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Woks vs. Skillets: Do You Need Both? | Gear Heads
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 พ.ย. 2020
- For years, we’ve tweaked conventional stir-fry recipes to achieve delicious results in a nonstick skillet rather than a wok, the traditional cooking vessel. Since American stove burners are flat, we aimed to get more contact with the heat source by using the broad cooking surface of a 12-inch skillet instead of the smaller bottom surface of a wok. But even with a flat stove burner, is cooking with a wok worth a try?
Get the recipe for Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry: cooks.io/2K1X7zv
Read our review of woks: cooks.io/32zIXvF
Buy our winning nonstick skillet: cooks.io/3R9M86I
Buy our co-winning wok from Joyce Chen: cooks.io/3KuMHnZ
Buy our co-winning wok from Imusa: cooks.io/3Xar2Jo
Follow Hannah on Instagram: / hannah_crowley8
Follow Lisa on Instagram: / lisam_atk
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Very strange stir frying technique (for both the skillet and wok) to dump the vegetable in on top of the meat. Most Asian cooks will flash-fry the meat first to caramelise the meat and then remove it from the pan so as not to overcook it. The vegetable is then cooked and the meat reintroduced and combined with the vegetable and sauce. Even in a skillet you then won't have the problem of the food falling out.
Is that just for beef?
@@SonicBoomC98 Applies to any meat. The flash-frying should slightly undercook the meat as it will cook some more once it is combined with the vege and sauce. With beef, I flash-fry it rare as I like the final result to be med-rare. With chicken, best fully cook because of Salmonella.
@@farhorizons3901 With chicken, I usually cook the cook, then cook the chick with the egg still in WOK, then go from there. I used to do the chicken first then pull it out
I thought they same thing
Also just way over-crowding the pan too. But hey this is a pan demonstration not a cooking demonstration.
I bought a Joyce Chen steel wok over 40 years ago. I have used it a few times a week since then. Love it! It is well seasoned and one of my favorite pans along with a stainless chicken fryer and my 54 year old cast iron skillet. I use them on my glass stove top and it works really well with all my pans.
My parents got a Crate & Barrel wok as a wedding gift in 1978. Still using it almost 46 years later!
My Mom used to fry her old-fashioned cake donuts in a wok, used a simple chopstick for turning and...
used lard, of course!
I am green with envy. The patina on that wok must have been absolutely incredible.
Romanticism only hurts consumers.
What a fantastic idea
I only use peanut oil in my wok. When it starts to smoke a bit, you know you are hot enough to cook anything in less than a minute. When you are cooking the correct amount of food of course.
I have a 12.5" flat bottom and a 14" round wok, both carbon steel. Biggest drawback to carbon steel woks that I have found is that you find yourself on Amazon late at night, drooling over 100,000 btu outdoor wok burners and your wife complains about you muttering about "wok hei" in your sleep lol.
Please. I live in Asia, where a significant portion of people still cook over wood fires. In their indoor kitchens. With bamboo slatted walls. In a sandbox, with lava rocks for wok elevation. Stop it. Do research. Instead of thinking you have to throw money at your obstacles. Yeesh! So glad I left the fall of the American Empire. Listen, if you must, build a 4'x 4' cook shack, with a waist high, 18"deep sandbox, to burn foot long, 1"x1" pieces of the hardwood of your choice. And you can grill there, and so much more. Now, doesn't ingenuity and self reliance look better than flinging money to Jeff Bezos?!?
@@markcollins2666 If a random joke on the internet about considering maybe buying a wok burner has you this triggered you seriously need to seek help. Maybe put some of that energy into helping to elevate the clearly impoverished people you live among rather than trying to tear down random people on the internet. Assuming you are actually in Asia as you claim and not in your mom's basement.
@@markcollins2666 Agreed.
I don't think trying to get too much "wok hei" is good for your health. When oil just reaches the smoking point, you should start cooking. If you try to go further to get a lot of smoke "wok hei", you will begin to break down the oil and create a lot of carcinogens. This has been studied in academia and it's not good. That's really why one should not eat takeout everyday from a Chinese restaurant. Chinese people don't even have a diet like this. Cook your own meal in a healthy way.
buy a ZLINE stove for your kitchen
Recently married a native Chinese person, and one of our first investments as a couple was a flat-bottomed carbon steel wok (Souped Up brand). I've been completely converted! Use it for everything from Indian curry to Bisquick pancakes.
I have the exact same wok, love it as well as her videos and recipes. I just upgraded to a 14" round bottom carbon steel, the 12.5" flat bottom is just a little too small for larger dishes. If it's just the two of you it should be plenty big enough. If we have all the kids and grand kids over I can be cooking for up to 9 people, so even with the 14" I have to cook in batches or cook several smaller entrees to be sure that I am frying and not steaming.
Do you guys cook bats in it?
would like to hear your thoughts on chinese knives if you use any.
That's "smart"... there are different pans used in various cuisines for a reason! Pancakes in a wok....
It's incredible how such a stupid thought is considered worth sharing, common sense isn't common.
👍🏽
"I don't like being careful when I'm cooking..." Amen, sister!
Being "careful" is how you make mistakes. It makes you hesitate.
About 20 years ago I got a flat bottom 14" stainless steel wok. Cooks pretty well on electric and glass top stoves, doesn't stick much and relatively easy to clean. Only drawback is that it is heavy. Still, 20 years of moderate use and it is still in great shape.
Cuisinart makes a surprisingly lightweight stainless steel 14-inch wok, which is the favorite of popular YT channel Wok with Tak
All I use is a cast iron skillet and one of those Le Creuset dutch ovens. And a wok. Literally all I need.
Same but with the inclusion of a smaller 10” stainless steal skillet just in case I need to toss something AND put it in the oven. Great for omelettes too.
What about boiling pasta or eggs?
@@apostolic7rox good point, to be fair I don’t really do either often, so using my wok or Dutch oven for those jobs sub-optimally isn’t the biggest concern.
