I wanna wok!

[Cail]

Seriously. I want to buy a wok, but I have no idea what to look for. Someone tell me if I want a stovetop or a freestanding, and what brands I should look at.

[Menolly]

Well, my best info used to be from Jeff Smith, but I am having trouble locating it. So, I turn to my current day fave, Alton Brown (*sigh*).

From his Good Eats episode Squid Pro Quo

C: I better go look for her ... Whoa! Say. What's with the wok?
AB: Well, the wok's kind of the ideal squid-cooking vessel, Chuck. And it's also really great for tailgating.
C: What makes it so special?
AB: Well, two things. For one, the metal. The very best woks which are also some of the cheapest, are actually made out of a high carbon steel and it's an excellent heat conductor. But the real secret's the shape. This bowl shape means that no matter what you have in it pools down to the bottom which is closest to the fire so you can cook large amounts, you can cook small amounts, doesn't matter. Oh, did I mention stir frying? Because this is the stir frying pan.
C: You know, I tried that once but it really didn't taste, um, right.
AB: Well, you probably didn't have any wok hey.
C: Oh, where can I get some?
AB: Um, no. It's, it's a word. It's a Chinese term that means the flavor of the wok.
C: Okay, but where can I get some?
AB: Oh, well, there's only one way to get wok hey and that's heat, lots of heat.

AB: Gentleman, why can't you get wok hey at home?
N: Wok what?
C: It's the flavor of the wok. Come on.
AB: You can't get wok hey at home because the average home range burner doesn't have enough oomph to get a wok really, really hot. This does, just an outdoor burner from a turkey fryer setup. I think this is going to revolutionize tailgating.
C: Yeah, this is all great. But shouldn't we look for Patty?
AB: Let the aroma of our stir fry lead her home.
N: Do you need this [fire extinguisher]?
AB: Oh, I hope not. But if you're going to play with fire, you've got to be protected. Are we clear on this?
C & N: Crystal.

AB: A stir fry is not so much a recipe as it is a procedure. That means there's an order to things which is ...
N: [tries to interrupt]
AB: ... this is important ... there's an order to things and you've got to stick with that order if you're really going to have a stir fry. Now a stir fry is also a lot like a, um, a chain reaction. It happens very ...
N: [tries to interrupt]
AB: ... just a second ... it happens very, very quickly. And once it starts there isn't any stopping it. It's like a roller coaster. You get in the car, the bar comes down, you pull out of the station. You're committed. That is ...
N: [tries to interrupt]
AB: ... just a second ... that is what stir frying is. You are committed. This means that we must be fully prepared. All the ingredients must be laid out, pre-chopped, pre-sliced, pre-measured, ready to go. Even your serving pieces had better be in place because once this starts ...
N: [tries to interrupt]
AB: ... what!?
N: Um, shouldn't we put something in it? Some oil or something?
AB: Ned, one of the major tenets of stir frying is the wok must heat alone.
C: I think it's starting to glow.
N: Cool.
AB: Indeed. I would say that we're ready to cook

And from Your Pad Thai or Mine?

Top quality authentic ingredients are all fine and good, but they do not a Pad Thai make. For that, you're going to need a big old bucket of heat delivered fast and furious. Now can this be attained in a standard American pan on a standard American cook top? Well, you can get by. But if you really want to take your tongue on a trip, you're going to wok this way.
Now understand the wok shape is perfect for stir-frys, because the heat can be tightly focused at the bottom, but it rapidly dissipates as it moves up and out towards the rim of the pan. Now a skilled wok-meister uses this to his or her advantage, by pushing cooked ingredients up the sides, where they'll stay warm without overcooking.
Now you can certainly find yourself a top quality wok at some fancy shmancy culinary emporium, but if you really want to hit the mother lode as far as selection goes, you'll do a little research and find yourself a restaurant supply store that specializes in Asian kitchen supplies. Now let me just show you a ... [rocks forward, to reveal that he is sitting cross-legged in a large wok and he can't easily get out] Can I just have a little privacy, please?
Top quality woks are easy to spot. They are deep and well-rounded. They are sturdy in construction. All the rivets are nice and heavy-duty, and they are made out of good metal, generally high-carbon steel. [picks up a wok]. Oooh, this one you can actually see the hammer marks where it was hand-finished. That's a nice sign of craftsmanship.
Now for just everyday stir-frying at home, a 14-inch wok will probably do you fine [shows the wok that he is holding] Fourteen inch. But if you're going to be doing any kind of entertaining, I think a 16-inch is a far far better thing. As for handles, the double-looped style is very popular in restaurants because it stays out of the way. You've got less chances of kind of knocking things over. But to tell the truth, in an average home kitchen or in an average home back yard, I really think that the single hollow metal handle is better for pan handling.
As for the color, this is not a non-stick surface. It is simply a protective coating, placed on the pan to keep it from rusting. It will wear off and burn off with time, and that's a good thing.

I hope these help.

High carbon steel, and an intense heat source, seem to be the ticket.

[Avatar]

If you cook on gas, a stove-top one is great, because you can get it really hot.

The GF has an electric one that she loves, but as far as I'm concerned, it's like the difference between a good cast-iron skillet and an electric grill. But I don't have gas, so the electric gets hotter.

--A

[Cail]

Yep, I'm cooking with gas.

I've really started getting into stir-fried stuff, and a flat pan just isn't cutting it. I'm going to try to get shopping this weekend.

[Menolly]

If you do use a stove top, gas is much better than electric. But, unless you have a specialty high output burner, it still won't get quite hot enough to do a totally proper job.

But, yeah, get an inexpensive high carbon steel hammered wok, and that will do ya fine, say thankya.

