need a wok HELP

[NMDemDist2]

I have a glass top electric stove and would prefer not to have teflon

what do I need to know?

[SoCalDem]

1. What about getting a free-standiung electric one?

That would save the scratching factor on your cooktop.. And the temp might be ajustable enough to get the super heat you need..

[NMDemDist2]

2. do you know the Mission Organization rule?

something new in, something Old out.....

i have thought about one, but I know me and if I have to haul it out of a cupboard instead of grabbing it off the pot rack I won't be as likely to use it

it's still in consideration though....

[SoCalDem]

3. I send stuff to my grown sons.. and donate a lot of

stuff i rarely use.. and then there's the HUGE cupboard my husband built me that I store the "once-in-a-while stuff like my meat slicer and waffle iron & vast assortment of stuff i HAD to have, but don;t use much:)

[NMDemDist2]

4. i'm thinking carbon steel flat bottom will work, like this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/Traditional-Carbon-Steel-14-Stir-Fry-Wok-NEW-NIB_W0QQitemZ4427225998QQcategoryZ20632QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[SoCalDem]

6. Prettttty.. too pretty to use:)

I used to have an ancient one, and my &^%$#!*&^ mother in law "scoured it clean" for me .. I junked it after she went home..never bought another one:(

[NMDemDist2]

8. it's pretty cuz it's not seasoned yet

I can fix that :rofl:

[Warpy]

5. Because they SUCK

The best bet for me when I had an electric stove was a cheap steel Chinatown special (I think it cost me $2.99 at the time) plus a tabletop gas ring that ran on bottled gas. That worked really well, got the heat high enough and was easy to adjust for the short simmering time in most recipes.

You have to understand, I did a LOT of Chinese cooking.

For regular electric ranges, there are a few options. The best one is in some Chines groceries. They now sell woks with a flattened bottom, an adaptation to US ranges. The advantage to these is a very large capacity plus good contact with the heating element. The disadvantage is that you're cooking on an electric stove and they just don't get hot enough for good stir frying. However, this is probably the best you're ever going to be able to do.

Woks to stay away from if you're cooking with gas are the stainless steel copper bottomed ones that look great on a pot rack but don't conduct heat worth shit; woks with wooden handles or other trim because you can't season them in the oven (do it the same way you would cast iron); and above all, steer clear of those electric jobs.

For small, non Chinese stir fry pots, you can't beat the Calphalon "everyday pan." I got one of those on sale at Amazon a couple of years ago, and I still use it nearly every day, so it's well named. It's too small for an energetic stir fry, though, and too thick to offer the instant temperature adjustment you need for most Chinese fare.

[NMDemDist2]

7. si i'm hearing a wok won't work on my electric stove?

:( bummer

we HAVE to lose some weight and stir fry seemed a good avenue

i don't know what happened to my old wok, I still have the damned dome lid! if i hauled that around for all these years, where the heck did the wonderful old carbon wok get too??

[Warpy]

9. Try the flat bottomed steel woks you can find

at Chinese groceries. No, an electric stove won't get hot enough for a good, fast stirfry. Yes, you can still stir fry with a flat bottomed wok that conducts heat efficiently, but you won't get that sear on the outside of the food that distinguishes Chinese stir fry dishes.

One tip, keep two units on, do the stir fry on a unit set on high and fully heated so that a little oil in the wok starts to smoke. When you're done with the stirfry and add the wine and/or other liquids and are ready to simmer it for the 2 minutes or so it takes, shift the pot to the unit set on "simmer."

That will overcome the poor adjustability characteristics of the electric unit. It still won't get it quite hot enough for a pan and cooking process designed for a hot fire.

[NMDemDist2]

12. yeah, that one I posted on ebay is $6 (pretty cheap)

and the have two is a good idea

now I just have to "borrow" OLL's DH for recipes lol

[OldLeftieLawyer]

18. I really should have read these posts first

No, smart old me had to go ahead and post the already-more-than-dead-right-on advice you got from Warpy.

As far as the electric stove stuff goes, yeah, gas gets it hotter, but you can do just fine on an electric stove, believe me. We've done it, and Old Yeller finds no fault with the notion.

