I LOVE MY NEW TECH WOK!!

[jetcone]

Okay People the gloves are off! JC's back on his stir fry horse! There are people who like my stir frys so much they'd rather eat that, than go out ! Insert David Ross here! Ingrid Winkler here! Well its been a few moons and now with new digs its taken awhile to set things up right ! But I have set things up! I had a great gas range set up in Boston, 17,000 BTU's I had first a steel wok with ring then Lodge came out with an ALL cast iron pan that was round in the bottom but could set on a burner too. Fantastic for 20 years. But now that I have a new Induction range ,everything had changed. Just when I was moving back into Stir Frying! The Lodge though great had a too small contact area so I had to use the smaller induction burner to get it to work. The large burner would shut down with an undersized pan. Was not happy about that. I got a great little NUWAVE induction Wok - great results but at 120 volts it is slow compared to real stir frying on a range. Enter this new pan technology I found ! Thin Cast Iron with a 7 inch flat bottom. I am a purest, I wanted to have a round bottom but you can't with Induction. So I sprung for it. Well that pan has surpassed all my expectations! Beautifully made, with a deep polish. Weighs 5 pounds compared to my 12 pound Lodge. And with the 7 inch flat bottom has amazing contact on the largest burner! It heated in 3 minutes! It seared like a real wok in a restaurant. Look at the sear on those onions in the last picture! I can't say enough let the pictures begin. Too bad all the pictures are sidewise or upside down. C'est la vie here. 

 

 

 

[petek]

I went looking for one last year and was hard to find one that would work on induction. Then oddly I "won" a door prize at the casino and got to choose from some items and saw a wok so I chose it. I get home and show it to my other half and he goes,, well what did you get that for? We already have one and he goes gets it out of the cupboard LOL. I had no recollection of him buying it or me buying it in the past. Now we've got two.. the one I won is quite a bit smaller, and the bigger one looks more like yours but has a plastic type handle that is bolted to the pan like the one you have.

 

[combo52]

Yay For The New Wok

Glad you are cooking again and can eat before you waste away, LOL

 

In reality the shape of the pan makes little difference, you can cook the same great food in a skillet, an electric wok or even an electric skillet.

 

That new wok is not cast iron, it is either steel or stamped iron.

 

John L.

 

[perc-o-prince]

In reality the shape of the pan makes little difference

I have to respectfully disagree, John. A proper wok is hand-hammered and there is no flat bottom. This allows you to "cook" and sear in the bottom, then pull the food up the sides a bit to allow liquids to evaporate or to add another ingredient without emptying the wok. The hand-hammered marks help hold the food. Think fried rice- stir fry the veggies and add the rice/seasoning, then pull the food up the sides, pour the beaten egg in the bottom and scramble it, then stir it all together. One-pot cooking.

I love mine but don't have a side burner on the new grill so it won't see as much use.

Chuck

 

[petek]

The most common thrift store appliance

It's rare to go into any thrift store and not see one of these on the shelf. The infamous red West Bend electric wok. Often times I'll see two or one in black, but 8 out of 10 visits you find one,, if not in the first store, definitely in the second you visit. They and a few other makers must have sold millions of these since the 70s

 

[frigilux]

West Bend Electric Wok:  Wow! There's a blast from the past I'd forgotten about.  My stepfather had one and brought it with him when he moved in.

 

Being Italian, my mom never made Asian stir fries. Remember pulling it out of storage in the basement when I was in high school and using it a few times.  It was pretty anemic, as I recall; didn't get hot enough or retain heat well compared to using a stovetop wok over gas flame.

 

They certainly were all the rage for awhile back in the day! Saw them in many households.

JC— That is one kick-ass wok, but I think you buried the headline concerning its anti-gravity abilities, LOL![this post was last edited: 5/2/2020-22:00]

 

[tomturbomatic]

I wonder if this hammered carbon steel model with a flat bottom is a decent choice at $99.

https://www.wish.com/product/5df0b15f6987c70596423107?hide_login_modal=true&from_ad=goog_shopping&_display_country_code=US&_force_currency_code=USD&pid=googleadwords_int&c=%7BcampaignId%7D&ad_cid=5df0b15f6987c70596423107&ad_cc=US&ad_curr=USD&ad_price=99.9

 

[chachp]

Red Devil Hand Vacs

 

<span style="font-family: georgia, palatino;">And next to every one of those West Bend woks was one of these hand vacs.  My friend Mark and I used to go to garage sales every single Saturday and one of the things we did every Saturday was count how many of these hand vacs we saw that day.  We always saw at least one if not more.  I don't know why, they look like they would work pretty well.</span>

 

<span style="font-family: georgia, palatino;">We had one of those West Bend woks and like most others we only used it a couple of times because it didn't get hot enough.  Then we had one by Maxim that was 1600 watts I think.  I don't know what ever happened to that.  It must have walked in one of our moves or we lent it to someone and never got it back.  I had always hoped I'd see one of those in a garage or estate sale but I never did.  So, a</span> few years back we got a Breville Hot Wok that is about 1800 watts and that sucker gets hot.

