We like the Yosukata Black Carbon Steel Wok, which is pre-seasoned and heat-responsive and has a helper handle. For another pre-seasoned pick, we liked the option from Mammafong, which was lightweight and boiled water very quickly.
imesh Product Page
A dependable wok is the cornerstone of so many cuisines across the globe&#;the key to executing stir fries and dishes like gai pad king or red-cooked pork. So, how do you choose one? If you live in a city, one good option is to visit your local Chinatown, where you can find a number of woks for an affordable price while supporting local businesses. That said, if you don't know what to look for, that strategy can be hit-or-miss.
For those seeking more guidance, we decided to test woks from online vendors, evaluating 11 popular models. After roughly 40 hours of testing, several pounds of fried rice, and smoking out our kitchen almost daily, here are some reliable options for great flat-bottomed, carbon steel woks. (Note: We also recently re-tested all of our favorite woks&#;to make sure they're still the best out there. Spoiler: They are.)
The Winners, at a Glance
The Yosukata Black Carbon Steel Wok is a heat-treated, pre-seasoned option with added durability and solid heat responsiveness. Its smooth, slick surface is easy to clean and seems built to last.
Similar in design to the Yosukata (which also features a wooden handle and a metal helper handle), this wok was very responsive and also large enough to stir-fry garlic fried rice without losing grains.
This wok needed to be pre-seasoned before use, but this step was painless. Plus, the surface was quite nonstick&#;even prone-to-sticking fried eggs slid out effortlessly.
This wok comes pre-seasoned, has a wide base for extra stability, and comes with a wok spatula and a flat, wooden lid for easy tossing and steaming. It heated up quickly, and we also really liked its extra-large capacity.
The Tests
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
0:50
Why Carbon Steel? Why Flat-Bottomed? And Why Northern-Style?
Woks come in virtually all kinds of materials&#;from nonstick surfaces to cast iron to stainless steel. But for this review, we chose carbon steel woks. Why? Carbon steel heats quickly and evenly; it&#;s exceptionally responsive to the heat source and stores that heat reasonably well; it&#;s both durable and affordable; it&#;s generally suited to both gas and induction burners; and when properly seasoned, will have a practically nonstick surface (read more about why carbon steel is a great cookware material). Carbon steel shares many of the advantages of cast iron, but cast iron woks are heavier and thicker than carbon steel, a consequence of their different manufacturing processes.
This review only includes flat-bottomed models, since most home cooks don&#;t have access to a traditional high-output wok burner. Flat-bottomed woks sit easily on modern gas or electric ranges, whereas round-bottomed woks require a wok ring or some other mechanism for stability.
Serious Eats / Vivian Kong
Finally, we chose to review Northern Chinese-style or &#;pow&#; woks with a single long handle. This style of wok differs from the Cantonese-style wok, which features two shallow handles and requires a different method of handling. For most casual cooks, the long handle of the pow wok is more intuitive&#;closer to a Western skillet&#;and is generally safer for the average home cook in terms of handling. Cantonese-style woks have shallow &#;pig ear&#; handles that tend to heat up quickly, which requires using a towel or pot holder to maneuver the pan.
What Are the Essential Tools for Cooking with a Wok?
We have a whole guide to wok accessories that can be found here, divided by "must-haves" and "nice-to-haves." Our must-haves include:
What We Learned
Were the Woks Easy to Season?
Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore
Some of the woks we tested came pre-seasoned, which typically means that they are heat-treated and a thin layer of oil is rubbed over the surface. In other cases, the carbon steel undergoes bluing, an oxidizing reaction in which the surface is treated with a compound and typically heated to produce magnetite, which is rust-proof, corrosion-proof, and reasonably nonstick.
But many woks come unseasoned and require a few (easy!) steps to get them ready for cooking. If the handle is oven-safe, you can wipe the wok with a thin layer of oil and pop it in a 500°F oven for 45 minutes (repeating a few times to build up seasoning). Alternatively, you can do the same thing but over a burner: First, heat the wok over high heat until it's smoking then give it a good scrub (after it's cooled) to remove any wax coating. Then, place the wok back over high heat, maneuvering it so the entire surface gets evenly heated. Finally, give it a rub with neutral oil (like canola)&#;the wok is now ready to use.
