Which wok?

[texasgirl]

Do you have a wok skillet or an electric wok? Is one better than the other?
I'm leaving to go get one this afternoon.

 

[buckytom]

tg, electric woks do not get hot enough to do a good stir fry, so i would go with a real (carbon steel ) wok.

you have to care for it like cast iron, but it's worth it.

i have one of the original ones that were sold by that moustached english guy on one of the first infomercials on tv, from about 25 or 30 years ago. it's still going strong. (the wok. i don't know about the english guy)

 

[texasgirl]

(the wok. i don't know about the english guy)

bucky, your a nut!

Thank you. Now, is my electric stove going to get hot enough?

 

[buckytom]

i've never used an electric stove, so i don't know how well they work with woks. it might be a problem.

 

[GB]

If you have an electric stove look for a flat bottom wok. It still will not get hot enough to do "real" wok cooking, but it will get you closer than using a round bottom wok.

 

[Andy M.]

I also recommend a carbon steel flat-bottom wok. It's the best for most home kitchens.

 

[GB]

I also recommend a carbon steel flat-bottom wok. It's the best for most home kitchens.

And they are also pretty inexpensive

 

[texasgirl]

Just great!
I wish I still had a gas oven. When we moved here, it was all electric. There is no natural gas down here. You have to get propane and this house isn't equipt with the lines.
Thanks for your info. I appreciate it. I guess I won't be getting one after all. Why pay for something that isn't going to work right. DH is gonna be disappointed.

 

[Andy M.]

Also try to get some Asian peanut oil. It's more flavorful than US peanut oil and has a high smoke point for wok cooking.

 

[PolishedTopaz]

I got one from Le Cruset, it is enamel coated cast iron and has a flat bottom. Because it is cast iron it will hold the heat well on either electric or gas. The drawback is the price, but well worth the money IMHO.

 

[texasgirl]

Wow, yeah, they are expensive. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to buy the Le Cruset.
I'll just try to make the recipe in my T-fal pan.

Thanks everyone!!

 

[TexasBlueHeron]

Just my two cents, TG. Our wok is going on 20 years - picked it up from a hawker at a state fair and we do treat it like cast iron.

In our last house, we splurged and put in a Jenn-Air with castiron burners (never again). The salesman told us a wok wouldn't work on it and he was right. So, we purchased a single-burner electric coil and our round-bottom wok has always done great on it. I agree about the flat-bottoms, but we've always been happy with the results. Now we're back to a "regular" electric stove and the coils seem to be OK with it. Also, some woks come with a heat ring that may help radiate heat outward and up the wok's sides on an electric burner.

 

[texasgirl]

Thanks texasblue!!

 

[vilasman]

While you probably will have your wok by the time you read this, my two cents worth.... I have , i think it is the 12" lodge cast iron wok. It has a flat bottom, and I love it. And i use it on a electric stove. I am the first too it admit that I may well be the least expierenced cook in here, but my results with it are tasty enough for me to keep trying....
And the lodge wok is pretty cheap

 

[texasgirl]

The only thing with the cast iron, I can't use it on my glass top stove. The iron scratches the surface too bad.
I decided to wait until next week to decide what to get, that way, maybe I will have more opinions too on what kind to get.
I really appreciate everyones replys, it's helped a lot.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

A good wok is a great multi-purpose pan, that is the vessels real strength. I've used mine for everything from omlets to stir-fries, to boiling pasta, to making gravies. I've even used it for making cobler-style deserts. But everything I can make in my wok, I can make in other cooking vessels.

A good stainless frying pan is great for making stir-fries, and will distribute the heat better than will a wok on an electric stove. But the bottom must be either encapsulated with aluminum or copper, or the pan must be multi-layerd with aluminum or copper to distribute the heat evenly accross the cooking surface. The encapsulated bottom pans are inexpensive an work very well for this.

The problem with the wok and an electric stove is that the heat source is relegated to the bottom of the pan. If you have a flat-bottomed wok, this means that the sides are going to cool rapidly with distance from the bottom. With a round-bottome wok, you get only the benefit of radient heat, and that is limited to the area described by the ring on which it sits.

With a gas flame, the hot gas gives up some of its energy where it first touches the metal, but then flows up the sides to heat the rest of the wok. So your cooking surface is enlarged. And yet, cool enough at the upper levels to keep food warm and avoid overcooking. The wok is also deep and can be used with oil for deep frying, or water for boiling. Again, since with gas the whole surface is heated, the food gets cooked a bit faster.

True wok cooking results in metal that is glowing. The food must be kept moving and cannot sit for any length of time or it will quickly burn. Wok cooking is time intensive as it limits what you can do at any given time.

In my opinion, cooking with a wok on an electric stove is not time or cost effective. You can do better with specialty pans like a saucier or frying pan.

That's my humble opinion anyway. Hope it helps.

Seeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[texasgirl]

Thanks Goodweed!

 

[mish]

I remember that guy on the infomercial on tv BT referred to.

Stir-frying is a healthy quick way to go in preparing food. I had a wok, that I inadvertantly soaked in hot soapy water - big mistake - it rusted out and I threw it out.

IMO, get a small amount of oil hot enough in a regular skillet, and you can stir fry anything. Just chop the veggies, meat, chicken etc. in small bite-size pieces and add oil sparingly, as needed.

 

[kjchen69]

to me, as an asian from Taiwan, we use wok for everything and I mean everything. the electric woks will not get the high temperature for wok-cooking like already said but the key is if you already got electric ones, let it preheat to the right temperature. It might take longer and won't have the same as the real wok but it will be close.

 

[texasgirl]

Thank you Mish and kjchen!
I really appreciate everyones help!!