"Wendy" > wrote in message
news:mailman.2.1135109436.43463.rec.food.baking@ma il.otherwhen.com...
> I think we must be talking about two different things here. The stone I'm
> using has the pizza on it which is why I can't figure out the need for
> parchment in this instance. I use parchment all the time for other
things.

The stone should be placed in the oven and pre-heated for at least 20
minutes. The pizza is built outside the oven. You have to get the pizza in
the oven, onto the hot stone. Some people dust a peel or a baking sheet
dusted with cornmeal. The cornmeal acts like a lubricant and facilitates
sliding the pizza onto the stone. This takes a bit of skill and sometimes
the pizza stick, sending a shower of sauce and topping into the oven. The
loose cornmeal also goes all over the oven. As an alternative, you can
build the pizza on parchment and slide it into the oven on that. It works
well for me and eliminates the cornmeal in the oven.