Buying a Good Wok: What, Where, How...

[PurpleDingo99]

Last time my mom went to target, she grabbed me some little $20 wok to go with my other one. After seasoning, I cooked with it an hour later and the thing rusted! The handle was split when i got the thing and it gave of a metallic taste, too. Any reccomendations of a wok that may actually last a while?

[chezcherie]

mine is from the local asian market---well under $20, and it's been in use about 15 years...get a cleaver there, while you're at it!

[Mayhaw Man]

Go to a good Aisian market. SPend part of the money on a wok, some cool utensils (some of those stirring and mixing spatulas have become part of my everyday arsenal-they are really cheap and hold up well)

spend the rest on some good stuff to test drive your new wok with. Go get some big shrimp or something.

[Moopheus]

After seasoning, I cooked with it an hour later and the thing rusted! The handle was split when i got the thing and it gave of a metallic taste, too. Any reccomendations of a wok that may actually last a while?

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A carbon steel wok will rust if you don't clean it and dry it right after use.

Good woks are not expensive. A hand-hammered wok can be had for $10-15 at Asian markets. A useful tip from Grace Young: try to flex the bowl of the wok. A good wok should give a little, but not a lot. If it bends too easily, don't buy.

[Behemoth]

Any good web sources for those of us in the land of flyover?

[andiesenji]

I have bought 3 from this vendor the wok place.

All of these were gifts and everyone is pleased with them.

One is the two-handled one, the one made in China, it has to be seasoned with mineral oil and dried carefully (she sets it on the burner and heats it after drying it with a towel) and oiled before storing.

The other two were the ones with the long handle and helper handle, one was a 12 inch and the other was a 16 inch.

These also have to be carefully dried and oiled to make sure they do not rust.

The heat response time is very rapid.

[Behemoth]

Thanks Andie!

[NulloModo]

With Woks - Do you pretty much have to have gas for them to work right? With the curved bottom I can't figure out how I would get one to get enough contact on an electric element...

[andiesenji]

I have a separate wok burner.

If you have a place where you can cook outside, get one of the turkey fryers, they cost less than 60 dollars and will fire up a wok just fine.

[gourmande]

...With Woks - Do you pretty much have to have gas for them to work right? With the curved bottom I can't figure out how I would get one to get enough contact on an electric element...

I too have an electric stove (unfortunately) and use the wok often with great results every time. I place the wok on the support ring (don't know the technical term) over the largest element and "wok on high" ...

Edited February 20, 2005 by gourmande (log)

[JohnStewart]

wokshop.com is great also. The woman who owns it is super friendly.

[andiesenji]

wokshop.com is great also. The woman who owns it is super friendly.

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And she also sells an excellent wok stove.

One of the docs at my office bought one and is very happy with it.

(I gave him a wok when he became interested in stir fry when he went on a diet.

He lost 96 pounds and looks fantastic! Walking is his only exercise and he eats only Asian type foods, vegetables, meat and fish. Amazing.)

[BeJam]

Lodge cast iron wok

I got one very similar to this a few years ago as a moving on gift from a job. I like it, because I generally like cast iron. However, as a wok it doesn't really work very well because the entire wok gets hot. It takes a few minutes to come up to temperature and doesn't really have many heat zones. It also weighs 40lbs.

[Nathan P.]

I'm another wokshop.com customer. The owner is great to chat with (at least in the shop) and I am quite happy with the cast iron wok I purchased. Unlike a Lodge iron pan this is extremely thin and light. I am using it on an electric stove and the rounded bottom seems to fit perfectly in the center of the heating element. I am not using a wok ring and while it is not stable enough to deep fry in, it is fine for stir frying and I never feel like it is going to tip.

[SuzySushi]

With Woks - Do you pretty much have to have gas for them to work right?  With the curved bottom I can't figure out how I would get one to get enough contact on an electric element...

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You can buy a wok ring for a couple of bucks at any market that sells Asian cookware. That'll hold a curved-bottom wok stable over an electric burner. These days, some woks are made with slightly flatter bottoms, just for electric burners.

[SuzySushi]

Any reccomendations of a wok that may actually last a while?

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Okay, don't crucify me, folks, but of all the woks I've owned over many years (and I currently own three woks), my very favorite is a nonstick-coated wok by Wearever that I've had for several years! It's heavyweight aluminum, conducts heat well, doesn't rust, doesn't warp, is well balanced so it doesn't tip, and needs very little oil for cooking.

I've had it with carbon-steel woks (everything rusts in the salt-air of Hawaii), and with the lightweight ones that tip over when you have a panful of ingredients (or worse yet, hot oil!). And I much prefer one handle, which I can grab easily to lift off the burner while stir-frying with the other.

[WHT]

I have a separate wok burner.