Fried Eggs: Evaluating the Woks' Nonstick Abilities
By the second egg, top-performing woks showed virtually no signs of sticking.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Cooking eggs is the benchmark for testing the nonstick properties of virtually any cooking surface. Why? Eggs are rich in protein, which bonds to the surface of a hot pan in a process known as adsorption. Eggs are also mostly liquid, so they tend to seep into the cracks of the imperfect metal surface of a wok. Unless a wok is well seasoned, the amount of adsorption can be significant, which leads to lots of sticking.
In a perfect world, every wok would be well seasoned after years of cooking, practically guaranteeing a nonstick surface. But all of the tested models were brand new with only the four layers of light seasoning that we added. To maximize nonstick properties in this test, we made sure to heat each wok until it showed faint wisps of smoke, then swirled in a measured amount of vegetable oil until the surface was coated and just short of smoking. We fried one egg at a time, noting the time it took to release from the pan, as well as how much scraping was necessary to release the egg fully. We then repeated the test for each wok.
The best woks had wider cooking surfaces, which led to more direct contact with the heat source and even cooking.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Top performers like our favorite from Yosukata and the Helen&#;s Asian Kitchen and Zhen San Huan woks exhibited minimal (though not zero) sticking on the first fry, and the eggs released with gentle scraping using a fish spatula. By the second fried egg, sticking was virtually nonexistent in these models. Most notably, these woks had ample flat surface areas&#;between five and six inches&#;which meant more direct contact with the heat source.
Poor performers in this test were kind of a nightmare in comparison, showing plenty of sticking. The Made In was perhaps the most egregious example: the eggs were completely stuck to the pan, and the yolks were either broken or overcooked by the time we managed to scrape everything off. Craft Wok was another subpar performer but for a different reason. This hand-hammered model showed an uneven distribution of heat, which led to uneven cooking. While one side of the egg released reasonably well, the other side was stuck.
How Easy Was It to Stir-Fry Greens?
The best woks are easy to to pick up with one hand, making it easy to toss food.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Unlike frying eggs, stir-frying greens is primarily a test of movement: How effectively does food pass through different zones of heat, producing a cooked but vibrant and fresh quality? For this test, we stir-fried multiple batches of leafy green vegetables like yu choy and Shanghai baby bok choy in each of the woks. We standardized each batch of vegetables by weight, using a measured amount of cooking oil, salt, and garlic as a simple aromatic. We tossed each batch every 30 seconds until the greens were cooked through.
The best performer in this test was Yosukata wok, which cooked the greens quickly and evenly. Most importantly, this model was light enough to flip and tumble food with one hand&#;an essential skill for keeping food moving through zones of direct heat, steaming, and convection. These models were also fairly nonstick throughout cooking, showing no signs of burning or premature browning.
A larger cooking surface and taller walls (like the one shown above) were key to being able to stir-fry successfully.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Underperformers, like Made In and Craft Wok, tended to cook greens unevenly. The Made In wok&#;s limited flat cooking surface and smaller overall diameter made it difficult to toss greens effectively, and food tended to stay piled in the center of the pan. As a result, the Made In browned the greens instead of cooking them uniformly. While the Craft Wok had a larger diameter and bottom surface area, the uneven distribution of heat made it difficult to cook the greens evenly. The walls were also a bit shallow, which made tossing a little trickyThe wide bowl is just great at wicking away liquid since the wires are thin and form large gaps.. Finally, the Craft Wok was a bit too heavy to handle with one hand. Similarly, the Zhen San Huan wok was virtually impossible to lift with one hand, so stirring was the only option (though it cooked greens much more evenly).
Fried Rice: How Well Did the Woks Handle a Multi-Stage Recipe?
A multi-stage recipe like fried rice was a good way to test how responsive the woks were, as well as a number of other factors, like tossing ability and stickage.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Even in its simplest forms, making fried rice is an effective test of a wok&#;s ability to shift gears and handle multiple stages of cooking. For example, many fried rice recipes begin with frying cooked rice in batches; the rice is emptied into a bowl, then the wok is reheated to continue cooking aromatics and any additions before finally incorporating the rice again. Throughout cooking, the wok rapidly heats, cools down, then heats up again. There are several potential points of concern: Does the rice stick to the pan? Do the aromatics stick to the pan or burn? Can you toss the rice in the pan to distribute sauce and seasonings evenly?
We made identical batches of garlic fried rice in each of the woks and recorded any differences in rice sticking, as well as performance when tossing and stirring. We noted heat responsiveness when cooking the garlic, and took an extra step to &#;sear&#; soy sauce around the outer edge of the wok to replicate the seasoning step in most recipes. Each batch was standardized by weight for each ingredient.