I use all of those things plus stone non-stick frying pans. I can stick a wok and cast iron in the oven, but non stick is just the most competitive when it comes to eggs and ground and processed meats. If I want something quick w/ little cleaning, I use non stick. Even steel pans are higher cleaning and need a bit more oil than non stick. Non stick can save some oil calories. A cast iron retains heat well but didn’t distribute the best. A cast irons aesthetics look so natural and inviting though.
@Brittani I don't think you should boil anything in a wok. I feel like that might ruin it and cause it to rust
Do I NEED both? Perhaps Not.
Do I WANT both? Yes.
the answer is YES
Because this advertisement convinced you? They compared one of the worst pans at a really small size against something that's just ok and not even used the same as asians would use it. All-Clad can be seasoned like the wok (but doesn't need to get black) for the same food release and lack of being careful. There are also many other pans (though not as good as All-Clad) that can be seasoned. Honestly for the home cook; I'd just recommend Tramontina tri-ply for a sauce pan / fry pan.
It simply comes down to how much you do stir-frying in your cooking. A carbon-steel wok heats up and gets hot very quickly ... much more so than any regular skillet. Put a bit of oil around the outside of the bottom when the wok gets hot and you're ready. To properly stir fry you need a fairly hot surface and to be frequently stirring and tossing. It's not only easier to do that in a wok but I seem to get better results too.
@@pauly5418 wok can deep fry too which is nice. but a non stick is less hassle if youre just cooking something simple and quick.
When I bought my wok, 28 years ago, I lived in a tiny apartment, and apart from the wok, I had one big pot with a steamer insert. Nothing else. I cooked everything. Not just Asian food, but also ME food, European food, African food, South American food. I love gear, so today I have a whole lot of other stuff, but I still love my wok, and if I were ever forced to scale down, the wok and the pot with the steamer would be the basics I kept onto. Today I made deep fried ravioli in the wok (try it), yesterday I deep fried eggplants for a parmigiana. These are Italian dishes, but my carbon steel wok is the best for making them.
Dont get me wrong, I like your content. But when you over crowd the skillet with a recipe 3-4 times too large for it. Clearly browning in batches and blanching the broccoli ahead would be the way to go.
In this case I think your comparing a car to a bicycle, can't use one like the other. But if you take your time you can end up at the same spot using either.
Surprise surprise a 14" wok fits more food than a 12" skillet. Not much of a basis for comparison 🙂
Maybe you should not load up the 12” skillet with the same amount as the 14” wok. Call me crazy...
also deep 14 inch skillets exist.
It's almost like the volume of a pan affects how easily you can cook a large volume of food.
@@Beliserius1 I have one & love it.
@@clrobinson1776 same
I think they did that to show that the wok can cook the same thing in bigger portions.
Several common practices for using wok, esp. Southern China way. 1. Hot wok, young oil (oil goes in last so that it's lower in temperature). 2. Do not put on the lid unless it is absolutely necessary. 3. Stir fry dishes that comes out watery is a big no no no (for Cantonese cook anyway). Sauce should stick to the surface of ingredients not as a pond of juice at the bottom. 4. Some Chinese restaurants (some in Hong Kong anyway) prep vege stir fry (like the one you did) by boiling them in hot water (with a dash of oil and a pinch of salt) till they are 60-70% done. Set aside and when it is time to stir them into the meat, you can avoid putting on the lid. 5. Heat is normally very high (for stir fry) and if you want to control temperature, hold the wok above fire and/or toss ingredients inside. This is not practical at home though because most stoves are not hot enough. In some restaurants, there's a gas valve control paddle so that cook can use: one hand to hold and toss ingredient by maneuvering the wok, one hand doing the stir fry action, and one foot controlling the temperature. Everything happens in split seconds.
Note: I am no cook. These are my observation and learned from friends or local TV. Can't claim absolute authoritative so if there are well practiced Cantonese cook here, please comment.
This helps
all wrong with 1.
I find it kinda sad that I agree more with the recommendations a non-cook has observed than I do those made in this video.
Not a pro cook myself but my father was (Cantonese seafood restaurant). Everything is accurate IMO except #1. Only seasoning oils (ie sesame oil) go in last. Cooking oils goes in similar time as the boiled veg and fried meat. Perhaps veg goes in first just to took cook off some water. The video takes a western home cooking approach. I don’t go through the pain of separately boiling veg or frying meat because it’s not worth the extra steps and dirty dishes. It only makes sense in context of a restaurant because there’s usually at least 2 woks going: one for boiling/frying, and one for stir frying sauce/seasoning.
@@beepboop1391 I think he meant to put the cooking oil in right before putting in the ingredients to cook and don’t heat the oil with the pan. This makes sense for a carbon steel wok or skillet since you can get them very very hot which you don’t want with non-stick due to the outgassing.
I love making popcorn in my wok. A total game changer!
I wouldn't have thought of that! I'm keeping that in mind. Popcoooorn.
I'm not all about one trick ponies, but an air popper does it so much better.
A lid traps steam and makes the popcorn chewy. Make sure to use a splatter screen or perforated foil as a cover instead.
Popcorn! That's just blasphemous. Lol.
@@Inproject12 no it’s the perfect shape. Look up how Alton Brown makes popcorn.
Between the overcrowded pans and steaming (not stir frying) with the lid on in the skillet, I feel like you’re making Uncle Roger bait here.
What's wrong with steaming? Think it may be healthier. Just genuinely asking. Is steaming less flavorful or not as good texture?
Why crowd the pans so much. Not sure if this is a fair comparison as both pans had too much food. Hard to get proper wok hei with that much food
Yes, this is clearly a demonstration by a person who doesn't understand how to cook in a wok.
ive figured out how to get some great wok hei using a webber kettle grill. they have a hole in the center that a 20 inch wok fits it. perfect for ppl who dont have a spare jet engine laying around
Yep. Mental wok technique
Too much beef to stir fry in the fry pan. Too crowded in the pan. stir fry seasoned meat first, remove from skillet, then stir-cook broccoli with tiny bit of water to semi-steam. Then add meat before serving.
