You may be right in suggesting that they think of round bottomed woks where you will need a wok ring to be able to use them on a home stovetop.
No reason to believe a flat bottom wok in carbon steel shouldn’t work well and efficiently on a home stovetop to be honest.
Thanks for your reply.
All of my woks are carbon steel but one non-stick which I use for steaming. I have stopped worrying about acquiring the perfect seasoning on them. The flat-bottom wok I use at present because I was deprived of my beautiful gas stove is seasoned rather nicely on the bottom from the high heat electric burner. The sides aren’t well-seasoned, but I spray the wok with Pam before every use, and it works fine, though I suspect that is a mortal sin to the purists. I make it a point to remove all the food residue with hot water and a brush and then dry thoroughly. A tiny bit of oil is wiped on for preparation for the next time. Little by little it is getting better. It doesn’t look pretty. I wish it did, but I would rather just cook in it any way I can make it work. I like stir-fried dishes! Don’t worry about the seasoning too much; just cook and let the pan season itself.
First let me say that I have a bad wok habit…that is, have always been on the look out for “the perfect wok”. I started out with the large carbon steel wok from a Chinatown grocery store many many years ago, and in my naiveté somehow managed not to F it up. That was many years ago. Since then I have a few woks from Tane Chan’s Wok Shop in SF, a nice big Yamada 1.6mm wok, even a wok from the UK…a Netherton. The Cen brothers woks were my daily drivers for many many years, but they were recently eclipsed by a wok from the Made In folks. It’s fit and finish right out out of the box was excellent, and only needed the most minimal of seasoning to be up and running. I am cooking for 2, so it is a perfect size for daily stir fries, using for tempura, even deep frying fish. They’re not cheap as your run of the mill carbon steel wok, but I think the price is worth it. Except when I need a much larger wok, it gets all of the duty in our house.
@wabi Thank you for your reply.
I was considering the Made In wok. Is it hard to clean? Their website says to use paper towel to wipe off grease after everyday use. Does the seasoning stay?
VERY easy to keep clean. Since it was pre seasoned, and I only applied a light seasoning…it was almost non stick right from the beginning. I have never had to scrape it with anything like a green scratchy pad or a chain mail scrubber I sometime have to use for cast iron skillets. I just use hot water and a nylon brush. With continued usage it’s developed or added a wonderful seasoning, noodles and rice dont even stick to it. I am careful with sugary or sweet sauces that can burn and stick to it, and I am careful to wash it right after I use it. That said, it’s never needed soap or reasoning.
IMHO spending $100+ for a wok for use with a conventional cook/range top is a waste of money.
First of all, conventional stove/cook top burners do not supply enough concentrated heat that a wok is designed for. Moreover, while there are some mods you can make to some gas stovetop burners to focus the heat at the narrow circle that is the bottom of a wok, without such a mod, too much heat is wasted around the perimeter of a wok… and even with such a mod, the amount of heat from most gas home appliances is still insufficient for ideal results.
Electric cook tops are even worse as the heat they deliver is even over the entire surface area of the element, and smaller elements deliver less total heat. You’re much better off using a pan whose bottom surface matches the surface of the the most powerful heating element so you can transfer as much heat as possible to the pan.
So while a “wok” might be what we all think of as the ideal vessel for stir-fry, it simply isn’t when it comes to conventional home appliances.
What is the selling point for Made In again? I don’t get why it is better than a Yamada wok.
Chem…the only selling point of the Made In wok is that it is very finely finished carbon steel, and flat bottomed. I dont know if it was because of the degree of polishing of the carbon steel, but it was the best wok I have ever owned for being so non stick after just a stove top seasoning. I am using a 25,000 btu burner and 1200cfm exhaust, so while I cant crank it like the rocket engines they use in a chinese restaurant…let’s just say I can get a decent sear going.
Thanks.
Even if the debunked aluminum causes dementia thing were true, ANODIZED aluminum doesn’t react with acidic foods or leech into your foods. That is the entire point of anodizing.
I use a basic carbon steel wok, bought on the cheap at an Asian grocery. Easy to take care of, no concerns about scratching or high heat causing fumes. Works great!
Hi DD,
It’s not really a wok, but it’s designed for stir fry (and induction): the
Staub “perfect pan”:
I’ve had one for five years and it works well for stir fry. It has a rounded inside–but has a flat interface with my Vollrath induction unit. I have not used it at the high temperatures possible with gas–but it does work well at about 250-300 degrees as measured by my infrared.
Ray
I still using a flat bottom carbon steel wok I bought some 30 years ago, probably second hand at a flea market or garage sale. It heat in seconds, is light enough to handle easily. Our son has tried to finagle me out of it many times but I just tell him he’ll inherit it in due course.
Go to a comprehensive Asian grocer and get one meant for the purpose. You certainly need not pay triple digits for a correct wok.
I was catching up on some podcasts and was pleasantly surprised that Kenji Lopez-Alt was on Cooking Issues a few weeks back in support of his new wok cookbook and they definitely covered a whole range of wok choosing pointers.
I haven’t gotten the book yet (although I definitely will) so it’s probably covered in there as well but it’s definitely worth listening to the the episode even so. Among other things, Dave Arnold and Kenji stay on topic and uninterrupted nearly the whole episode (which is kind of unprecedented in my experience) so it’s a very entertaining and information dense episode.
One thing I was very surprised to learn (and hope is explained in depth in the book) is that Kenji doesn’t seem to view the seasoning on a wok as quite the same beast as the seasoning on a western skillet. I won’t get into it as it’s probably covered in the book and I’d certainly butcher his explanation but it was very enlightening and even liberating.
I’m sorry, but both statements are wrong. Anodized aluminum is aluminum oxide, and is not very reactive. One of the great cookware lines of modern history, Calphalon Commercial, was and is a workhorse you could cook tomato sauce in every day and held up just fine with no discoloration and no taste changes.
As for dementia, this is a very unfortunate myth. It began with someone seizing on a study conclusion that found elevated aluminum levels in the diseased brains of people who died of Alzheimers. No study has ever found a causal relationship, and most researchers believe that the diseased brain cells simply take up more aluminum than do healthy cells.
Aluminum is the third most common element on Earth–almost twice as common as iron. People were suffering dementia long before metallic aluminum was produced, and as (uncoated) aluminum cookware has faded from the market, dementia has done nothing but increase.
My big problem with Aluminum, and Calphalon specifically, is that it warps at the temps most often used for stir fry.
YMMV, but I am done with it.
I really want to invest in aluminum cookware, but can I use metal whisk without scratching the anodized surface?
Amazon Japan has many interesting 3~4mm thick anodized aluminum cookwares for commercial use. Along with 3mm tinned copper, which is way too heavy for me.
My good friend from China says that bare cast iron is the most appropriate wok material for American stove tops.
Carbon steel for a gas range that can get appropriately hot. Uncommon in most American home kitchens.
Yes. That’s the reason for anodizing in the first place. The oxides formed are very hard–up to 70 RC, about as hard as case-hardened steel.
OK, I’ll buy the smallest Windsor to give it a try. Here’s the link:
Anodizing is a process, and the quality of the process can vary. All I know is that lines like the old Calphalon Commercial held up very well.
I would not run it in a dishwasher, though.