[aliantha]

Cail, I got a nonstick flat-bottomed wok at Ikea for about five bucks. Before that, I used an aluminum round-bottomed wok that I got at Price Club years and years ago for, that's right, about five bucks.

Woks work much better than frying pans for stir-fry because the food is concentrated in a small area over the heat source.

Haven't really tried the wok on the electric stove yet. But yeah, I'm betting the gas range would work better.

[Cail]

Macy's has a nice Circulon for around $20 that'll match the rest of my cookwear. I think I may pick it up this afternoon.

[aliantha]

There are some specific utensils for wok cooking, too. I picked up a Calphalon-brand stir-fry paddle thingy at Bed Bath & Beyond or Linens 'n' Things (don't remember which one) that works really well.

[Menolly]

Macy's has a nice Circulon for around $20 that'll match the rest of my cookwear. I think I may pick it up this afternoon.

Is it high carbon steel, Cail? You really don't want anything else, unless you are only interested in the shape of the wok itself.

I agree with ali, certain utensils are nice. I specifically like using a spider (I think that's what it's called) for removing foods from the wok if I didn't add a sauce to it.



The one I have is much less fancy. It's gold-toned mesh on a flat wooden handle.

But, you can wok without these utensils. I found a wooden spatula works just fine.

[aliantha]

I don't have one of those, but I always stir-fry and add a sauce. I could see where it would be useful if you're, say, deep-frying meats for sweet & sour what-have-you.

Very simple sauce for stir-frying, btw: water, cornstarch, soy sauce, garlic powder and powdered ginger. I wish I could tell you how much of each but I usually kind of do it "to taste". About 1/2 c. water, a couple of tsps. cornstarch, about a tsp. of soy sauce (or one packet from a takeout place), maybe 1/2 tsp of each of the seasonings.

I like stir-fries because they require very little oil, especially if you cook the meat in water or broth.

[Prebe]

Good sauce call Aliantha. However, it sounds like a lot of water and not much soy. Btw, It is almost as fast to peel a chunk of fresh ginger and a clove of garlic and put them both through the garlic masher. And I find that it is somewhat tastier. And you don't have to overcook the stir-fry to make the flavors come out.

Try adding a tsp of chinese five spice mix while stir frying too.

If you make it yourself with whole spices (cumin, cloves, star aniseed, coriander seed and cardemum) don't forget to dry rost them first. But now we are talking more time consuming. I know.

I can only back Menolly's high carbon, hammered round bottom wok suggestions. You can get other shapes and materials, but they don't wok to well (sorry!).

"Good wok mister Cail!"

(I know you are a stickler for authenticity Double sorry!)

[Cail]

I passed on the Circulon today, though I got a Hell of a deal on the rest of the set. I'll try going to an actual kitchen store this weekend to find an authentic one.

[Prebe]

Don't go for the really expensive ones. When used properly (heated to grotesque temperatures) no wok is going to last you more than a couple of years with regular use. I'd try to find one in a chinese grocery store. They often have some cheap ones that do the job just fine.

The thing with woks is, that they don't really compare to other cooking vessels, that have to hold and distribute a lot of heat. A wok is the opposite: The thinner they are, the better the effect. The trick is to NOT add to much of your ingredients at a time, because that cools the wok surface to below the scorching point.

The actual frying time in a wok should ideally never exceed 90 seconds.

[Menolly]

[stonemaybe]

I just use my wok as a giant stir-frying pan that it's harder to spill stuff out of!

[aliantha]

Thanks for the hints, Prebe. I'll try the fresh ginger and garlic -- I'm sure you're right that they'll taste better than the dry stuff.

But here's a question: What's the point of a garlic masher? When I've tried to use them in the past on a clove of garlic, I usually get a little garlic juice out the teeny holes and a big hunk of garlic pulp stuck inside the box. I seem to do better mincing the clove into teeny-tiny pieces.

I do basically the same thing with fresh ginger -- use a potato peeler to make thin slices (since I've got the peeler out anyhow to peel the ginger in the first place), then make a teeny-tiny dice of the ginger slices.

I go easy on the soy sauce in my mix because we usually add soy sauce at the table. (And now that I've got high blood pressure, I'm gonna have to start getting reduced sodium soy sauce (ick).)

The wok I got from Price Club was aluminum with a copper bottom. And yeah, I got rid of it mainly because I was pretty sure I was gonna scour a hole in it pretty soon. It was a really good wok.

[Menolly]

IMO, there's only one garlic press worth existing, and that's the SUZI/Zyless brand. It comes with an additonal piece that has small sticks on it to insert into the holes in the garlic press to make clean up easier, so it is a good buy both in function and praticality.

That said, I still hardly ever use it. I do similar to you, ali, only I follow the lead of Martin Yan and Ming Tsai by smashing the garlic clove or slice of ginger first, and then rapidly rocking my chef's knife over it to mince it.

[drew]

We use a Wok on an electric stove...its no problem...it sits on the little holder, and gets nice and hot.

Other than stirfrys..it also works good for deep frying (like making fish and chips)

Cleaning it is a bitch though.

[Menolly]

Cleaning it is a bitch though.

...please...

...tell me you're only talking about the outside???

The pride of my wok is the seasoning layer on the interior.

[drew]

we just followed the intructions that actually came with the Wok. We clean it (By hand..we clean everything by hand-no dishwaher) let it air dry, and rub some oil in it before we put it away 9to keep it from rusting I presume)

Besides..I said we use it to make home-made fish and chips..I doubt if a curried vegtable stirfry would taste good afterwords if it was not cleaned out.