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Many, many years ago I bought a very heavy rolled steel 14" wok at a Whole Earth Store (remember those?). It has a ring and a substantial cover and it has gotten a lot of use over the years. However, the ring doesn't often fit on the stoves I've owned and the round bottom makes it hard to put it on some of the burners. I also have a 12" flat bottom wok that I admit I use more than the larger, round-bottomed one. I once had a non-stick lightweight wok with a handle (that's very useful) that we used in our little RV, but the coating was scratched and I tossed it. I've never had any problems with sticking with either of the steel ones, probably because both of them are pretty well seasoned. I think the higher heat of wok cooking helps the food release without leaving behind a residue that has to be washed off. I have a side burner on the barbecue grill that I might try one of these days. Maybe it gets hot enough to properly stir fry. Certainly my feeble little non-commercial stove hasn't been up to the task. I don't think I'll do what a neighbor did, which is to design a specialized free-standing outdoor burner specifically to prepare his favorite Thai dish. That's going a little too far IMO. Nancy in Pátzcuaro

When I lived in Vancouver, years ago, stores in Chinatown sold special coils for electric ranges that were bowl-shaped to accommodate a wok. I almost bought one, but decided against it on reflection, because it wouldn't have fit every range in every rental, and I moved a lot. I'd love to have a proper (ie, round bottom rather than flattened for the stovetop) wok again, but haven't been willing to invest the time or effort in searching one out. I have a couple of portable butane single-burner stoves, and would use one of those to cook on as needed.

The 35 Paella pan is finally here! Here's a pic of it next to its smaller G1 siblings for scale. I appreciate the refined fit-n-finish of the new pan. As many of you know, the handles of the original pans have fairly sharp edges. One day I'll get around to grinding them down. Darto has clearly heard our concerns, and so they took the time and effort to slightly round off the edges from the handles, underside of handles, pan edges. Much appreciated! The pan came with a protective coating of wax, or something or another, that just took some elbow grease, dawn, hot water, and a stainless scrubby to remove. As far as seasoning, I admit I don't really fuss or buy into the multi-layer baking process. I own these 4 Darto pans, a boatload of Lodges, other carbon steel pans and woks, and all I've ever done was "sacrifice" a couple of eggs during 1st seasoning. I just heat up a neutral oil till smoking, throw in the eggs, a load of kosher salt, and just "scramble" till the eggs dry up. Again, as many of you likely know, if you just put oil in a pan, it can gunk up and turn sticky. The eggs serve as both an oil sponge and a towel of sorts that allows me to rub the oil in the pan smoothly. Dump out the eggs and salt, wipe it down with paper towels, and done. Time to get on with normal cooking. I don't know if this helps or just inflames the "seasoning" argument, but this is what I do, what I've done for a couple of decades, and all my various iron / steel pans are super slick. I plan to use this pan extensively for Tapas on my 26" Weber kettle. I burn white oak and cook the tapas over open flame in my Darto pans, Columbian black clay pans, Spanish cazuela, etc.

Yes. I have a stainless saucier and see it as more useful than a stainless wok. Never tried stir frying in it though.

Just a comment on adapter idea. If you consider how conventional cooking works, the "normal" electric hob works using both conduction (the element is hot and in contact with the pot/pan) and radiation (those parts of the hot element not in contact with the pot/pan). Gas works by a combination of convection/conduction (the hot air & gases contacting the pot/pan) and radiation (the hot parts of the gas element that are heated by the burning gases radiate to the pot pan). The induction heating works a lot like a microwave in that the molecules of the pot/pan are directly heated by the radiation (magnetic waves). Now the food in the pot/pan is heated mostly by conduction of the heat from the pan to the food (in theory also a little radiation but not much once the food starts to heat). Radiation relies on the DIFFERENCE in temperature between 2 bodies. The final temperature of the pot/pan/wok will depend on how much heat it radiates into its surrounds. It is receiving radiation from the heat source but it is also losing heat through radiation into its surrounds. What ever material you use for the wok itself, the method of transmission of the heat will be by conduction and radiation. What makes a wok efficient in the way its used is that the gas around heating it is VERY hot. Similarly if used over say a conventional fire (wood or charcoal) the hot gases are very hot and the radiation component is very high. Back to the adapter. For it to be efficient in heating the wok is it must make very good contact with the adapter to allow for very good conduction OR it must be VERY hot to allow good radiation. Because radiation relies entirely on the difference in temperature, once the wok is close to the same temperature as the adapter, it will stop being heated by radiation and so will always remain at a lower temperature than the adapter. So will it work? Of course it will BUT (there is always a but) the adapters temperature will need to be much hotter than the what the final temperature of the wok is supposed to be. My guess wold be that the adapter would need to be heated to several hundred degrees above what the wok temperature needs to be, probably close to the temperature of wood coals (from 1250F to 1800F) which will probably damage your stove. You would then control the heat of the wok by how far above the adapter you placed the wok. (that's effectively what you do with a wok over a conventional fire). That is for a conventional wok, a stainless wok transfers heat much slower so the temperature is probably needed to be even higher. Instead of an adapter you could make the adapter into the shape of a wok and use it directly BUT (that dreaded but) the properties of a wok are twofold; they gain high heat rapidly but they also lose heat rapidly (the food sears but doesn't burn through, the contact point on the wok is cooled by the food/oil and the food is moved on to another hot point), but the adapter wok would not lose this heat rapidly. Any food not moved on immediately would just char. You could make a flat adapter, put a layer of charcoal on it and use the induction to start & maintain the charcoal burning, but you have to deal with the hot gases & ash. Be also be great for searing steak... Probably cheaper and easier to use a wok gas ring and bottled gas but that's a whole new set of problems.

