hello, I am trying to figure out what wok to get and came across a website that offers many woks out of different materials. what is the best, or considered original (traditional)? I have a couple of cast iron pots and pans - too heavy, so I am assuming it will take some time for a cast iron wok to heat up. what about carbon steel and stainless steel? Thanks
1. Do not buy stainless Steel wok. Stainless steel is a poor conductor of heat. 2. Cast iron is traditional. It is heavy and takes long to heat and cool. You can get used to heating cooling, but weight can be a problem. I would not buy cast iron. 3. You may not believe this but carbon steel is also traditional and most widely used wok. Normally, a good wok is pounded out of high carbon steel thick stock. The pounding leaves thick bottom and gradually thinner walls. It is a good conductor of heat, easy to heat and cool, and light weight to mange taking off the heat when needed. I recommend buying high carbon steel wok
Traditionally woks do take a long to heat up but the trick is that they hold the heat for a long time, so either stainless steel for convenience or cast iron for tradition. Don't use anything non stick, chinese cooking uses a lot of oil, the non-stick will just be unhealthy when it starts to burn off. The cast iron will be good because it'll heat up and keep its heat, in chinese homes that have the wok, the wok usually gets heated up throughout a few hours, you need it to be really hot all the way through all over the pan to do chinese cooking. also traditionally woks are built into home or are big and positiioned over a fire not to be moved too much, the point is to keep stiring and stiring and stiring until your food is cooked.
Carbon steel is definitely the way to go. This is the authentic wok. Of course, you must be aware that it can rust if not dried--but in use you will seldom wash it anyway. The correct practice is simply to wipe it out with a paper towel. In this way the wok keeps its natural non-stick qualities. Whenever it is washed it must be re-seasoned--by heating it very hot with salt. Stainless steel of course does not rust and makes a pretty picture hanging up--but its utility ends there. It does not have the heat conduction qualities that are needed. Still, there are other factors which go into wok cooking (such as degree of heat available) which have nothing to do with the wok. With that in view, a SS wok might be your choice, but from a cooking standpoint, carbon is better. One added factor you must consider is thickness of the steel. Cheap woks will flex readily if grasped by the handles. A quality wok is twice as thick. It is not too much to aim for 1/8 thickness, or nearly that. There is also the flat bottomed Shanghai wok which is about 1/4 thick and usually comes with a teflon finish. These are very inexpensive but useful because they can be heated up to a high temperature which it will hold to a certain extent. The bane of wok cookery is insufficient heat. (I have an electric stove right now which exhibits that defect).