I’ve had the same wok Lisa showed for many years. I wouldn’t be without it. We use it regularly, and once it was seasoned clean up is a breeze.
Nice demonstrations and comparison. For stir frying where you need to toss or mix food with high heat, use a wok. For pan frying meat or eggs, use a skillet. Also, your comments about induction cooktops are incorrect. Flat bottom carbon steel woks work extremely well with induction burners. You get fast heating and precise control.
I've been using a wok for years - had a non-stick wok for 3-4 years but the non-stick surface wore out and I got a cast iron one. Heavy but I love it. It's really easy to take a couple minutes to wash it and season it with oil after cooking and I expect it will last for the rest of my life. I use it for everything except frying eggs (for that I have a carbon steel frying pan). I use my wok for stir frying, of course, but also for pasta sauce, scrambled eggs and omelettes, really almost everything I used to use a flat pan for.
When we got our first wok it didn't come with a cover so I asked my wife to keep an eye out for one when she was thrift shopping. She found one at Goodwill for $0.25, the classic light aluminum kind with a wooden knob handle. It has lasted for 15 years now! I expect it will last for at least another 10 years, at which point it will amortize out at 1 cent per year. Beat that for an investment if you can!
Fun fact: it was Joyce Chen who invented and patented the flat-bottomed wok with a handle, in 1971, an adaptation for American cooks with gas stoves. We have been living for years within walking distance of the original Joyce Chen restaurant in Cambridge and used to eat there regularly and every now and then see her in and around the kitchen. It was a huge loss for us when the place closed.
I use my 14" wok using an induction hob (not by choice) all the time and it works just fine. I use it in deep frying tofu or string beans. I use it for boiling water for blanching vegetables. I use it for stir frying. The only time I use my non-stick pan is for making the perfect French omelette.
I bought a 12" stainless steel bowl and drilled a hole to attach a wooden drawer handle to it rather than pay a high price for a pre-made wok lid!
That's Genius!
Wok lids aren't that expensive. I think a 12' stainless steel bowl costs more than a 12" wok lid.
I did the same thing! Picked up the bowl at a thrift shop for $3, had a knob. Wok lids are $13 to $20 and up. Amazon sells entire sets of stainless bowls for $20 if you need the bowls.
Hah
@K L $3 bowl and handle with screw.
I have a huge 14-inch stainless steel flat bottom wok with a cover that I just made Benihana style fried rice in (enough for 8 people) and it performed perfectly with no sticking (plenty of that garlic butter!). I also have a 12 inch non-stick Circulon that I use fairly often, particularly good for popcorn! And finally I have a 12 inch electric wok that was my mom’s. I had all three going the other night making the fried rice, stir-fry veggies and tempura green beans (in the electric wok for frying). Overall though it’s my 12 inch cast iron skillet I use the most. (It was my daughter’s 14th birthday and our tradition is going to Benihana but of course couldn’t do that this year, so I recreated the meal of steak, shrimp, fried rice, veg and tempura beans. And no I did not flip my knives around!
Waaay too much beef and broccoli for that size skillet!?!
Yes, shes doesn't understand how to cook in a wok properly.
Both of them, way overcrowding the pans.
I think they did that to show the advantage of the woks surface area. Asian stir frys are usually smaller in woks I agree. Americans going to Americans USA 🇺🇸 USA
@@cjzanders5430 I mean even in a wok that size that is WAY too much food. Look at the portions Chinese Cooking Demystified uses in a wok of similar size and a similar burner.
@@davidfuller581 - some women cook for the whole family. They look like the type.
I seasoned my carbon steel wok with about 1/2 cup of thin-sliced fresh ginger, 2 cloves of minced garlic and an entire bunch of green onions cut into 2" segments in 2 tbsp of canola oil. Stir-fry over medium heat until crispy (about 15-20 mins), then discard. Worked beautifully. Nothing stuck to it. Of course, it made my house smell like a Chinese restaurant or Hibachi place for hours afterwards, even with the exhaust hood on high. Will probably use the potato peels and salt method next time; my wife and kids thought the fried ginger smell was a little overpowering, LOL. 😅
I love woks but we’re moving to a house with a electric (glass top) stove. I’m thinking of getting a single butane or propane burner like the one Lisa was using. How about doing an episode on those?
Kenji did an episode just for that. Full on restaurant style propane burners.
I lived in an apartment for a couple of years with an absolutely awful electric stove, it was arranged by my employer. After about a month of struggling I went out and got one of those propane burners. They're great. It cost me less than $20, more than 15 years ago, and it worked great. Go to a restaurant supply store if you can find one. The one I got was the sort sold for doing omelet stations at brunch buffets.
I really love my Iwatani. I bought it on Amazon about 3 years ago and have used it a lot. After Hurricane Florence, when we had a weeklong power outage, it was particularly appreciated by our family. We don't have a gas range and unfortunately our street doesn't have a gas line, but if I want to use my wok or deep fry something, I put my single gas burner on a metal utility table on our deck. Then there's no grease splatter or remaining oil smell in my kitchen. Love it. This brand sells a couple of different ones, if you are interested, let me know and I will put a link here (non-affiliate.)
My favorite Thai food channel is Hot Thai Kitchen and the content creator, Pailin, uses the same one for her cooking in each episode. It was about $90, but it's very well made and I feel like having a more efficient, sturdier, model was worth the extra investment.
If you don't want to maintain fuel, they sell tabletop electric burners that you plug into the house electrical sockets. I'm not talking induction. They are exposed coil elements like old school electric ranges. The small one has a heating element about the same size as the flat bottom of a carbon steel wok. They are sold everywhere. My local Kroger sells them in the kitchen section. I recommend laying down a couple of silicone trivets on the counter, then a quarter baking sheet on top, and then the device. The silicone trivets should insulate any excess heat off of your counters. If you have a full size silicon baking mat that would probably work just by itself.