I have had a few woks over the years. The two I use is a cast iron wok for Curries and the el-cheapo carbon steel wok for hot stir fry. It is light and is virtually nonstick from all the cooking that has gone on. It is easy to clean between dishes...I use a bamboo brush and it reheats in a flash.

20 some years ago, when I bought my first induction hob, one of the first induction ready pans I purchased was a saucier. A pan which looks like a flat bottom wok with a very large flat bottom and thick heat distribution plate. My (flat bottom) wok was my most frequently used pan. I still have the wok ring which I purchased as an add on for the gas range,. After using the saucier, the wok moved into less and less accessible storage. Eventually I gave it to the town swap shop to find it a new home. I have never found anything that the wok could do an the saucier not do as well or better. (I have never had or used a high power wok burner.)

When faced with electric coil-element or smooth-top US stoves, the Chinese students and post docs I worked with found standard skillets or fry pans better suited than a wok. They occasionally used a high-power outdoor gas wok burner when cooking for larger groups and parties but stuck with the skillets for indoor, family cooking. In sharing recipes, they recommended that I do the same on my low-powered gas range.

I think the reason is that stainless steel is poor conductor of heat (most of the heat going into pure stainless steel pan will try to warp it), and as aside bonus carbon steel can get 'non-stick' patina. I've done patina (by applying horseraddish and ketchup, of all things) on one of my carbon steel knives which prevent it from rusting, but does not prevent it from imparting 'metallic' taste to food being cut. I like to keep things as 'traditional' as possible, hence me trying to figure out a way to make (what I percieve to be a quintessential) wok work in an environment (heating element) not very suited to it. I'm more of a braising and simmering (european style) type of guy, but this experiment of mine is making me want to try stir-frying on electric stove (any my stove has 3 gas burners ) just as a proof of concept.

That's correct - but you typically don't want heat all the way up the side walls of a wok. The curved induction machine you linked looked perfect for a wok - the heat would come to about the same place as it would on a traditional gas wok burner. If you don't have a curved induction surface like that, then you need to use a flat bottomed wok otherwise you will only have a very small point of heat source - aluminum or not, it's not enough to get the heat you want.

But the pan's magnetic field would only be the area that's in close contact to the induction plate . Thicker aluminum allows the heat to travel past this zone with less drop off. I've seen this with pans that have larger surface areas than the induction plate. The side walls on a wok aren't creating heat on an induction burner. But they get heat transferred from the parts of the pan that are creating the heat... no?

Yeah, I think you're right. Air is a poor at transmitting heat. I'm thinking I'm going to sell this wok. It works great in terms of conducting heat, but it needs a different interior surface. I wonder if it's possible to possible to clad aluminum and carbon steel together? That would be a decent wok for induction.

Waiting for these to become more affordable: https://www.hubert.ca/product/68609?CAWELAID=120051220000016267&gclid=CjwKCAiA9qHhBRB2EiwA7poaeB1L_jOmBpqRkUy5MDeW75RTZigoegZuZDDHQUOBVkUxM9KltowDUhoCqNkQAvD_BwE There's this one that's quite a bit cheaper, but the matching wok is stainless steel: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/adcraft-ind-wok208v-countertop-induction-wok-range-208v-3000w/172WOK208V.html

I think the steel adapter may work better in theory than in practice. Unless the curvature of the adapter EXACTLY fits that of the wok, its heat transmission will not be very good because it is transmitting heat through conduction. Any gaps or space is dead air and is a decent insulator.