Flat-bottomed, of course. I've been at this so long, I've forgotten the Round Eyes Basics.

<snort>

Cheapo, baby - the only way to go. And don't worry about handles; real woks never have long handles, just loops on the sides.

My favorite (and oldest) wok came from a place in Virginia City, Nevada - thirty-five years ago. It's still in almost-daily use.

[NMDemDist2]

33. my old carbon steel wok had those loop handles

i still have the freaking lid, wonder what ever happened to the wok??? :banghead:

i saw an asian market across the street from my favorite Goodwill, i'm gonna check it out this weekend

and hopefully they'll have some sauces too.......

[OldLeftieLawyer]

36. The Asian market should have this .........

It's a great start.

We've used this brand forever, here and in HK - check it out here - http://www.koonchun.com.hk/home.html

Their lemon sauce is great - I just rub it on the chicken or duck and roast it very slowly. Same with their barbeque sauce, which is the only one we use. It's in my favorite Chinese Chicken Salad recipe, too.

There's a whole world in the different kinds of soy sauces and vinegars - and make sure you find the English-speaking man or woman (most likely, a teenager) who works in the store, because they'll be really happy to help you. They love teaching Westerners who are genuinely curious about their stuff.

Have fun.............

[SoCalDem]

10. My new stove has a super-hot burner (for wokking)

and i am a bit afraid to try it.. I have to turn it down to a 2 or 3 to avoid overheating stuff.. I bought a stockpot to use for deepfrying, and I amnaged to OVERFLOW the oil all over my new stovetop :cry:. It was SUCH a mess and sooooo dangerous, I have rarely used that burner since.. I guess I will have to breakdown and read the manual :spank:

[mike_c]

11. you're not gonna want to hear this...

...but I don't think there's much you can do. Not if you want to use a wok the way it's meant to be used-- that's only just doable on most gas ranges, IMO, but I've NEVER seen an electic range, or an electric wok-- that can do it. You can't get a wok hot enough with an electric range, over a large enough area, and you can't get the kind of fast heat (and fast cooling) that you need. In any event, if you want to try, there's no better choice than a plain steel wok-- don't mess with stainless or otherwise fancy ones-- just get a plain steel one and break it in (season it). But frankly, I think you're destined for disappointment unless you can arrange a gas ring.

[NMDemDist2]

13. sigh

my waist line didn't like that answer

but I may go ahead and buy two cheapies and see how close I can come

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Lots of good suggestions here .........

Don't even bother with an electric wok. Saying they suck is being polite and reserved.

Get a flat bottomed steel jobbie. Its a real wok and will work like one ... except ....

Electric ranges and woks are, at best, a marriage of convenience. Woks want blast furnace heat. Electric ranges can't produce it. That said, the two-burner method is your best bet.

I have a wok like this one.


The handle is steel, just like the body, so it is easy to season. The handle is a great help. Easier to handle, in my opinion, than the ordinary kind with the two loop handles. If you can find one like this, but with a flat bottom, that'd be the cat's pajamas!

[mike_c]

16. one issue I have with the flat bottomed woks...

...is that they usually require more oil than round bottomed ones, where even a tablespoon of oil pools nicely after dribbling down the sides. But as you say, there is zero likelihood of using a round bottomed one effectively on an electric stove.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

19. Is your handle hollow?

Because that's one kind that's readily found in most Chinese markets, too. We have one, a great big one, which is for larger quantities - it doesn't get much use, though. Wok cooking really means "small portions," so maybe I should make it into a salad bowl, or something.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Yeah .... my handle's hollow ....... is yours?

My wok is the gen-yoo-wine beastie. Bought in an Asian grocery. Made in Hong Kong. You can see it up there on the pot rack.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

25. Yeah, ours are, too

Different sizes, but, yeah, they've got hollow handles. I've never liked using them, though. I'm just stuck on the oldie, with the loop handles. It's small, manageable, and my dear old friend.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. I'm seeing two issues here, one of which others have not addressed

You mentioned in a number of posts how your waist hasn't liked the answers, and how you were hoping to go Chinese style to lose weight.

Well, two things: 1) Chinese is not ipso facto less fattening than anything else, and 2) You can cook less fattening foods in things that are not woks.