Just remember on which ever house circuit they are plugged into you probably can't run another appliance with it or you might pop a circuit breaker. I ran an air fryer and electric tea kettle at the same time once on the same circuit and popped a circuit breaker. Plus you can't bounce a pan around on it as aggressively as you could on a large range. Be cautious, you don't want to bounce it off the counter doing fancy wok tricks.
@@SuZiKaT22 Is it okay to use inside? I've seen ads & read the description of the Iwatani and it looked really good.
Also -- is it propane or butane?
Hi ATK, your video has an editing issue around 1:04
2 clips overlaps and blinks fast
I THOUGHT I WAS LOSING MY MIND. Thank you for commenting this!
Before I purchased my wok, I would stir-fry in my stock pot. It enabled me to cook on high heat getting the flavour of the breath of the wok, and move the ingredients around rigourously because of the high sides!
You aren't going to get any wok hei on an Americanstove . You need way higher heat
@@CPUGaming this was the method I used when I didn’t have a wok. It worked! I cranked up the heat on a stainless steel uncoated stock pot till the oil started to smoke. It got wok hei! Try it sometime if you don’t have a wok.
I've had a hand hammered carbon steel, round bottom wok for about 40 years. I wouldnt change it for anything. It cooks fine on a regular gas stove. My best kitchen investment.
Both. I have a steel wok purchased 43 years ago in Van Chinatown. Wok heats fast in spite of small burner contact. My skillet is cast iron. Better than a cheap or expensive non stick.
Uncle Roger would say Haiyaaa, you need wok only. never skillet. and you need MSG.
He should make a commentary about this one :D
@@krylpl I would LOVE THAT. I'm a big fan of Uncle Roger!
came here for this comment
Wok hay!
Too many people are allergic to MSG. What should we use instead?
Yup, I bought my wok from the Wok Shop in SF. Must buy if you’re in the SF Bay Area.
This recipe is so weird. It seems like you're using about three times too much food.
Probably a couple reasons, first, they wanted to crowd the skillet, they seemed to be pushing pro wok from the start, which is fine, I love my woks, but they were stacking the deck a little for sure. It also could be because the recipe was designed for a western table which typically has one large main dish vs an eastern table which might feature several smaller main dishes.
We’re Americans! We eat more food.
@@Porschedoctor1 yeah but cook it in batches though! Don't crowd the wok
@@CultureStress Who wantes to waste time cooking in batches when a wok will easily handle the volume?
@@pumpkin1escobar cooking in batches doesn't have to be slower--less to heat up, in better contact with the pan, means it's done more quickly. It takes more attention, but not necessarily more time.
The main reason not to crowd the pan is so that your stir fry isn't all goopy and sad. Which I guess is a personal preference thing. But to me, putting that many ingredients in a pan that size all at the same time is like boiling a steak. Yes, it takes less care and attention than pan-frying or grilling it, but.... why
Woks are the "jack of all trades" cookware.
Steam, deep fry, brown, saute, simmer, boil, stir-fry
If you ever eat at a chinese restaurant with an open kitchen you will see them mainly cooking out of the wok.
They will quickly go from 1 dish to the next in the same wok with just a quick rinse and scrub in between.
Depending on heat control, the wok could also allow to have different heat zones at the same time.
Central zone = high heat, next ring up would be medium heat and the out ring would be low.
This was more seen on older hammered woks as the slight imperfections allowed the food to stay in the other rings.
Hard to achieve in new nonstick smooth woks.
Closest new style wok that I found that had the closest simular properties to old seasoned hammered woks which you could use metal utensils in are the hex clad nonstick types.
Though I'm not sure if you can season them to get the same taste benefits from true seasoned woks.
If it's possibly I would like to see a reply 😊
I love my wok! Just purchased a nice big one that will work on my new induction stove. I love it! Should have bought that a long time ago.
Lisa❣️❣️❣️ love Lisa’s reviews, so through and she always answers all the questions I have 😀
Adam Liaw has a video on cooking stir fry in a large stock pot when cooking for a larger amount of people so that is what I use. I get it screaming hot, add the oil, and then can stir fry without having to worry about stir fry flying out all over the place. Granted, I cannot toss it like you can a skillet or wok, but it turns out delicious every time.
I heard this tip years ago, recommending a soup pot on electric stoves (rather than a stock pot, like the ~8qt size you get with cookware sets, wider and shorter vs the narrower and taller stock pot). I agree it's maybe the best alternative to a wok. It gives you the increased cooking area with high sides for enthusiastic stirring!
@@Djoser122 yes it is a 12 quart (I think-I have had it for years and the writing is worn off) stock/soup pot and I love it for stir fry-even fried rice. Mine is 14" across and 14" tall so plenty of room.
I have a few 14" high sided Chicken Fryer (With a helper handle and lid) that is is deeper than a traditional Skillet but easier to use than a stock pot - and I use that for large stir Fry as well as Frying Chicken. I have an old Circular 6 burner electric Thermador stove like the one Julia Child used on her original show. (THere was a time we only had ELECTRIC - no gas, no water(good well water though and still have that, no sewer) and the big pot on the two big burners works very well. I had 8 children and 18 foster/guardian/adoptive kids - yes total 26 - although never more than 11 at one time - and needed big pots.
@@janicecarey3592 great, now I have soup pot envy!
Why non-stick at all? Can't get anything close to wok hei, where you want the oil heated to the smoke point. Perhaps compare to carbon steel skillet?
Oil smokes at 400F which is below the 500F safety limit. She had the burner on medium and was able to get the nonstick skillet hot enough to make the oil smoke. 2:00 to 2:08.
aren't they using CS wok, why not CS skillet too instead of non-stick? Plus like others said that was a little to much food for that skillet.
