How to Season a Carbon Steel Wok/Pan
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 มี.ค. 2019
- I'm seasoning on my jet engine burner for ease, but you can definitely do this at home! For detailed instructions on how to do this on a home gas, electric coil or glass-ceramic stove, continue reading below!!!
USING A GAS, ELECTRIC COIL OR GLASS-CERAMIC STOVE:
*Everything I did can be done on a home stove, it'll just take a bit longer!
1) Scrub your wok vigorously with a stainless steel scrubber (or something abrasive), warm water and dish detergent. This helps to remove the manufacturing oil that prevents rusting while in storage.
2) Heat your wok on high heat to dry it.
3) Once your wok is dry, continue heating it on high heat. Your wok will change colors and burn off any remaining manufacturing oil. This may take a while but be patient.
4) Rotate your wok to heat all sides. You will literally have to touch your wok to the grate, electric coil or glass-ceramic top (this may damage/stain the glass so do it at your own risk) to transfer enough heat to your wok. Be patient and careful! You may want to use pliers or gloves.
5) Once your wok has completely changed color, turn off the heat and add cold water in the sink. Be mindful of the steam!
6) Add dish detergent and scrub with your abrasive scrub. Use tongs to protect your hands! Also, this will be the last time you ever use dish soap to clean your wok.
7) Dump the water and rinse off any remaining soap.
8) Heat your wok on high heat to dry it.
9) Once your wok is dry, use a towel to lightly coat the inside and bottom with a thin layer of oil. Use tongs or gloves to protect your hands!
10) Heat your wok on high heat and until the oil smokes to polymerize/infuse the oil into the metal's surface. The polymerized oil adheres to the pores and crevices in the carbon steel forming a non-stick layer, also known as a patina.
11) Once your wok darkens and stops smoking in a spot, rotate your wok to a new spot. Again, you will have to literally touch the wok to the grate, electric coil or glass-ceramic top (this may damage/stain the glass so do it at your own risk) to generate enough heat. This creates a lot of smoke so turn on your stove fans!
12) Continue this process of oiling and heating to smoke until you're satisfied with your patina. This may take 10+ times. If you're short on time, keep in mind your patina will naturally form as you cook on it!
13) Once you're happy with your patina, add some oil to stir-fry some sacrificial food until charred. Pork fat, green onions and ginger are great options as they help to remove any initial metallic taste that could possibly transfer to your food. Any old meats and veggies work perfectly though.
14) Once your meat and veggies are charred, remove them and any oil.
15) Turn off the heat and let your wok cool.
16) To clean your wok, scrub it with a non-abrasive sponge and warm water.
17) Heat your wok until dry, let it cool and store it! If you don't use it very often, coat it with a thin layer of oil to prevent rusting before storing it.
18) Let me know if you have any questions or recipe requests!
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Hi Matt, Good tutorial ~!! Nice job, but @2:50 I don't recommend people to put cold water into the wok when it's smoking hot. use hot water instead. much much safer, usually, we wait until it's room temperature ~ Second thing is @6:20 when you use some sacrificial ingredients to season the wok, you may don't want to overheat the wok. It will remain the burns and burns favor into the wok. Rest of it. you're doing great!!
I did it yesterday and was so happy to see that I did it just like you, and I didn't even watch your video before. Nice to feel that I did it right. Thanks.☺️
THANKYOU Matt Kwong. Well shown, no talk talk talk.
I didn’t know all this effort went into seasoning a wok. I will have to talk to my grandmother and have her show me the ins and outs. Fun video!
Followed your instructions on a new wok using a butane stove and it worked perfectly. Did 3 oiling sessions and cooked some old porc belly with vegies. The wok is now black and non stick just as I wanted. Thanks Matt!
Your welcome! So awesome to hear it went well!! 🙌
I have now watched 5 videos on how to season my new wok and I liked your method the best. Thanks Karen
Incredibly informative and practical. No BS
Thank you, ain't nobody got time for BS haha
Great tutorial! About to season mine in a few. Thanks!!
Best tutorial on TH-cam in regard to seasoning a wok
Thank you! 👊
love your wok station!
Great Video! Very direct and to the point. Nice job. You did more in 8 min than many do in half an hour.
Thank you!!!
Great video...thank you for sharing!
This is a phenomenal instructional video, thank you so much!!!
Thank you for watching!! Let me know if you have any questions 🙂
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K. K bikinin ji n
It 's very helpful. Thank you.
That's why I make these vids so I'm happy to hear that! Thank you 🙂
Great vid, Matt. Thanks!
Excellent work chef
Just did mine. Most instructed video on this topic.
Thank you.👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks for the video. I just got a carbon steel wok today and I was unsure to what extent I need to season it.
Great vid, thanks for posting. My first-ever wok just arrived so I will put the knowledge that you provided to work either tonight or tomorrow night! Would love to see a vid telling all about your backyard-jet engine-cooking thing. Very impressive.
Nerozumím tomu jsem Čech
Thank You. Great job!
Thanks for the video. Can you give us some details on the size, weight and thickness of your wok and where you got it from?
Thank you.
I bought a 200,000 btu burner for wok cooking a week ago. I haven’t received my wok yet but the burner has been heating my garage nicely in the meantime. Haha
HAHA i'm in Maine for school. I wish I had my burner too!!
Please when you pour down the soapy water, don't you rince with clear water before heating again ?
A very cool demonstration'
Thanks so much! I actually didn't like this wok from The Wok Shop. It was too thin. For a flat bottom wok, I recommend the Joyce Chen 14" wok:
www.amazon.com/Joyce-Chen-22-0060-Uncoated-14-inch/dp/B0001VQIP4
@@takeoutmadeeasy Thanks!