The best woks showed minimal stickage post-cooking.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
The best woks in this test exhibited virtually no sticking when tossing and stirring rice. Models like the Yosukata wok were easy to handle, and the tossing motion felt natural as the rice flipped up and cascaded back down to the center in separate grains. The top performers were also highly responsive to changes in heat so that we could lower the temperature enough to cook the garlic without burning it. When it came time to crank up the heat, sear the soy sauce, and toss everything together, these woks heated back up in less than 30 seconds.
Underperformers like the model from Craft Wok showed some signs of rice sticking and were generally a bit too heavy to toss food easily with the non-dominant hand. Because of that added weight, we didn&#;t feel particularly connected to or comfortable with these woks. Their heavier gauge also made them less responsive to changes in burner heat and sometimes led to bits of burnt garlic.
Evaluating Heat Responsiveness
The underperforming woks, like this model from Craft Wok, had smaller flat cooking surfaces, which meant heat wasn't conducted as efficiently and water came to a boil much slower.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Finally, it was time to boil water: a simple test for heat responsiveness and conduction, as well as uniformity of heating. For most wok cooking applications, speed is key. We heated six cups of water over high heat, starting at the same temperature (60°F), and recorded the temperature at 30-second intervals until the water boiled at 212°F (give or take a degree).
The speediest woks in this test&#;like the models from Wok Shop and Yosukata&#;boiled water at least two to three minutes faster than all the other models. They also showed limited signs of uneven heating, and the seasoning remained intact after boiling.
The slowest woks in this test included the models from Craft Wok and Made In, which took upwards of 12 minutes to boil water. We noted that these woks also had the smallest bottom cooking surface in contact with the burner&#;between four and five-and-a-half inches&#;which explains why they didn&#;t conduct heat as easily or react as quickly as other models.
A look at the large surface area of the Zhen San Huan wok.
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
Despite its heavy gauge and considerable weight, the Zhen San Huan wok boiled water in about 10 minutes, which was pretty fast compared to other models. Why? If we had to guess, it&#;s due to the large bottom surface diameter: The Zhen San Huan wok had the largest bottom diameter (eight inches) of all woks tested, which meant a significant portion of the wok was in direct contact with the heat source.
The Criteria: What to Look for in a Wok
Serious Eats / Grace Kelly
You can crunch numbers, nerd out on specific metallurgical properties (we&#;ll leave that to Kenji), or look at any number of attributes, but here&#;s the big takeaway: for the average home cook, a good wok should be reasonably easy to handle, should take on a seasoning well, should be durable, and should be very heat responsive.
Since the motions involved in wok cooking can be rather dynamic&#;think vigorous stirring, tumbling, and tossing&#;a proper wok should be relatively light without being flimsy. And given the lower heat output of home kitchen ranges, the ability to heat up quickly and reliably is even more important. Conductivity is key here, too, and correlates roughly with the thickness of the metal: According to Kenji in The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, &#;it will take about twice as long for a 2-millimeter-thick pan to conduct heat from the burner to the food than a 1-millimeter-thick pan.&#;
Finally, the ability to build a reliable and even seasoning is perhaps the most important feature of a wok. So, how easy is it to apply a layer of oil, heat that layer, and to what extent is that resultant surface nonstick?
Our Favorite Flat-Bottomed Carbon Steel Woks
What we liked: The Yosukata Black Carbon Steel Wok is a pre-seasoned, stamped wok with a smooth, beautiful blue-black surface. It's a fast, heat-responsive pan that performed well in nearly every test. Fried rice and vegetables slid effortlessly across the surface, and despite its smaller lip-to-lip diameter, there was still enough room to toss food. As the thinnest gauge model in the lineup, the Yosukata exhibited the fastest heat gain of any model, boiling water in nine minutes flat.
This model also features a helper handle, which gives added flexibility and stability when handling large quantities of food. The wooden handle is wedged and screwed into a welded base, and it stays cool throughout cooking. Because of that welded construction and added weight, this wok feels incredibly durable despite its slightly thinner gauge. It also has a welded metal helper handle, which is a welcome feature for stability.
If you&#;re looking for a pre-seasoned, durable wok that transfers heat quickly and has a smooth, attractive look, the Yosukata Carbon Steel wok is a great option that won&#;t break the bank.
