab of solid steel. It doesn't die. It just occasionally needs a reset.
I know this firsthand, because I did it to my own steel last week. Left it outside on the grill for a few days. Rookie move from the guy who invented it.
How Steel Rusts (The Kryptonite)
Moisture is the kryptonite. Leave a steel outside, and moisture compounds day after day dew, humidity, rain, and it will do real damage over time. Bottom line: don't leave your steel outside. Bring it in.
Same goes for soaking it in the sink, putting it away damp, or storing it anywhere humid. Water sitting on carbon steel = rust. Every time.
But if you slipped up and caught it early, light orange surface rust, here's exactly how I fix mine.
The Fix: Plan A
1. Bring it inside and grab a cleaning brick
Our cleaning bricks are a must here, I can't stress enough how good these are at keeping a steel surface clean and smooth. If I could fit one in the box, I'd ship one with every steel. That's how important they are. (No brick? An SOS pad or anything abrasive works. But get the bricks.)
2. Get it wet and scour
Yes, I know, I just told you water is the kryptonite. But controlled water plus abrasion is how we remove rust. Wet the steel, grab the brick, and lightly scour both sides until the surface rust lifts.
Both sides matters, especially if you use your steel on a grill. Cast iron grates can do a number on the back of a poorly seasoned or moist steel. You'll probably find grill marks back there. That's fine. Scour those too.
3. Soap, water, rinse
Quick wash with soap and water, both sides, rinse clean. Between the scour and the wash, light surface rust should be gone.
4. Dry it completely
Towel it off, then toss it in the oven at 350°F for a few minutes to burn off every last bit of moisture. This step is not optional, a damp steel put away is a rusted steel next week.
5. Re-oil — micro-thin
While it's still warm, wipe on a thin coat of oil, then try to wipe it all off. What's left is the micro layer you want. Flax, avocado, even canola, all great. Thick oil goes sticky; thin oil becomes seasoning.
That's it. Steel's back.
A dab of oil in the center of your Steel and paint it on, edge to edge.
Paint it edge to edge with a paper towel, and then grab another paper towel and try to remove it. We want a micro layer only.
Pro Tip: If Your Steel Came Out of the Oven STICKY
This is one of the most common complaints I get, so let's kill it here: sticky steel = too much oil. That tacky film after an hour in the oven is unpolymerized oil, it never bonded into seasoning because there was too much of it to begin with. You'll need to scour it off with the cleaning bricks and start over.
When I say a light layer, I mean micro layer. Here's the move: drop a dab of oil about the size of a quarter in the center of the steel, paint it across the whole surface with a paper towel, then grab a fresh paper towel and try to wipe it all off. What's left behind is the right amount. If it looks like there's barely any oil on there, you nailed it.
Plan B: The Vinegar Soak
I haven't needed this one myself, but the chemistry is real — vinegar's acetic acid dissolves rust, and it's a proven method for heavier cases. Soak the steel in a white vinegar solution for a few hours, then repeat Plan A, bricks, soap, water, dry, oil.
Two warnings: don't soak longer than a few hours (the acid keeps working past the rust), and know that vinegar strips your seasoning completely, a full re-season is mandatory after.
When Is a Steel Actually Done?
Almost never. The one real exception: deep, pitted rust, a steel that sat wet and neglected for a long, long time until the rust ate into the surface. That's brutal to bring back unless you've got an industrial shot blaster handy. Light orange rust? Always fixable. Pitting? That's the line.
So catch it early. And if you're not sure which you're looking at, email me a photo. I'll tell you straight and walk you through the fix. That's a standing offer.
The Real Protection: Stack the Patina
Here's the long game, especially if you cook outside a lot: keep adding layers. Every cook, every thin oil coat, builds patina, and the more the merrier. Stack those layers and they'll protect your steel for a long, long time. A well-seasoned steel shrugs off moisture that would eat a bare one.
For the full routine, everyday cleaning, seasoning cycles, the maintenance rhythm, read our complete cleaning and seasoning guide.
A little TLC and your steel outlives you. That's the whole deal with buying a slab of steel it was never going to be delicate.
FAQ
Is rust on a baking steel normal?
Yes, carbon steel rusts when exposed to moisture, and light surface rust is common and completely fixable. It's cosmetic, not structural. Scour it off, dry thoroughly, re-oil thin, and the steel is good as new.
How do I remove rust from a pizza steel?
Wet the steel, scour both sides with a pumice cleaning brick (or an abrasive pad), wash with soap and water, dry completely, a few minutes in a 350°F oven works, then wipe on a micro-thin coat of oil while warm.
Can a rusted baking steel be ruined?
Almost never. Light surface rust always comes off. The only real exception is deep pitted rust from long neglect, which requires industrial equipment to restore. Catch rust early and the steel lasts a lifetime.
Is it safe to cook on a steel that had rust?
Yes, once the rust is scoured off, the steel is cleaned, dried, and re-seasoned with a thin oil layer, it's completely food-safe.
How do I prevent my baking steel from rusting?
Never leave it outside, never soak it, never store it damp. Dry it completely after cleaning and keep a thin seasoning layer on it. The more patina layers you build through regular use and oiling, the more rust-resistant it becomes.
About the Author
Andris Lagsdin invented the Baking Steel in 2012 using steel from his family's Stoughton Steel Company in Hanover, MA. a shop his family has run since the 1970s. What started as a Kickstarter project (backed after an endorsement from Kenji López-Alt on Serious Eats) has grown into the go-to tool for hundreds of thousands of home pizza makers. Every Baking Steel is still made at the family shop.
Before launching Baking Steel, Andris trained under renowned chef Todd English and spent 15 years in the family steel business. He's the co-author of Baking with Steel with Jesse Olson Moore.
Today he teaches thousands of students how to make pizzeria-quality pizza at home through his free online classes and recipes.
In 2026, Andris launched the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix the same recipe he's been teaching for over a decade, now in a bag. Just add water.
