Kaleo…I’m still using my old Calphalon Commercial cookware that I bought in 1981. That sh#t just doesnt wear out.
It is interesting that Calphalon discontinued it, despite it has very high review rating among a small circle. In today world, a mediocre nonstick cookware will be a far better business success than a high quality anodized aluminum cookware.
Yes, you’re one of probably hundreds of thousands of CC owners with the same experience. In fact, the only bad thing I ever heard about CC was that a small bit of their production had “silvered”, probably as a result of an anodizing error.
I think its demise was mostly the result of aesthetics and convenience fashion changes.
Or maybe a super thin like 1.0mm wok? To create hotter hot spots so the Maillard reaction can happen faster.
Regarding the OP, I’m confused on the upkeep part. I think people make the mistake of treating a wok like a cast iron pan, but they’re not the same thing. There’s no upkeep to worry about.
And I say that here where no matter what, my woks end up picking up rust. Never had to worry about this in the USA, but the humidity and ocean air (the Atlantic Ocean is about a 3-minute walk) here are killer. My cast iron pans with a nice layer of seasoning also pick up rust after a while of sitting in the closet where we have a lot of the pans that don’t get used daily.
I’ve seen videos of people saying they need to re-season their works when the issue is they didn’t do the crucial first step. If you watch any Chinese Cooking Demystified video you know what that is. “First: longyau”. 
The average humidity is 80% here at Taipei, but I don’t see my CS crepe pans have rust, they only get used one to two times a month.
If you use gas stove, I think the key is to use high heat to dry the pans thoroughly. I found that it’s very important to make the pan very hot, so the H2O from burnt gas won’t stay on the pan.
I used to have thin wok. I don’t like it. They are flimsy and easy to bend out of shape.
I dry my pans for a while on stovetop and always have. I never had issues in the USA. I can re-season my cast iron after removing the rust, and put them away (aka they weren’t wet at all) and find a spot of rust months later. This is an area where people tend to opt for not using metal for a lot of structures because it rusts and falls apart. Our satellite dish is basically hanging by a thread at this point and we had to quickly maneuver to bring the AC units down and put them on the ground because they were threatening to fall off due to the metal having been eaten away. I haven’t changed how I handle my pans which never rusted in the USA, and I went through the process of removing rust from them here, building a patina all over again, and still ultimately finding rust some time later.
Yamada has build-to-order 1mm wok, I think it will be more robust.
Yamada has standard 1.2 mm and 1.6 mm woks. I am not understanding why you think a thinner wok is better.
I have a Yamada 1.6mm wok, and it’s a solid beast. It’s my largest wok, and I use it for larger stir fries and deep frying.
Of rust on cast iron and carbon steel…I live less than a mile from the ocean on the windward side of the Kauai. It’s humid, rains a lot, and the breeze has salt in it. Everything rusts here, everything… Seldom used pans will get a patina of corrosion, but it easily washes off before usage with a scratchy pad, (no soap). I just have to be compulsive about drying my CI/CS on the stove after washing them, and adding a wiping a few drops of oil on them. And FWIW, I use CS/CI daily, both skillets and woks.
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Yeah I use my woks a lot more than my cast iron but sometimes I might go a week or two without using them. What I was saying is that I gave up on trying to keep them rust-free because no matter the condition I leave them in, I end up finding some level of rust, so I just take care of it when I use them and it’s fine. When I was in the USA I never had rust develop on them, so I’m not sure what exactly upkeep means in the context of carbon steel woks.
Oh I believe you about the rust part. Some places are just too humid.
It may be better for weaker stoves, as it’s easier to create “hotter” hot spots, and that’s the point for Chinese style stir fry.
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I think the logic is the other way around… The biggest challenge of weak stove plus wok cooking is the sudden cooling of wok when foods are put in there, and now the wok is stewing foods, not frying foods.
Almost all stove can heat up the an empty wok to oil smoking high temperature, so that is not the problem. Long story short, the solution is a thicker wok, not a thinner wok. The thick cast iron wok suggested by J89K is for exactly that reason. Use the high heat capacity to store the heat, so when foods are put in the wok, it won’t suddenly cool down a lot.
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Going with a thick CI wok won’t solve the weak stove problem, but it’s an improvement. Even “pro” hobs probably are too weak.
I like what he says here about people having a skewed perception about Chinese food because they’re used to restaurant style with the intense heat.
A wok should be able to heat up AND cool quickly. Cast iron stays hot, but that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Yeppers! Cast iron on home cooktops for any kind of frying.
This is the same reason why blacken tuna or anything blacken is nice to be done on a cast iron pan too. Because most cast iron cookware is thick (usually), it can store a lot of heat and therefore do not suddenly cool down during that searing process.
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Yup. And I should have gone into more detail here (forgive me for not doing so).
I use two pans for stir fry. CI for frying, and SS for aromatics/sauces/etc., and then throw the fried into the SS for coating/saucing. May not be as good as a real world wok, but the results have been quite good for me.
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