What we didn&#;t like: This wok is heavy and the handle is large, so cooks may find it a little awkward to maneuver. The wooden handle is also tricky to remove if you&#;re trying to season the wok in the oven (a little gentle heating expands the metal, which helps release the handle). This model didn&#;t cook the best eggs off the bat, exhibiting minor sticking; but after cooking with this wok for a few days, the seasoning and nonstick properties improved.
(Note: The wok comes with a protective film of oil on the surface. Be sure to scrub this film off prior to seasoning or cooking.)
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore
Serious Eats / Will Dickey
Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore
What we liked: This wok was a pleasure to use. It heated up quickly and evenly (it was the fastest during our boil test), and the handle angle made it easy to toss food. It was also on the lighter side, which we appreciated when using our chuan to scrape out garlic fried rice into a serving bowl. While it was pre-seasoned, we still had to scrub off the factory coating but this didn&#;t take long at all.
What we didn&#;t like: Like the Yosukata, fried eggs stuck a little bit, though after using the wok for a while now, it's built up seasoning and is less sticky. The only other qualms we had was that the helper handle is metal, which got warm during cooking, and that it&#;s on the pricier side.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
What we liked: After a thorough scrubbing and seasoning, this wok was quite nonstick: it was the only wok that produced clean, unbroken, unstuck fried eggs. Its capacious bowl made it easy to toss bok choy and garlic fried rice, and it boiled water in eight minutes and 50 seconds, the second fastest in the lineup. Finally, with a wooden handle and helper handle, we had no fears of singing our fingers when moving the wok or serving food (though this does mean you can't season it in the oven).
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Wok Pan For Restaurant. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
What we didn&#;t like: At a little over three pounds, this wok was a wee bit heavy, and it was tough on the wrists when tossing or scraping out food. We also noticed the metal bowl was bent a little bit near the handle, which made the shape more of an oval than a circle. However, this didn&#;t affect cooking or cleaning.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
What we liked: This wok heated up quickly and evenly, and we appreciated its large capacity. It had a wide, flat bottom that kept it stable during cooking (even on gas burner grates), and its wood handle was comfortable to hold and stayed cool. It comes pre-seasoned and also includes a wok spatula and a flat, wooden lid, making this a solid choice for anyone&#;s first carbon steel wok.
What we didn&#;t like: Some people might not like the hammered texture of the pan and it lacked a helper handle.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore
Serious Eats / Will Dickey
Serious Eats / Nick Simpson
The Competition
FAQs
Should I buy a nonstick wok?
Absolutely not. Most nonstick coatings cannot handle the high heat necessary for a proper stir-fry. They start vaporizing, releasing noxious fumes long before they reach the proper temperature. They make browning difficult, and it's impossible to get food to stick in place against the wok when you want to clear a surface to cook in the middle.
Should I buy a cast iron wok?
Cast iron is a passable choice for a wok. Unless you can find a thin-walled cast iron model, in general cast iron woks are a bit heavier than carbon steel versions, so motions like flipping when stir-frying are cumbersome. In comparison to other metals, it takes a relatively long time to heat up and cool down cast iron. The advantage? It offers a better nonstick surface. Finally, if you opt for a cast iron wok that's too thin, it will be extremely fragile&#;it can crack in half when set down too hard.
Should I buy a stainless steel wok?
Stainless steel woks are not ideal. Not only are they extremely heavy and difficult to maneuver, they also take a long time to heat up and cool down&#;a fatal flaw for anything that requires rapid, on-the-fly heat adjustments&#;like a stir-fry. Foods&#;particularly proteins&#;have a tendency to stick to steel.
Can you deep-fry in a carbon steel work?
Yes, you can absolutely deep-fry in a carbon steel wok. In fact, we have a whole guide to deep-frying in a wok, which can be found here. We like a wok for deep-frying because its flared, roomy, concave shape helps contain oil and splatters, amongst other reasons.
Can you steam in a carbon steel wok?
Yes, you can steam in a carbon steel wok. We have a guide to steaming in a wok here. You'll need a bamboo steamer or a circular steam rack and a wok lid to do so.
Can you use a carbon steel wok on a grill?
Yes, you can use a carbon steel wok on a grill. We did a whole article on stir-frying in a wok on a grill, in fact! If you want to take your wok cooking outdoors, we also recommend checking out an outdoor wok burner.
Are woks compatible with induction cooktops?
If you have a carbon steel wok, then yes, it is induction-compatible. You can read more about induction cookware here, and more about how induction works in this article.
What are the pros and cons of using a wok on an induction cooktop?