Having a Wok and doing stir fry is not a magical elixir to weight loss. Some CHinese sauces can be very fattening, and if you pig on too much rice and/or too much meat and not enough good veggies, it's just as fattening as anything else.

And you can do amazingly non-fattening foods in the regular sauce pans and fry pans that are normal in Western cooking.

The other issue is that of the wok itself, which people have addressed. FOr the electric stove (yuck, but I'm in the same boat you are - stuck with that POS), you DO want a flat bottom wok. I have a marvellous one made of steel (not stainless, and none of the non-stick bullshit)with a nice wooden handle.

A wooden handle is essential for a stove top wok - since you will be flinging food around willy nilly, and there's nothing holding the wok to the burner, the wok is going to want to move around helter skelter, and you need something that will stay cool so that you can hold the wok in place.

I've seen a lot of what I think of as "mini-woks", sort of a cross between a wok and a saute pan, at the cooking sections in Marshall Fields and Macy's and Target, etc. If you go to an Asian food market you can likely get a decent flat-bottomed wok. Mine is from Japan, though I think it was bought in the US, but I really don't know.

Mine looks kinda like this, except without the extra smaller handle:

[Warpy]

20. Again, you can't properly season a wok with wooden handles

I used a cheap steel wok with loop handles for 20 years before I got myself a Szechuan style wok with a hollow steel handle.

I used potholders. They worked just fine and I could season the wok in the oven.

The less fancy a wok is, the better it works. It's one of those times when the least you spend will get you the best results.

But you will have to spend a little more for a flat bottomed steel wok than for a cheap round bottomed job from China.

On edit, Jaysis I'm tired. This is going to have to be an early night

[OldLeftieLawyer]

24. In the oven?

I've never heard of seasoning a wok that way. Old Yeller just slapped a bunch of scallions and garlic into some peanut oil and cooked it up at dangerously high heat. After that, he uses a steel brush to wash it out. It's like creating your own Teflon, without the chemical risks.

Nighty-night, sleepyhead......... :)

[mike_c]

32. the handle on my hollow handled black steel wok...

...never gets too hot to handle, at least out near the end, and I fire that beast like a blast furnace. My loop handled woks need a pot holder, but it's generally not necessary to pick them up often anyway. I have one heavy stainless steel wok-like thing with a flat bottom and a plastic handle, once owned by my ex and recently discovered abandoned in my cupboard. I have no idea what that thing was useful for, if anything.

[NMDemDist2]

34. planting poseys by the front door? n/t

[mike_c]

38. even a google search fails me....

What does that expression mean? I've heard it before, but haven't a clue.

[NMDemDist2]

39. here's a pretty posey for you

but "posy" actually means

posy

n : an arrangement of flowers that is usually given as a present

so my meaning was the enamel wok was suitable for plants outside and not for cooking in the kitchen

[mike_c]

40. gotcha-- yep, it would make a far better flower pot...

...than a wok!

[NMDemDist2]

41. and the enamel would make it so shiny and pretty!

got a metal drill for drainage holes?? :evilgrin:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

17. NEVER!!

NEVER should a wok have anything in it - especially Teflon.

Are you anywhere near a Chinatown, or a Chinese grocery store? Go there. They have what you need.

Remember that the whole idea behind wok cooking is to heat it up fast (fuel was expensive), cook it fast (fuel was expensive), and serve it (families were always hungry). So, the lighter the better.

All these big heavy American things they call "woks" are bogus.

This comes to you courtesy of Old Yeller. I am but a humble secretary.

<curtsy>

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Some woks are cast iron and are also very traditional

Like this one

from here: http://www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/woks/woks_ci_china.html

I am as far from an Asian cooking expert as one can be, but I've read that these are also very traditional. The steel woks were (and some still are) made by hammering a flat sheet of steel into the usual wok shape. Modern woks are of the same material but made on a spinning machine (that's why most woks you see today have what appears to be concentric circles in them). Others are made by stamping them into shape on a large stamping machine.

But the hammered steel and cast iron ones are the most traditional.

By the way, for AZDD, look at this one, which this place specifically suggests for use on an electric range: http://www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/woks/woks_ci_classic.html

[OldLeftieLawyer]

23. They're the really old kind

The term "cast iron" makes you think it's going to be heavy, like our cast iron pans, but it's quite light, and, yeah, they're great. Nice to see someone's still making them.