 

<span style="font-family: georgia, palatino;">At the time we had an electric glass top stove.  Now we have a gas cooktop with a high BTU burner so we are looking for a traditional round bottom wok but it has to be big because we always make really big batches.  </span>

 

[tomturbomatic]

Most high BTU burners on ranges have a large diameter and throw the heat up the sides of the wok instead of keeping it at the bottom. Real wok burners concentrate the heat at the bottom of the wok.

Decades ago there was a story in a shelter mag about a retired Chinese restaurant owner who wanted to have a wok stove in his home for family gatherings that would be equivalent to what was in the restaurant kitchen. An island had to be constructed in the kitchen with a stainless steel pool in it that had to be filled with water to absorb the waste heat given off by the burner which had an input of around 100,000 BTUs. The industrial hood also had to contain a fire suppression system.

Then there are these at the link where the heat is generated in the wok-shaped wok. I can tell you that 3 or 3.5 KW of induction power is awesome.

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/15055/countertop-induction-ranges-and-induction-cookers.html?filter=type:induction-wok-ranges

 

[tomturbomatic]

This talks about the heat pattern needed for wok cooking.

The Wok Mon Converts Your Home Burner Into a Wok Range. For Real.

A couple months ago I was approached by Glen Lee, an inventor who claimed to have an ingenious new device for cooking on a wok at home. If it works the way he promised it would, it's going to revolutionize home wok cooking in the same way that the Baking Steel revolutionized home pizza-making. I...

www.seriouseats.com

 

[perc-o-prince]

Tom,

I think that it has to have a flat bottom to be electric/induction cooktop friendly. That's why I can't use mine- it's slightly domed on the bottom so I have to use it on gas or accept poor performance. Luckily I have a Calphalon anodized chef's pan that subs for a wok on the electric stove when I need to wok (like the kung pao I made a couple of weeks ago). It's to the point of being pretty non-stick now as well.

If you have electric or induction, the pan you mentioned may be what's needed.

IMHO.

Chuck

 

[tomturbomatic]

Chuck, the commercial? induction wok ranges to which I gave the link in reply #8 have concave heating/power surfaces that give 3 to 3.5 KW of power for cooking in a genuine wok-shaped wok.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Hey Tom,

I was talking about the "everyday" electric or induction burners. If someone has one of those specialty burner$$$, more power to them! {pun intended}

The wok ring in reply 9 is something that came with my wok originally (some 30 years ago) and it's long gone since there's only electric cooking in this house (I didn't need the ring on the side burner of my grill when I used the wok out there).

Happy wokking!

Chuck

 

[brisnat81]

Hey Chuck

Our Miele induction outputs 7400watts on the bridge burner for up to 15 minutes, but you’d likely melt the pan at that power level without water in it

The big burner, is 3500watts on boost, so that’s generally more than hot enough to stir fry well. You just have to watch that you don’t overheat the pan as then it’ll start cycling to reduce the temp. Sometimes all the watts aren’t better

Cheers

Nathan

 

[perc-o-prince]

Hey Nathan,

However, you have to use a flat-bottomed wok on a flat burner. I think that was the point. A traditional round-bottomed wok would be difficult at best, and I don't believe it would have a large enough area of contact for a bridge burner. When I went out on Miele induction cooktop calls, most of the time it was either the size of the pot or the lack of ferrous material in it.

Chuck

 

[jeff_adelphi]

This is the wok that Jon has,  I'm going to order one also to use on a 3000 watt induction cooker I found in a thrift store a while back. It only had a blown fuse, but I will need to wire up a 240 volt plug for it. Jon said he would come down and cook for us! 

Amazon.com

 

[petek]

This is the one I have

 

[vacerator]

I've got a

Cuisinart staineless steel wok/stir fry pan with glass lid. It's huge. I can make enough in it to serve 6. Don't use it much, so glad I got it on clarence at Meijer for about $20. Hubby isn't a huge fan of oriental meals. Mmmmm, thread has me hunkering for some Pad Ped with meat, eggplant, Thai peppers, onion, garlic, bok choy or fiddlehead greens, red curry, and coconut milk.