Nonstick is probably the most used at home in the US. It's sad because nonstick is garbage. A nice French carbon steel skillet or carbon steel wok is far superior for pretty much everything.
@@caroline10081 carbon steel kills
@@ommk9650 How?
Woks are not for stir fry only; a wok is more versatile than a pan. What you can do in a pan you can do in a wok but what you can do in a wok you can't always do in a pan. In the end you'll most likely use both but if you must have one, I would go with a wok.
Kinda (haven't tried to make cornbread in a wok).
I will say I reach for the wok more often as it has more options in making adjustments on the fly.
You gave no examples; quintessenceSL did.
You need a flat bottom for even cooking across the entire surface. Flat is also better for reducing liquid.
Would you please do a review of butane and propane gas burners similar to the one Lisa used. It would be helpful to also know which are safe for in home use and any precautions that must be taken into consideration when using them.
Keep up the excellent work.
They have done that before, just have to search their web site.
Instead of comparing wok vs non-stick, compare against a cast iron skillet. The ability to create the same heat and non-stickiness to carbon steel woks makes them comparable.
As I understand it, one of the issues with using woks on the typical home stove, is the relatively low output of the burners, 8-11k btu. Compare with the 100k btu+ of a typical wok burner.
With inefficient metals like cast iron and carbon steel; this might be a concern. We in America have had clad pans for a long time (unlike Europe we didn't switch to carbon steel). Clad pans are more responsive, efficient, and retain and spread heat better, and are lighter. You just watched a commercial that would sell you the best of the crappiest pans available that you don't need.
That's why restaurants are faster. You can still get to a good result but you have to be more careful to avoid overcrowding and sad steamed food. Be aware that adding sauce or wine cools your limited heat, so make sure your food is ready for the heat downgrade
mad thumbs Nothing is more responsive that a carbon steel wok. The whole point of a wok is that it is thin, so the heat of the burner is almost immediately transmitted to the food. Heavier pans are a poor substitute for a proper sized burner- they store the limited heat of an undersized burner so giving the initial "sizzle" but quickly loose heat and take too long to recover.
@@madthumbs1564 you don't seem to understand how a wok is suppose to work. Refer to what Spencer said.
🎵Flat bottomed woks you make the wokkin’ world go round🎵
Paid $17 at Walmart for a carbon steel wok, with 2 plastic like handles (no distortion or melting noted yet). At first it was a bit sticky, but 2 years later its black and very slick. Wipe it out with lightly oiled paper towel and put it away. I love the stir, shake, and bang around part of it, part of the fun of wok cooking! 🤷♂️
Biggest mistake most people not super familiar with Woks make, including in this video: Do not crowd your wok.
Her Wok should only have 1/2 that amount of food at most in it. You lose tons of heat, and the food crowds and steams, losing even more heat.
You need enough empty unused metal for the Wok to continue to heat up fast while you move the food around. If its so full the metal is so busy constantly transferring heat that it never fully heats up itself. This is important even with a huge commercial burner with a circular spot for the wok to heat the sides properly, but even more important on a flat and weaker home burner.
Agreed. Awful to watch
I have a flat bottom carbon steel wok and love it, but only do stir-fry cooking in it where I use cast iron skillets to do most of my cooking in. I had plenty of non-stick skillets and found them to be useless after two years of use and after retiring I gave up on them and most that I had down through the years ended up being used to water and feed the animals in. I like the look of the wok which is used in this demonstration and I would use it all the time for most of my stove top cooking if I had it.
I've got a 15" and a 21" wok that I use for mostly everything. I don't make pancakes but if I did I'd use a flat frying pan or something. The woks have replaced most of the pots and pans I use in the kitchen and that's a good thing.
I just use a stainless steel skillet. I don't know why you'd even use a non-stick for stir fry, at higher temps stuff doesn't stick, as long as there's oil in the pan.
Thank you! Im just learning the wok. The approach with non stick is complete opposite of wok due to heat oil issue ! No way on dish chow mein i think. And your not goona get that sear flavor you get from high heat in wok.
Exactly.
@@travelchannel304 I prefer using anodized aluminum woks. Mostly nonstick, but cooks great.
same - I have carbon steel skillets, cast iron skillets, but I end up using a 10" disc-bottom stainless pan for stir fry; it' just takes a beating and has enough heat retention to be useful. Note: this is on a glass top electric range, if I had a gas range it would be a different story.
The Wok is versatile, it can be used to prepare every single dish offered at a Chinese restaurant. It is used for all the Chinese cooking techniques: stir-fry, deep-fry, steam, braise, brown, boil, & roast.
So true! Growing up, my mom cooked everything in a work! Including western dishes like grilled steaks & pork chops. We didn’t even have a skillet or frying pan. Needless to say but our wok was black and perfectly seasoned from years of daily use. We did wash it with soap & water but the trick was to turn on the flame afterward to ensure it was completely dry. I do regret not appreciating that wok back then.
Why compare a carbon steel wok to a non stick pan? For a fair comparison, they should both be carbon steel or non stick.
I've had my Taylor & Ng wok for over a year and absolutely love it....keeps getting better with each cook!
I have an authentic Chinese Wok and a Matfer, both 14". The Wok is really lightweight, used for rapid stir fry and the Matfer, I use for that deep golden browning. Such as a steak or delicate fish. Both are very great. Nothin better than Carbon Steel!
Learn to cook on clad pans. Carbon steel is poor staying poor crap.
I’m Glad the only pans I have are old but useful Reverewear and cast iron
Oh, woks work great on my induction stoves!
It's one of the good things about induction, that the oscillating fields rise up a little bit from the surface, so they rise up the sides of woks just like flames do.
I've used a few different induction stoves with a few different woks and they are a very good match, contrary to what they see at the end of this video.
Chris Carlin With an induction hob, you should be able to get more heat into the wok than with an electric stove top of the same wattage. Little heat is lost in heating up the surrounding air.