The second link you posted, the one with the enamel exterior - I don't get that. The enamel is just another unnecessary layer. That's a new one on me and Old Yeller, who pronounced it "a Western thing."

I'm just sold on the cheapest and lightest, since they're the ones I've seen used most often and have had the best luck with in my own kitchens.

It's all about speed and heat. Think "sleek".

[Stinky The Clown]

28. Yeah, I didn't really get the enamel part either, but .....

the site seems pretty knowledgeable and inasmuch as wokking on an electric range is, in and of itself, a series of compromises, and since they highly recommend that particular one for electric ranges, and since its dirt cheap, well, it just seemed to me ...... you know .....

[OldLeftieLawyer]

30. I can only guess

what a bunch of shiny coins or gaily wrapped pieces of candy would inspire in you ............. ;)

[Warpy]

26. The cast iron jobs were used in restaurants

Where fuel was reasonably abundant and the fire was constant. Food was cooked, scooped out of the wok, and the wok given a quick wipe with a bamboo scrubber and a towel while still hot, then used again immediately. They were used in restaurants precisely because they retained their heat between batches of food and cooled down only when the place closed for the night. They were never intended for home use, as they required too much fuel and time to be economical for one or two home cooked dishes.

I suppose you could use one on an electric range if you wanted to go off and read a novel and do the crossword in the back of Harper's while you waited for the sucker to get warm.

My source for woks (and cleavers and fuels and foodstuffs) knowledge is a book called "Food in Chinese Culture." My source for knowledge about an electric wok was my ex inlaws who meant well, but never knew the thing got hurled out my kitchen door and into a snowbank followed by a string of curses the only time I attempted to use it.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

27. Bravo..

First time I encountered an electric wok I honestly thought it was a joke. My hosts weren't amused. It did a nice fondue, I believe.

There is no scarier place than the kitchen in a Chinese restaurant. Everyone should get the chance to visit one, and they'll realize how much work goes into those dishes and how incredibly skilled the chefs are.

Scary.

[Stinky The Clown]

29. I always found it fascinating that the hierarchy in a Chinese kitchen was

so very different from the Western (European, really) brigade system.

In the brigade system, the chef was top dog and did the cooking. The sous chef (there may be several in a large kitchen) was skilled in his own right and pretty much the kitchen's substitute chef and second in command.

Then you had the brigade or cuisine (kitchen) chefs (chef du cuisine) ... soup chef, roast chef (rotisseur), sauce chef (saucier), fish chef (poissonier), etc., etc., etc.

Below them were the commis ..... cooks. They did the grunt work. Like the heavy prep cooking, the vegetable cutting, the meat larding, etc., etc., etc.

In the Chinese kitchen, the top dog was the guy who cut everything up. The least of them was the guy who got to work the range using the woks. Counterintuitive to my Western sensibilities. I don't know if this is still the case.

Surely the brigade system is all but gone in most all kitchens these days except for the large hotels, mostly the ones in Europe.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

31. The Chinese are nothing,

if not practical.

In so many ways, in Chinese cooking, the actually cooking really is the least of it. Cutting is essential, as are the preparation of the sauces. I could live a thousand years and never grasp all the intricacies of the sauces. It's a kind of poetry, really, how the view the combinations of the liquids and spices.

I suspect the brigade system has died out, too, and that's kind of too bad. There was a certain elegance about it that pleased me. Remember the movie "Who Is Killing The Great Chefs Of Europe?"? I loved that one. Wish it was out on DVD.

On that same tangent, I just began watching - again - the DVDs of "Upstairs, Downstairs." That show was approximately thirty years ago, and it's as brilliantly correct as it was all those years ago. Amazing.

[NMDemDist2]

35. thanks H2S, I saw an enamel one on ebay and thought it was odd

esp since it was WHITE enamel!! now on my electric stove it would probably be alright, but can you imagine what it would look like and a little rocking and rolling over a gas flame? and she wants $35 for it!!!!!

:rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

37. eBay .... Baghdad on the Internet(s)

Charlatans galore there!