While most folks use woks with gas burners, induction can be beneficial when cooking with this type of pan. This is because induction&#;which relies on magnetism to "heat" pans&#;provides a more focused, fast, and even heat than gas or even electric. Plus, you won't have harmful gas fumes clouding up your kitchen. That said, if you're using a round-bottomed wok, it won't work on induction, which has a flat, glass-topped surface.
Why We're the Experts
This article is about the cooking implement. For the recreational drug, see Lean . For the internet meme popularized by Lil Yachty, see Poland (song)
A wok being used for stir fryingA wok (Chinese: &#;; pinyin: huò; Cantonese Yale: wohk) is a deep round-bottomed cooking pan of Chinese origin. It is believed to be derived from the South Asian karahi. It is common in Greater China, and similar pans are found in parts of East, South and Southeast Asia,[1] as well as being popular in other parts of the world.
Woks are used in a range of Chinese cooking techniques, including stir frying, steaming, pan frying, deep frying, poaching, boiling, braising, searing, stewing, making soup, smoking and roasting nuts.[2] Wok cooking is often done with utensils called chǎn (spatula) or sháo (ladle) whose long handles protect cooks from high heat. The uniqueness of wok cooking is conveyed by the Cantonese term wohkhei: "breath of the wok".
[
edit
]
The origin of the wok is unclear, but most scholars believe it originated from the karahi, as well as the Southeast Asian kuali (believed to be the etymology of Mandarin &#;). These cooking vessels are universal in South and Southeast Asian cuisine for stewing and quick evaporation. They likely entered China via Central Asia from India where it evolved into the wok.[3][4][5][6] In his book The Food of China, E.N. Anderson writes:[3]
Wok is a Cantonese word; the Mandarin is Guō. The wok appears to be a rather recent acquisition as Chinese kitchen furniture goes; it has been around for only two thousand years. The first woks are little pottery models on the pottery stove models in Han Dynasty tombs. Since the same sort of pan is universal in India and Southeast Asia, where it is known as a Kuali in several languages, I strongly suspect borrowing [of the word] (probably from India via Central Asia)--kuo must have evolved from some word close to Kuali.
The first possible depictions of woks in China appeared in the Han dynasty (c. 202 BCE - 220 CE). But these are conjectural, since these "woks" were made of clay and were only used to dry grains.[7] Metal woks only started to appear in China in the Ming dynasty ( - ), where it was first used for stir frying (an original Han Chinese innovation).[7][4]
[
edit
]
A wok (left) and karahi on a Western-style gas stove. Note that the karahi is sitting on an ordinary burner cover, while the round-bottomed wok is balanced on a wok-ring.The wok's most distinguishing feature is its shape. Classic woks have a rounded bottom.[2] Hand-hammered woks are sometimes flipped inside out after being shaped, giving the wok a gentle flare to the edge that makes it easier to push food up onto the sides of the wok. Woks sold in Western countries are sometimes found with flat bottoms&#;this makes them more similar to a deep frying pan. The flat bottom allows the wok to be used on an electric stove, where a rounded wok would not be able to fully contact the stove's heating element. A round-bottom wok enables the traditional round spatula or ladle to pick all the food up at the bottom of the wok and toss it around easily; this is difficult with a flat bottom. With a gas hob, or traditional pit stove, the bottom of a round wok can get hotter than a flat wok and so is better for stir frying.[8]
Most woks range from 300 to 360 mm (12 to 14 in) or more in diameter. Woks of 360 mm (14 in) (suitable for a family of 3 or 4) are the most common, but home woks can be found as small as 200 mm (8 in) and as large as 910 mm (36 in). Smaller woks are typically used for quick cooking techniques at high heat such as stir frying (Chinese: &#;; pinyin: chǎo). Large woks over a meter wide are mainly used by restaurants or community kitchens for cooking rice or soup, or for boiling water.[citation needed]
[
edit
]
The most common materials used in making woks today are carbon steel and cast iron.[2] Although the latter was the most common type used in the past, cooks tend to be divided on whether carbon steel or cast iron woks are superior.[9]
[
edit
]
Currently, carbon steel is the most widely used material, being relatively inexpensive compared with other materials,[10] relatively light in weight, providing quick heat conduction as it has a low specific heat capacity, and having reasonable durability. Their light weight makes them easier to lift and quicker to heat. Carbon steel woks, however, tend to be more difficult to season than those made of cast-iron ('seasoning', or carbonizing the cooking surface of a wok, is required to prevent foods from sticking and to remove metallic tastes and odors).[2] Carbon steel woks vary widely in price, style, and quality, which is based on ply and forming technique. The lowest quality steel woks tend to be stamped by machine from a single 'ply' or piece of stamped steel.[2] Less expensive woks have a higher tendency to deform and misshape. Cooking with lower quality woks is also more difficult and precarious since they often have a "hot spot". Higher quality, mass-produced woks are made of heavy gauge (14-gauge or thicker) steel, and are either machine-hammered or made of spun steel.[2] The best quality woks are almost always hand-made, being pounded into shape by hand ("hand hammered") from two or more sheets of carbon steel which are shaped into final form by a ring-forming or hand-forging process.[2][11]