This is true, but a flat bottomed wok is not optimal.
Stir-fry pro tip: well-seasoned hot wok + cold oil = food won't stick. Cooking with this tool goes fast but I love my flat-bottom carbon steel wok! 👍
broccoli beef. its better if you pre-cook the two ingredients separately before you mix them together. broccoli boiled in water to half cooked(1min 30s boiling water with lid on), and beef thinner cut and marinated with whatever sauce with your hand UNTIL the sauce absorbed into the beef slices, let it sit for 10 min. heat up the wok until you see white smoke, and then coat the wok with a thin layer of oil, and then room temp oil in, and right away put the marinated beef in, keep stirring until half-cooked(the outside is turning white, indicating the surface cooked), and finally put the broccoli in, and stir a bit to let the beef flavor mix in, and then a little hot water along the side of the wok in, and then lid on with the heat turned down to 70% or medium-high(create steam inside to cook the ingredients), roughly 1 min then done.
Just bought a Lodge wok, and don't know why this is better than my cast iron skillet.
I just bought a new wok and have recently transitioned over to high carbon steel frying pans. Still haven't gotten rid of the non-stick ... but I won't be replacing them as they wear out. HCS pans do take a bit of getting used to though. You just have to keep an eye on the heat and timing. Get both ... you can't go wrong!
Keep it for Scrambled Eggs.
I have Souped Up Wok ( Souped Up Recipes on TH-cam) and use it on glass top. It has a round bottom and wish it had flat bottom but it still works pretty good!
Hanna. Try using 2 open slot spoons on your skillet to move your food around. It's far easier, and you don't lose stuff over the sides.
A Chinese shovel and a Chinese scoop are what Chines chefs use, aka ladle and big scoop, together.
This was a great video! Something totally new. I love how they did it at home. HOWEVER...... I think Lisa may have "cheated" a little with the epic gas burner! I wonder what its output is compared to a traditional home stove
Compared to a standard home gas cooktop, it's not actually as good but it is sufficient, well at least compared to the gas burners in Australia as every gas cooktop has a specific wok burner. Here is a great recipe for Braised pork belly, it also shows you clearly the standard in Australia gas wok burner in action. btw, this is one of her old videos but she has wonderful recipes. th-cam.com/video/DTCyaP_7cjQ/w-d-xo.html
A wok is a great investment and easier to cook these types of meals in it. So many affordable options and nonstick is completely unnecessary. I've been cooking with All-Clad for years and have zero issues. Most people cook on too high heat and move food around before it's ready to be moved.
I looked on Google for the same wok which you demonstrate.
No wooden handles..
none resemble yours can you tell me how to buy Taylor &NG wok?
A wok works great on an induction cook top, every bit as good as a gas flame. It gets red hot fast, and is super sensitive to temp adjustments.
I use my 10 in carbon steel Wok 3-4x a week nothing sticks. It looks cheap because it’s very thin and light weight but it takes heat like a champ. I have a professional stove and I use high heat on it. I absolutely love it. I only paid $15 at The Wok Shop in San Francisco. I had a conversation with the owner. She’s funny and friendly.
Both are needed. Woks are nearly a universal solution. Nearly. No other item of cookware is as versatile.
BUT... To sear and cook steaks and lamb chops a heavy cast-iron skillet that retains a huge amount of heat is the ticket.
FYI: If you have a gas range, by all means, get the more authentic, more traditional round-bottomed wok. The food will naturally collect at the bottom during stir-frying, making your job easier. Professional chefs in Chinese restaurants in both China and America, all use round-bottomed woks.
Watching her struggle with that skillet made me wonder why they wouldn’t use a sauté pan with higher sides and compare that to a wok? Has the same flat bottom large cooking surface but a little more room to maneuver.
Also nice to see somebody else has too many mugs. Every time I open the cupboard I wonder if I’m the only one 😄
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Sautee pans are also a good choice . Skillets are for omlettes and aren't very good for stir-frying on sauteeing.
I used to use my Wok to make popcorn. Perfect batch every time. I didn't have a lid for it so I used a metal pizza pan. Perfect batch every time.
Yes, I too was shocked that cooking experts chucked so much food into those pans. After looking through many of the comments below I was also shocked that I saw no comments on how cruddy that white stove was. Yuck. That said ATK is still a big favorite of mine.
Same here. I wanted to say, "stop the taping and clean your stove' but it stayed dirty til the end.
I too was concerned about the lack of cleanliness.
That kitchen was clean! The burnt on residue can be virtually impossible to remove and has ZERO contact with food. Continuous abusive scrubbing on enamel can cause rust and therefore faster failure of the appliance. That kitchen looked fine!
That was no expert. Dacor invented a stove grate that needed no cleaning. It kinda self cleaned, and won a product of the year award. I used them for decades without ever having to clean them. I was surprised at that stove because it meant whoever was using it had either transcended their tools or was ignorant.
I have a glass top range and my wok works perfectly fine on it not sure why you guys are saying it wont. if you are working with lower power range use a larger burner ring for the wok instead of one that matches the small flat bottom area, this will bring more heat into he wok and it works perfectly fine.
When something is low-maintenance because it only lasts a couple of years and then you throw it away -- is that a good feature, really?
they can last pretty much 5+ years without any major problem, the only downside is thay they eventually start to scratch but even then there is little functional effect and no health issue
A quality, Asian made carbon steel wok, will last decades. And it will get better with every passing year.
@@barcham I have a nice heavy anodized aluminum wok and that’s even easier to care for since rust is not a factor
@@pjschmid2251 I've never had problems with rust on my Chinese made wok, and I've had it for close to 40 years. Things don't rust when you take proper care of them and the possibility of rust on my wok, or even on any of my cast iron skillets, has never entered my mind. And Montreal, where I live, gets quite humid in the summer.