If you have a place where you can cook outside, get one of the turkey fryers, they cost less than 60 dollars and will fire up a wok just fine.

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some of the places in Chinatown near me sell the burners for woks, about $30-60.

[emmapeel]

I just bought the Le Crueset Wok because I saw it had a flat bottom, and good for my gas range that doesn't generate enough heat compared to commercial ranges. It should arrive tomorrow. Cutlery and More has a sale (also no tax and free shipping) because it's one of Le Crueset's newer products. The new one has a glass lid. Although it is a westernized product, I believe it will serve me well.

As for no heat ranges within the wok because it is cast iron, I am a bit concerned, but I hope to get around it. Any ideas?

[Susan in FL]

Any reccomendations of a wok that may actually last a while?

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Okay, don't crucify me, folks, but of all the woks I've owned over many years (and I currently own three woks), my very favorite is a nonstick-coated wok by Wearever that I've had for several years! It's heavyweight aluminum, conducts heat well, doesn't rust, doesn't warp, is well balanced so it doesn't tip, and needs very little oil for cooking.

The author (Victor Sodsook) of my new current favorite Thai cookbook, True Thai, would agree with you. His info on woks in the section on equipment was interesting reading.

[Octaveman]

I bought my cast iron wok from the Wok Shop in San Francisco (www.wokshop.com). It's very thin and lightweight and I love it. Cooking on an electric stove sucks for wokking though. I may look into the suggestions for wok burners/stoves.

[Bond Girl]

There was a wonderful article in Gourmet magazine about this two or three months ago. You have to look for it but the woman featured in the article actually said that the $20 wok works better than most $200 versions.

[takadi]

It's been a while since anyone has posted in this thread, but I need a express a concern. I bought a "pow" or bejing wok from www.wokshop.com. It was pretty expensive compared to the other woks, and I didn't notice any indentation marks from the actual hand hammering. I bought the book "breath of wok" that shows actual hand hammered woks and you see the small indentations all around the wok. I bought the hand hammered pow wok mostly as a collector's item, but I felt like I was being cheated in some way, like I was sent a machine pressed wok instead.

Now that I look on the site again, they are selling ACTUAL hand hammered woks that they got exclusively from the the guangdong province. The picture advertisements look like actual handhammered ones I saw in the "breath of wok". Now I really feel cheated.

Eh just a silly rant...

EDIT

Scratch that, I actually emailed the wok shop about this and got a personal email back from Tane Chan. She proclaimed that the woks I had gotten WERE hand hammered, but had less defined ping marks. She actually embarked on a two year journey search for hand hammered woks with more defined ping marks and found one from Guangdong. I feel much better now.

Edited April 15, 2007 by takadi (log)

[kristin_71]

Calphalon One has a 10" for around $50 and All Clad has one that runs about $200 for the stainless,$270 for the LTD, $370 for the copper core and the brushed non stick stainless goes for around $200. Le Ceuset has a wok for $180. Williams-Sonoma is a good source. They have a nice selection of cookware in general.

[Octaveman]

Um, yeah, do not spend that much money for a wok. If you buy a stainless wok there will be no difference to any other SS pan. The food WILL stick and you will NEVER develope a seasoning which makes a carbon/cast iron vertually non-stick. Stir fry techniques are not compatable with wok cooking in a stainless steel wok. PLEASE do not spend more than $50 and buy either a carbon steel or cast iron wok.

I have two woks: THIS one from the wok shop and the Lodge CI wok. The thin CI wok from the wok shop was highly recommended to me by the owner Tane Chan. People I know did a direct comparison of cooking with carbon versus cooking with the thin CI from the Wok Shop. It was determined that they cook equally as well. I think it works very well, is very lightweight and is becoming well seasoned. It is flat bottomed for electric stoves. The Lodge wok is abut 8 lbs and has a unique shape in that it is flat on the outside bottom for electric stoves and is round on the inside to be able to do a good job of cooking the food. I actually now prefer the Lodge to the thin CI because when I put food in it the temp doesn't drop so much and the food keeps on searing like it should. The meat would just stew in the thin CI because the temp dropped so much.

Anyway, check out THIS THREAD on pros and cons to thin/thick CI. Keep in mind that whenever I mention thin CI I'm also referring to the carbon steel wok since they perform the same.

Edited April 15, 2007 by Octaveman (log)

[Jeff L]

I have the very same wok and got it from Tane as well. She is delightful and a pleasure to deal with. I also have a few other woks I bought in Philly's Chinatown that have served me well over the years.

I do love the cast iron wok from Wok Shop but I find the temperature is not as hot on my gas grill with the metal ring I have to use. I just keep the flame on high longer than I normally would to get the heat where I want it. This thing does retian heat well once the desired temps are reached though.