Over the last couple of years we have replaced all our cookware with something nice and solid. The only thing left is our raggy old wok. I like the size of it because it holds enough noodles/veggies for three. I’m not sure of the size off hand, but it’s larger then 18"-20" along the rim.
So I’ve been hunting around for a nice one (in stainless or cast iron), but they all seem small. I’ve found a couple that seem nice but they are all non-stick: which my wife can’t stand.
Le Creuset makes a cool wok but it seems small and the sides aren’t very deep. Noodles for two perhaps, but for three? I think things would spill.
We have some pots in stainless Emerilware and it is quite rugged. I’m pleased with it. Sadly, their wok is only 12". Too small.
Get cast iron. It distributes heat the best. This is important because most home ranges aren’t really powerful enough to heat even the best wok sufficiently. It’s a little more work to maintain, but worth it.
Head to your nearest Chinatown. Failing that, a restaurant supply house, or even Smart and Final.
Woks aren’t supposed to be fancy or expensive. Nor should they be cast iron or stainless. Mine’s around 20" across, will rust if not dried and oiled, and cost about $25.
I’ve been cooking Chinese food for 20 years, eaten in several Chinese restaurants where you could watch the food being cooked, and shopped in some absolutely huge Asian markets…and I’ve never even seen a cast iron wok.
Regarding stainless, food will stick and they can’t be “cured” like regular steel woks can. This curing produces a very adequate non-stick quality and makes the wok cook better the longer you use it.
I was under the impression that most chinese use carbon steel woks. The original hand hammered woks are what seem to be the most popular because casting iron isnt as accessible.
It was left in the basement of a house I once rented and I’ve had it since. It has a dark black surface like my cast iron pans from years of use.
It’s regular carbon steel. I aint’ Chinese but I’ve lived with Chinese people and that’s the kind of wok they use. I’d be concerned about handling thos Crueset’s or Cast Iron woks. You need to pick it up and move it around. The handles look like they’d get hot, and they look heavy.
We bought our wok in one of the many Chinese/Asian grocery stores in the Boston area. It seems to be carbon steel, not cast iron. It was easily available and inexpensive.
It came with a coating of oil that had to be removed. There wee instructions for “tempering” it, which we followed. The bottom is now nicely coated, and we’ve been using it for ages, at least once every two weeks (usually more often).
$159.95 at Williams-Sonoma ; maybe cheaper elsewhere. (Fortunately for me, my in-laws live right down the road from the All-Clad factory, and can get stuff super-cheap at their semi-annual sales.)
All right, a question. Alton Brown said you couldn’t get a wok hot enough on a standard stovetop, but there’s no way anything else is going to be convenient for everyday use. Should I get a flat-bottom wok in that case (I live in apartments and so am normally doomed to electric stovetops), even though the round shape is traditional?
2.) What do you think people were cooking on for thousands of years? One theory of how Wok cooking came to be was that it was a way to quickly cook using scarece fuel. You build a fire and stir-fry fast, rather than slow-cooking over coals. Are you telling me that my gas stovetop puts out a flame inferior to a wood fire?
For that matter, what are they using in the backs of oriental restaurants? Oxy-acetylene?
Umm, re-read his note about being stuck using electric cooktops. Not gas.
Actually, commercial gas cooktops get much hotter than home cooktops. That’s why, even though foodies who want to put actual commercial ranges into their home kitchens often run into trouble with fire codes (you need to install a different type of hood, often need fire-suppression equipment, etc.).
It’s been my experience, and I have also read this somewhere, that a wok is pointless on an electric stove. The design of a wok benefits from the flames of a gas range going up the sides of the wok. With an electric range that principle doesn’t apply, and you’re actually better off with a good skillet.
After reading that I decided it wasn’t just me “not doing it right” and that using a wok wasn’t helping me any, so I got rid of mine.
I’m still baffled by the idea of cast iron woks and particularly the post by China Guy where he states they are the norm in China. While I have seen them I have never seen one in use and can’t imagine they would be very practical - when you raise or lower the heat with a wok you want an immediate response, cast iron just retains heat for minutes.
In another thread about deep frying I recommended using a wok. I have several and use them for most things even my pasta now - you need less water and the pasta just flows around.
My stove has a power burner, like 13000 BTUs. That motherf***er can heat your wok’s shit, yo!
I’m surprised at the whole fancy wok thing, a $150 All-Clad wok?
I’m not against nice, expensive cookware. I have an all-clad saute pan. But, with that, the ideal is, say, some French haute cuisine.
But, what’s the ideal with the wok. . .I consider it to be some delicious Chinese food of the people.
That nice French place. . .they might be making your beouf bourgignon in a $100 saute pan; but that “Number One Delight” greasy-chopstick on the corner ain’t whipping up The General’s Chicken in a $150 wok.
I’m sorry, I assumed (incorrectly) that anyone who was posting in Cafe Society threads would know Alton Brown. My mistake. (P.S. She, not he.)
Alton Brown is the host of “Good Eats” on Food Network, a food science type of cooking show. I vaguely recall his wok episode in which he stated that he doesn’t bother using a work unless it’s over an incredibly hot flame, one that you can’t create (at least nearly as effectively) on a stovetop. His words, not mine, so if they make no sense, please take it up with dear Alton!
I use a very small (12") non-stick stir fry pan, though I haven’t been thrilled with the results; it works well enough, I guess, but nothing compared to the flash cooking that a wok should provide.
I searched but couldn’t find a transcript. Does anyone recall this episode better than I?