[
edit
]
Two types of cast iron woks can be found in the market. Chinese-made cast iron woks are very thin (3 mm (0.12 in)), weighing only a little more than a carbon steel wok of similar size, while cast iron woks typically produced in the West tend to be much thicker (9 mm (0.35 in)), and very heavy. Because of the thickness of the cast iron, Western-style cast iron woks take much longer to bring up to cooking temperature, and their weight also makes stir-frying and bao techniques difficult.[2]
Cast iron woks form a more stable carbonized layer of seasoning which makes it less prone to food sticking on the pan. While cast iron woks are superior to carbon steel woks in heat retention and uniform heat distribution, they respond slowly to heat adjustments and are slow to cool once taken off the fire.[2] Because of this, food cooked in a cast-iron wok must be promptly removed from the wok as soon as it is done to prevent overcooking.[2] Chinese-style cast iron woks, although relatively light, are fragile and are prone to shattering if dropped or mishandled.[2]
Steel woks coated with non-stick coatings such as PFA and Teflon, a development originated in Western countries, are now popular in Asia as well.[2] These woks cannot be used with metal utensils, and foods cooked in non-stick woks tend to retain juices instead of browning in the pan.[2] As they necessarily lack the carbonizing or seasoning of the classic steel or iron wok, non-stick woks do not impart the distinctive taste or sensation of wok hei.[2] The newest nonstick coatings will withstand temperatures of up to 260 °C (500 °F), sufficient for stir-frying.[13][14] Woks are also now being introduced with clad or five-layer construction, which sandwich a thick layer of aluminum or copper between two sheets of stainless steel.[2] Clad woks can cost five to ten times the price of a traditional carbon steel or cast-iron wok, yet cook no better; for this reason they are not used in most professional restaurant kitchens.[2] Clad woks are also slower to heat than traditional woks and not nearly as efficient for stir-frying.[2]
[
edit
]
Woks can also be made from aluminium. Although an excellent conductor of heat, it has somewhat inferior thermal capacity as cast iron or carbon steel, it loses heat to convection much faster than carbon steel, and it may be constructed much thinner than cast iron. Although anodized aluminium alloys can stand up to constant use, plain aluminium woks are too soft and damage easily. Aluminium is mostly used for wok lids.[citation needed]
[
edit
]
A stick-handled flat-bottomed "Peking pan". While the surface looks like Teflon, it is actually well-seasoned carbon steelThe handles for woks come in two styles: loops and stick.[2] Loop handles mounted on opposite sides of the wok are typical in southern China.[2] The twin small loop handles are the most common handle type for woks of all types and materials, and are usually made of bare metal. Cooks needing to hold the wok to toss the food in cooking do so by holding a loop handle with a thick towel (though some woks have spool-shaped wooden or plastic covers over the metal of the handle). Cooking with the tossing action in loop-handled woks requires a large amount of hand, arm and wrist strength. Loop handles typically come in pairs on the wok and are riveted, welded or extended from the wok basin.[citation needed]
Stick handles are long, made of steel, and are usually welded or riveted to the wok basin, or are an actual direct extension of the metal of the basin. Stick handles are popular in northern China, where food in the wok is frequently turned with a tossing motion of the arm and wrist when stir-frying food.[2] The classic stick handle is made of hollow hammered steel, but other materials may be used, including wood or plastic-covered hand grips.[2] Because of their popularity in northern China, stick-handled woks are often referred to as "pao woks" or "Peking pans". Stick handles are normally not found on cast-iron woks since the wok is either too heavy for the handle or the metal is too thin to handle the tensile stress exerted by the handle.[2] Larger-diameter woks with stick-type handles frequently incorporate a "helper" handle consisting of a loop on the opposite side of the wok, which aids in handling.[citation needed]
[
edit
]
The wok can be used in a large number of cooking methods. Before the introduction of Western cookware, it was often used for all cooking techniques including:[2][15]
