You can use metal utensils with a carbon steel wok, not just wood and silicone, but it must always be thoroughly dried, to prevent rusting. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sourcesin this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( February 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) In terms of keeping it well seasoned, it doesn’t need to be dripping with oil, but just not stripped bare. As long as you don't wash it with soap or scrub it with a metal scourer, you don't have to re-season it. You can use hot water, sponges and traditional bamboo brushes to clean and maintain it, but always make sure you dry it out completely and add another layer of oil with a paper towel afterwards. a b Symons, Michael (2003). A History of Cooks and Cooking. University of Illinois Press. p.78. ISBN 9780252071928. 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 wok hei: "breath of the wok".

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 With the adoption of gas and its less objectionable combustion products, the chimney has been replaced by the vent hood.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] The Cantonese phrase "Wok hei" ( simplified Chinese: 镬气; traditional Chinese: 鑊氣; Jyutping: wok 6 hei 3) 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: 气; traditional Chinese: 氣) 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]Note that hot wok cooking requires oils with a high smoke point, so think sunflower, peanut or grapeseed, rather than olive oil. One more word of caution: while the chunky wooden handle on this wok remains perfectly cool and easy to grip, the metal itself gets perilously hot. 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 b c Wilkinson, Endymion Porter (2000). Chinese History: A Manual. Harvard University Asia Center. p.647. ISBN 9780674002494. a b "What does Wokhei mean?". Wokhei. Archived from the original on 2011-10-21 . Retrieved 4 March 2012. It comes with a lifetime guarantee, it's oven safe up to 200°C, and is both PFOA and PTFE free. The rubber handle is excellent in terms of grip, but it's not a huge pan, so I'd recommend it for couples or small families.

The wok is probably the most versatile piece of equipment in Chinese cooking. It can have a round or flat bottom. They conduct heat in a slightly different way due to the shape, but it does not make much difference for day to day cooking - a round bottom is better for high heat stir frying, a flat bottom is better for searing and shallow frying. The high, curved sides of a wok allow food to be tossed around so that all ingredients can be cooked evenly at a high heat. You can also sit a bamboo steamer on top for making bao or dumplings. a b Müller, Thorsten (2010). Xi'an, Beijing und kein! Chop Suey: Lehmsoldaten, Fuhunde und Genüsse in China (in German). Books on Demand. p.122. ISBN 9783839169698. Deep frying: This is usually accomplished with larger woks to reduce splashing, but for deep frying of less food or small food items, small woks are also used. 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 (1368 - 1644), where it was first used for stir frying (an original Han Chinese innovation). [7] [4] Characteristics [ 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 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] See also [ edit ]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 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] Carbon steel [ edit ] Stewart, Randy (19 July 2009). "Choose Your Wok Wisely". Love That Kimchi.com . Retrieved 4 March 2012.

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] Public wok racing is only practiced once a year at The "World Wok Racing Championships" (German: Wok-WM, German pronunciation: [ˈvɔk.veːˌɛm], lit. Wok Worldcup) which is aired as special edition of Raab's show TV total on the German television channel ProSieben. The network used to declare these broadcasts as sporting events. Under German law that allowed the network to treat the massive corporate sponsorship of the event as incidental advertising which didn't count against Germany's strict rules regarding time limits for TV commercials. After a Berlin court ruling in 2009, however, the shows have to be labeled as an infomercial, since – unlike a regular sporting event – the races are explicitly staged for the TV broadcast, and there is strong evidence that the profits of the event sponsorship directly benefit the network. [2] World Wok Racing Championships [ edit ] Venues [ edit ]

Stainless steel wok

Young & Richardson (2004), p.38: A typical U.S.-made cast iron wok can weigh more than twice that of a Chinese cast iron wok of the same diameter To improve performance, the undersides of the woks are often heated with a blowlamp before the race. [ citation needed] Advertising controversy [ edit ] a b E.N., Anderson (1988). The Food of China. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp.184–5. ISBN 0300047398. With this in mind, in my attempt to determine the very best, I reviewed a selection of woks, judging them for durability, weight, aesthetic, ease of use and maintenance, the feel of the handles when cooking, and depth of flavour (you really can tell the difference on this front).