Almost everyone cooks on gas, but in the last ten years most also have electric portable induction cookers for hot pots. These are sometimes used with woks (not stainless steel) but more often with stainless steel hot pot pans. All I am saying is that I've never seen a stainless steel wok in China.

I have held back from commenting here, because I just don't understand what is happening. After 23 years years living in a country that perhaps knows a thing or two about woks and stir frying, I've never seen a stainless steel example. Perhaps, for good reason. They have stainless steel, but not for woks. And "I'm having a stir-fry for dinner" makes as much sense in Chinese as "I'm having a cooking for dinner".

Pardon me from butting in on this topic, but I have a related inquiry... I'm trying to set up a friend with a wok, but she has only (conventional) electric stove. Would regular round carbon steel wok work with induction plate (I have one lying around, and don't mind lending it to her- because I think it would be more responsive to adjustments)? My idea is to make (or have it made) a solid steel 'adapter' which would be placed on induction plate. It would protect the plate top, to some degree steady the wok and hold it in place, while distributing more heat to the bottom of the wok, and woul additionally prevent induction plate from shutting off when lifting wok to toss the food in it... So, my quiestion is- would it work? Is it worth the trouble?

A reasonably priced carbon steel wok from Chinatown, seasoned properly is a thing of beauty. I agree no nonstick coated wok.

I have a wok that I've seasoned but I still love (and use) my WS stainless one...

If nothing else, you can use it with a bamboo steamer. I use a ss pan for searing sous vide meat but that's different because you can let it sit until it releases rather than keeping the food moving. Maybe cleaning your wok up was a bad idea, though.

Food sticks to stainless because the food is too wet or the pan isn't hot enough. Sticking is always a technique issue. You should be able to cook fish with the skin on in a stainless pan, with no sticking. I still don't think stainless is a great material for traditional wok (one you'll use for real stir frying). It's less conductive than spun steel, and more expensive. And while you could probably get some seasoning to build up on it, it will be fragile, so you'll probably end up cleaning off any polymerized oils. Which means you'll need more perfect technique to keep things from sticking, so it won't be as casual to use. We have a vaguely wok-like pan ... a flat-bottomed, curved sided thing with a conductive disk bottom. I kind of like it. Is this the sort of thing people are talking about? I see these as a hybrid between a wok and a sauté pan. They're nice for sautéing vegetables, because they hold a lot of them, and make tossing them nearly effortless. But this isn't real stir-frying. You're not using the kind of heat that could set the ceiling on fire.

I have a stainless steel William Sonoma stir-fry pan (eg. wok) that I got on closeout for about $30. It has become possibly my most used cooking vessel. Sticking has not been a problem. If I don't use it everyday I believe I can say without exaggeration I use it at least every third day for something. Last night for mushrooms.

I have the Demeyer stainless steel wok. I hate using it. Stuff sticks to it no matter how much I pre-heat it. It takes up a lot of room. I should sell it.

No experience but I do know that Chef Ming Tsai occasionally uses an All Clad stainless steel wok. Quite sure it’s for promotional purposes rather than a really considered choice on his part. I do not have an All Clad one but I do have a stainless steel wok which I use on my induction range and I find it works perfectly well. Given that I have no hope in heck of reaching the kind of temperatures that one is supposed to get in order to properly stirfry it works adequately. Mine was picked up in a thrift store and appears to have been homemade or at least converted from something else.

I was listing some things on Kijiji (Canadian Classifieds website), and I noticed someone selling a oil-stained All-Clad 14" Wok for $25. Considering the price, and the fact that I have Bar Keeper's Friend on hand, I got in contact with the owner and purchased the item. I cleaned it up removing all the stains with Bar Keeper's Friend, and now it looks pretty decent, but I'm left wondering if this piece of cookware has much use? I have an induction cooktop, and the heat does spread decently up the sides; however, stainless is notoriously non-nonstick, which is great for building a fond in certain applications, but not so great for stir frying. Has anyone had success stir frying in a stainless steel vessel? Any tips or tricks? I guess depending on the dish, I could incorporate the fond into the final sauce. I'm just envisioning ripped apart veggies and protein. Now that I've cleaned up the pan, I could probably sell it for a profit if I don't have any use for it.