The Cantonese phrase "Wok hei" (simplified Chinese: &#;&#;; traditional Chinese: &#;&#;; Jyutping: wok6 hei3) literally, the "breath of the wok", refers to the distinct charred, smoky flavor resulting from stir-frying foods over an open flame in Cantonese cuisine.[16] The second character (simplified Chinese: &#;; traditional Chinese: &#;) is transliterated as qi (chi) according to its Standard Chinese pronunciation, so wok hei is sometimes rendered as wok chi in Western cookbooks. Wok hei refers to the flavor, taste, and "essence" imparted by a hot wok on food during stir frying.[2][17] It is particularly important for Cantonese dishes requiring high heat for fragrance such as char kuay teow and beef chao fen. Out of the Eight Culinary Traditions of China, the wok hei concept is only encountered in Cantonese cuisine, and may not even be an accepted underlying principle in most other Chinese cuisines.[16]
To impart wok hei the traditional way, the food is cooked in a seasoned wok over a high flame while being stirred and tossed quickly.[2] Constant contact with the heat source is crucial as the addition of new ingredients and each toss of the wok inevitably cools the wok down; therefore, cooking over flame is preferred. Consequently, many chefs (especially those with less-than-ideal cookers) may cook in small batches to overcome this problem so that the wok is still as hot as it can be, and to avoid "stewing" the food, instead. When cooking over gas stoves or open flame, it additionally allows for the splattering of fine oil particles to catch the flame into the wok; this is easily achieved when experienced chefs toss the wok and can be a demonstration of experience. For these reasons, cooking over an open flame is preferable to other types of stoves. Cooking with coated woks (e.g. nonstick) notably will not give the distinct taste of wok hei, which is partially imbued from previous cooking sessions. In practical terms, the flavor imparted by chemical compounds results from caramelization, Maillard reactions, and the partial combustion of oil that come from charring and searing of the food at very high heat in excess of 200 °C (392 °F).[14] Aside from flavor, the texture of the cooked items and smell involved also describe wok hei.[citation needed]
[
edit
]
An oiled kawah being preheated on a makeshift gas stove Frying boorsoq in a qazanIn Indonesia, a wok-like pan is known as a penggorengan or wajan (also spelled wadjang, from Javanese language, from the root word waja meaning "steel").[18] In Malaysia, it is called a kuali (small wok) or kawah (big wok).[18] Similarly in the Philippines, the wok is known as kawali or carajay in Tagalog, and it is called talyasi in Kapampangan, while bigger pans used for festivals and gatherings are known as kawa.[19][20][21] In India, a similar pan is called karahi.[22]
In Japan, the wok is called a chūkanabe (&#;&#;&#;, literally "Chinese pot"). In South India, the Chinese wok became a part of South Indian cooking, where it is called the cheena chatti (literally, "Chinese pot" in Malayalam and Tamil).[citation needed]
In Central Asia, a similar utensil is called a kazan.
[
edit
]
[
edit
]
A Han dynasty Chinese model with clay pots used to dry grains. The pots' similarity to modern woks has led to conjecture that modern woks evolved from basic features of pots like these.[7]Woks were designed to be used over the traditional Chinese pit-style hearth (Chinese: &#;; pinyin: zào) with the wok recessed into the stove top, where the heat is fully directed at the bottom of the wok. Round grate rings on the edge of the opening provide stability to the wok. There are two styles of traditional wok stoves. The same design aspects of these Chinese stoves can be seen in traditional Japanese kamado stoves. The more primitive style was used outdoors or in well ventilated areas since hot gasses from the firebox exhaust around the wok. The more advanced style, found in better-off households, has a chimney and may be used indoors. These stoves are similar in design to modern rocket stoves.[citation needed]
Pit stoves originally burned wood or coal but are now more typically heated by natural gas with the burner recessed below the stovetop. In areas where natural gas is unavailable, LPG may be used instead. With the adoption of gas and its less objectionable combustion products, the chimney has been replaced by the vent hood.[citation needed]
This type of stove allows foods to be stir-fried at a very high heat, sometimes hot enough to deform the wok itself. Professional chefs in Chinese restaurants often use pit stoves since they have the heating power to give food an alluring wok hei.[citation needed]
[
edit
]
Traditionally shaped woks can be used on some Western-style (flat-topped) gas stoves by removing a burner cover and replacing it with a "wok ring", which provides stability and concentrates heat. Although not as ideal as "pit stoves", these allow woks to be used in a manner more suitable for their design and are good enough for most tasks required in home cooking.[15]
Wok rings are sold in cylindrical and conical shapes. For greatest efficiency with the conical wok ring, position it with the wide side up. This allows the base of the wok to sit closer to the heat source.