I don't feel that this comparison was done so well. The woman using the wok (forgot her name) starts off well, mentioning that you use very high heat for the wok, in order to give the food a charred flavor. This is called wok hei which means 'breath of the wok'. The best example of this can be seen on TH-cam where the flames come up over the sides of the wok almost viciously. The food is then tossed in the air several times and is repeatedly being tinged by the fire. This is the breath of the wok that is called wok hei.
That is why you almost always see very high heat used with a wok. Kitchen stoves typically can't generate that much heat (e.g. 20,000 btu's) which is why one uses a butane stove like she did, which can generate more heat. Unfortunately, she didn't use it for that purpose but used it for presentation purposes.
Her heat was medium at best. Evaluating using a wok without using high heat, as you can hopefully see, is like testing the off-road capabilities of an electric car. It just doesn't go together.
But I am glad many people got the opportunity to learn more about the wok. FWIW I use both a wok and pan, the latter for when I need more cooking area and when I am sauteing or making pasta sauce, etc.
If I threw that much beef into my skillet, it would be a steamed mess. Not sure how she avoided this.
Chef John had an interesting technique while cooking Lomo Saltado. When the beef release their moisture he removed them, cooked down the liquid and then returned the beef. th-cam.com/video/FduDsBuZeAc/w-d-xo.html
Through the magic of cinema?
I'm guessing it's a mix of using a hot enough pan with good heat retention, and room temperature beef.
Didn't you watch the video? I'd say it ended up a steamed mess
@@caroline10081 With a quality wok, you move the cooked beef up the side of the wok where it will just sit and keep warm, draining the juices down into the centre. As you cook more, you do the same, ending with your veg in the centre cooking away while the protein rests above keeping warm. When the veg is cooked, you mix everything together, add the sauce, thicken to your preference and serve. But you would NEVER use the amount of protein they are using in this video. They are making enough food there to serve 10 people as part of a multi-dish meal.
Thank you!!! Now Id love to see a comparison of a lidded cast iron skillet vs a lidded cast iron wok, same recipe, same type of stove! And maybe also this lidded carbon steel wok vs a lidded carbon steel skillet!
to the lady with the nonstick skillet: you're steaming that beef, not stir frying it
What Indian moms need: Kadai (wok), bada kadai (big wok), lohe ka kadai (cast-iron wok, for special occation), non-stick kadai (optional). They can cook pizza to elephants on it.
Go to a Thai or Chinese kitchen. The gas burner has larger apertures, allowing flames to shoot up the sides of the wok. CONSTANT stirring food up the sides, never just allowing food to sit idle in the oil at the bottom. Result: fast and fresh, not oily.
I still don't understand why anyone uses nonstick pans.
Marketing. Meanwhile the cooks in Europe and China all use carbon steel.
wnose I really don’t agree. There’s a huge difference between someone buying a nonstick pan off an infomercial and someone going into Williams Sonoma and getting a non stick pan by calphalon or all clad every few years. They really do have a purpose, such as cooking eggs, they do save a lot of time in cleaning. My 12” cast iron skillet and my 8” nonstick pan by all clad live on my stove and I use them both every day for varying things depending on what I’m cooking and how much time I have. I definitely only use silicone spatulas on the nonstick pan and I don’t use super high heat on it. It still looks brand new a year later.
@@JordanBobGeek If it works for you, then great. But I can guarantee you all non-stick pans will eventually end up in the landfill. Once you get a carbon steel skillet/wok seasoned, it's perfectly nonstick and will last for decades. And it only gets better with more use. For most home cooks, that's all they need. And they never have to go shopping for another pan.
@@wnose yes.. but you can't find a carbon steel pan with tall vertical sides and big cooking surface and also carbon steel pans tend to have very long handles, totally impractical for home kitchen. On the other hand cast iron has good handles and sides but is just not as non stick and it's heavy, quite heavy if you want a bigger pan... And both of them have a downside.. if you want to cook pasta dish it's overkill to use them... it's simply not worth the oiling and rubbing for a dish that takes 10-15 minutes to cook. Also for risotto, when you deglaze you definitely will destroy your seasoning. So my vote is for a good stainless steel + non stick for quick dishes..
@@wnose - it’s great you have the patience to put up with carbon steel every meal.
You’ll either be using a dirty pan or still be seasoning it when I’m already off to work.
A Dutch oven and all clad for thanksgiving. But for a quick egg in the morning nothing beats nonstick.
I just do not like non stick, period. And for stir fry you really need more room to toss stuff around and not steam. There was too much food in that skillet for real stir fry
Woks are SPECIFICALLY designed not to have a broad cooking surface. They also heat/cool quickly, unlike heavy gauge and cast iron Western pans. That's the point.
Just bought a Lodge wok, and don't know why this is better than my cast iron skillet.
Yeah, we got rid of most of our nonstick cookware and got a stainless set.
I'm Chinese, I love to use them both depend on what kind of food I want to cook. I also like to use carbon steel pan because I know how to make it become non-stick.
Hi-yaa. Wrong kind of spatula on the wok. Need a wok shovel not to burn sauce. 🤣
The goal of America's Test Kitchen is cooking for typical home cooks in the US. Woks have become pretty commonly available in the US. You're likely not to find a wok shovel at your average Walmart or Target. You'd probably have to order online or go to a specialty ktichen store or an Asian market.
@@AlexHoward true true. But probably if you bought wok from Taylor & Ng they would sell as a set with scoop and shovel. BTW I prefer round bottom because of ability to use shovel. But then I have a special stove grate to accommodate and cook with high heat. Also cooking fried rice with a flat bottom is almost impossible. Anyways... from experience.
Not on a flat bottom wok being used on a typical American stove you don't.
And a flat bottom wok being used on a typical American stove is what probably 99% of the people in this country are using.