In recent years, some consumer indoor stoves using natural gas or propane have begun offering higher-BTU burners. A few manufacturers of such stoves, notably Kenmore Appliances and Viking Range Corp. now include a specially designed high-output bridge-type wok burner as part of their standard or optional equipment, though even high-heat models are limited to a maximum of around 27,000 BTU (7.9 kW).[citation needed]
Because of the high cost of kitchen modifications, coupled with increased heat and smoke generated in the kitchen, more home chefs are using their wok outdoors on high-heat propane burners with curved wok support grates.[23] Many inexpensive propane burners are easily capable of 60,000&#;270,000 BTU (17.5&#;22 kW) or more, easily surpassing most in-home gas stoves.[citation needed]
[
edit
]
Woks, round or flat bottomed, do not generally work well for stir-frying or other quick cooking methods when used on an electric cooker. These stoves do not produce the large amounts of quick even heat required for stir-frying. It is possible, however, to find round-shaped electric stove elements that will fit the curve of a wok, which allows the wok to be heated at its bottom along with part of its sides. A flat-bottomed wok may also work better on an electric stove.[citation needed]
Coupled with the lower heat retention of woks, meals stir-fried on electric stoves have a tendency to stew and boil when too much food is in the wok rather than "fry" as in traditional woks, thus not producing wok hei. A wok can, however, benefit from the slow steady heating of electric stoves when used for slower cooking methods such as stewing, braising, and steaming, and immersion cooking techniques such as frying and boiling. Many Chinese cooks use Western style cast-iron pans for stir-frying on electric stoves, since they hold enough heat for the required sustained high temperatures.[2]
A newer trend in woks is the electric wok, where no stove is needed. This type of wok is plugged into an electrical outlet and the heating element is in the wok. Like stove-mounted non-stick woks, these woks can also only be used at lower temperatures than traditional woks.[24]
[
edit
]
Induction cookers generate heat in induction-compatible cookware via direct magnetic stimulation of the pan material. While carbon steel and cast iron (the most common wok materials) are induction-compatible metals, induction cooking also requires close contact between the cooking vessel and the induction burner. This presents problems with tossing techniques, where the wok is lifted off the burner and agitated, will break contact and turn off the burner. Traditionally shaped woks, which are round-bottomed, also do not have enough contact with the cooking surface to generate notable heat. Bowl-shaped induction cookers overcome this problem and can be used suitably for wok cooking in locations where gas stoves are not suitable.[25]
Flat-bottomed woks make sufficient contact to generate heat. Some cookware makers are now offering round-bottomed woks with a small flat spot to provide induction contact, with a specially designed support ring, and some induction cooktops are now also available with a rounded burner that is able to make contact with the rounded bottom of a traditional wok. In both cases, the food will need to be stirred with a cooking utensil, instead of being tossed by lifting the wok itself.[26]
[
edit
]
The main advantage of the wok, beyond its constructed material, is its curved, concave shape. This shape produces a small, hot area at the bottom which allows some of the food to be seared by intense heat while using relatively little fuel. The large sloped sides also make it easier for chefs to employ the tossing cooking technique on solid and thick liquid food, with less spillage and a greater margin of safety. The curved sides also allow a person to cook without having to "chase the food around the pan", since bite-sized or finely chopped stir-fry ingredients usually tumble back to the center of the wok when agitated.[2]
The curve also provides a larger usable cooking surface versus Western-style pots and pans, which typically have vertical edges. This allows large pieces of food seared at the bottom of the wok to be pushed up the gently sloped sides to continue cooking at a slower rate. While this occurs another ingredient for the same dish needing high heat is being cooked at the bottom. The pointed bottom also allows even small amounts of oil to pool.[2] As such, large food items can be shallow fried, while finely chopped garlic, chili peppers, scallions, and ginger can be essentially deep-fried in both cases with very small amounts of cooking oil.[15]
[
edit
]
[
edit
]
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Wholesale Casserole Dishes For Catering.