@Maureen actually in new style professional Chinese kitchen won't find a shovel. Shovels are used at home with lower flame and need to achieve carmelization of vegetables like onions and cabbage as you would with brussels sprouts in an oven. Here's a master chef doing fried rice, around 4:00 Professional kitchens can push out a dinner every minute and half or more.
th-cam.com/video/ZgdCMwDLhq0/w-d-xo.html
Why hasn’t anyone recognized this as a salute to Uncle Roger yet
Taylor & Ng now sell a 14" pre-seasoned carbon steel wok. Flat or round bottom. Wish ATK would do a test on that one.
Despite the comments, I haven't really had much problem with my flat-bottomed carbon steel wok and my new induction stove. I had a round-bottomed wok for 40+ years on gas stoves. Used the ring (inverted-"\_/"-so it just supported the wok on the burner) and I cooked in it a lot. Loved it. But I needed flat-bottomed for the induction. Are the sides as hot as the bottom? Maybe not. I can't really tell. I haven't found that it affects my cooking. Still a fairly recent transition, so I'll keep an eye on it, but haven't noticed any problems yet.
Another great review. I've never realised that Lisa was so tiny until I saw her dwarfed by that wok!
"Do I need both"?
"Was that a serious question"?
They have different purposes but you can do basically everything a frying pan can in a wok whereas a wok is better at particular tasks than a frying pan is such as stir frying. If you have the room buy both, a quality Carbon steel wok only costs around $20-$40 at least they do in Australia. There are Far more expensive woks make from stainless steel and iron but the cheap Carbon steel is better than the alternatives and much cheaper.
I have been using non-stick woks for a variety of traditional western cooking tasks for 2 decades. I think the concern if having more surface in contact with the stove is totally overblown.
Yann - The concern is with the cancer causing forever PFOA chemicals that it releases and you breathe in when you're cooking, not with the stickiness of the surface.
Why not use a 12" saute pan? Higher sides, but still lots of flat surface.
Hello Stella
Would have loved to see a comparison using a cast iron skillet vs carbon steel wok, as shown in the video’s intro pic. All good though…nothing will replace my wok!
The second chef with the spun metal carbon steel wok wins the day. A "non-stick" pan is a FRANKENPAN. It is an aluminum pan coated with an overmarketed chemistry experiment. Notice when the second chef finished the cooking process there wasn't any food sticking to the steel wok. Both pans are non-stick. The difference is one pan releases harmful carcinogenic chemicals into the food and the other pan does not. The only consideration for the heat setting using a steel wok is about burning the food; not destroying the pan.
david
I appreciate that she likes to bang things around.
Ok but Hannah’s wall storage! 🤌🏾
You're assuming a non stick pan and a carbon steel wok. I've got a 11.5 inch carbon steel pan with high sides and a non stick wok
non stick is decent if youre as cooked or baked as your food. carbon steel if your food is more cooked than you are though.
My Taylor and Ng wok is over 50 years old.and I love it. My cast iron wok retains hear too well--too slow to heat, too slow to cool, but it is great for holding my wallet, change and car keys!
If you're using a 14" wok, why not use a 14" skillet? I have one and it works great.
I have a 14" skillet but with the burners on my stove, the whole bottom doesn't heat evenly. I have to keep moving food around to get it to cook evenly. (Although in a wok you have to do the same thing, so it doesn't really save much effort.) I DO prefer it when frying things that should be cooked flat, like searing pork chops. But for a stir fry where you want to keep the food moving, the shallow sides of the skillet are a nuisance.
@@daveh7720
Pre-heat your larger 14" skillet in the oven for more even heat, cooking.
Works for me!
Even if you upsize your skillet, the wok will still have more volume because of the added height. Honestly that seems to be the part giving the most trouble to western skillet users.
@@davestelling F*! That crap! We are in 2020; All-Clad doesn't own tri-ply anymore. Even disk bottom pans are going to pay for themselves over heating a thermally inefficient pan in the f*!ing oven. Stove top seasoning tri-ply clad is also much more efficient.
My point was if you are going to do a valid comparison, than compare (somewhat) apples with apples. Of course a 12 inch skillet won't hold as much.
The wok been out of stock from Taylor and NG, for last 10 months. Are they still in business?
Yes, they are, but since we never work with manufacturers as we do reviews other than to confirm the products are still in production, they can be taken by surprise when their products win our testings.
I had no problem cooking with a wok on an induction stove, in fact the magnet created a nice gradient of heat from bottom to top.
the winniing wok is no longer available and hasn't been for months
Yes! That is so frustrating. I noticed they didn't put a wok link in the description, but I don't know why they wouldn't put a link for their runner up!
My mom has two woks made by Myer Corp, one under their Circulon brand, and the other under their Analon brand. Both are non-stick, the Circulon has one long handle and one looped handle but no lid, the Analon has two looped handles and a lid.
I have an induction stove. Use the wok on the big burner and you'll be fine
I have both but if I could only have one it would definitely be a wok.
I guess we could say it's a real *wok*-horse in the kitchen!
:)
My children gave me a gas butane stove for my wok, I had bought one from the Gas One brand, but after ordering it through Home Depot online, they told me that I had to wait because there was no stock, in the end, I ended up with one gift card that I had to buy exclusively in the store that after a lawsuit because they did not return cash. So my children bought me one and that same day it arrived for my birthday, they paid more than what I paid in Gas One, but this is 100% Japanese, Iwatani Corporation of America, the case I expected something more good quality, but okay ,, It almost came out as 80 dlls, there are cheaper used ones, but the difference is that with Super High Power 15,000 BTU STOVE the woks need a lot of fire so that the fire spreads on the sides and not just the center. When I use it, I do it in my temporary kitchen outside the house because cast iron and carbon steel make a lot of smoke and the alarm always goes off. At first the food sticks, but you are learning that it must be with high heat to cook, and it is fast, small cuts of chicken or meat. I wash it with hot water, I remove it with my fingernail if something sticks and I grease it with oil.
I have the same one by Iwatani! I love it. Totally worth the extra money.