I've had woks since I was 19 years old when I first visited the Wok Shop in San Francisco. It's crazy how there used to be zero instructions or videos on wok use or seasoning. When I was around 22 I once seen a grainy low res video from Lee Kum Kee or something. Now the internet is flooded with every interest imaginable and there are tons of wok seasoning videos. The trend I noticed these days is for the wok to be "blued' under high heat first and the terms like "polymerized" being thrown around. Trendy. Back in the old days, all we did was wash and scrub the wok, add some oil and put it over a burner, no blueing was needed. The best seasoning is to just use it, a lot. I kind of miss the old internet.
Best instructions out there
I like your burner. Where did you get it? Thank you
Matt Kwong... for those who are a little careless with keeping woks (or other carbon steel) dried after/between use, you can passivate the surface before seasoning with a soak in a good ol' citric acid bath i.e. the citric acid used in canning and other food preparation. If you want the chemical engineer's explanation, you can probably find it online. The bottom line is the available chemical bonds for rusting are greatly reduced. Passivating metals is used in other applications where rust is a potential problem and the potential for rusting wants to be reduced/eliminated as much as possible.
Obviously, passivating the metal would be done after the last abrasive scrubbing prior to the heating-seasoning - otherwise, the passivated surface molecules are stripped away and you're back to virgin metal exposed to the air/water.
For those who don't leave their woks to air dry, sitting in water, etc then this doesn't matter. Helps with long term storage of any carbon steel/iron tools/cooking utensils in regions with high humidity.
Very informative thank you! 👍
This is why we say citric acid is un antioxidant.
Wow..wow..wow amazing way to have non stick pot's without spraying poisonous spray which don't work,so my question is can I also do the same with cooking pot's will appreciate your reply God bless
@MattKwong you may want to clean some of the carbon build up off from your burner unit it sounds like it's struggling a little.
If it brand new from the box then I would take basic soap and water and a low abrasive scrub pad and clean the manufacturers oil out.
This video was amazing and so helpful. Thank you so much :)
Absolutely! Let me know if you have any questions or recipe requests!
The way I do it is easer, I play Frankie Vali and four season while burning mines with a Harbor Freight propane torch.
hi matt, i was kust wondering where i can get a similar wok to yiurs in the video
Why do have to wash it again after the initial blowout with the flame on high?? Some peeps do and some don't. What's the difference??
What do you do if your wok got a bit of rust? Should you put oil and try to season one more time?
On another tutorial (from Alex channel) he said to use a low smoke point oil because it polymerizes easier. What is the reason to use a high smoke point oil if a low smoke point one would polymerize easier?
When you toss the soapy water at 3:15 or so, do you rinse it or keep the soapy film in it?
I just got one and will do it soon. I got one hand made
I bought a wok about a week ago, done seasoning it with a similar technique (without the sacrifice) but the result comes with some "patterns" and "blotches" on the wok.. I thought I did something wrong, but seeing this video, I guess not.
Thank you for this video. Apparently I didn’t scrub the undercarriage enough because the bottom looks like something melted on it. Do I have to start over?
You can always restart
Excellent!!! The best video I have seen so far on seasoning a new Wok. Do you have a recommendation or a link for best Woks to buy? Thanks! 😀
Thank you!!
For flat bottom woks to be used on a conventional stove, I love my 14" Joyce Chen wok: www.amazon.com/Joyce-Chen-22-0060-Uncoated-14-inch/dp/B0001VQIP4
As far as round bottom woks, I use a cheap 14" WinCo wok from my local restaurant supply store.
I don't really like the wok I seasoned in this vid because it's thin. I got it from The Wok Shop based out of San Fran.
@@takeoutmadeeasy Thanks for your response! 😀
@@solid1378 your welcome! Let me know if you ever have any other questions 🙂
Hello sir pls suggest how to season Iron Chinese kadai (pan)?
I've season my regular metal wok using your method. Works well. Thank you so much
@Prabha Parthan I'm not so sure what type of iron. Just a regular heavy one, not cast iron for sure. I give it a good scrub with fine metal brush on rusted spot. Then wash thoroughly with soap (important because mine rusted a lot, not risking tetanus here) , followed by scrubbing with coarse salt then give a good wash. Then heat it up without oil first. Let it cool down, then use kitchen paper towels to wipe the wok with oil to remove any rust again, I still get rust at this stage, so I do it repeatedly until I think its safe, less brown color coming of the wok, Wash it down with soap again using normal kitchen sponge/net. Then repeat heat up without oil, cool down then coat/wipe the wok with oil using kitchen paper towel. At this point, I heat it up just like in the video, I'm using regular home gas stove at the full blast. I repeat a few layer until I get a desired patina coat. I just wipe the oil with kitchen towel, not fullfilled the wok with lots oil. Wipe with oil > full blast heat > wipe with oil > full blast heat. After u achieve a nice patina coat, please cook something you are not going to eat first to remove metal taste. I recommend u heat up fresh shredded coconut as it also contain oil, fry without oil until the coconut turns dark brown. Mine don't have any dark bits coming off. Yours might be the patina coat not strong and sturdy enough, thats why it chips off. Avoid using metal spoon in that case. For washing, just wash it off gently, if u wish to use soap just use small amount and wipe the grimes with soft sponge, then heat the wok to remove excess oil. Thats all. I like to repeat the oil process but using oven.
@Prabha Parthan my process was long because my wok rusted a lot. But worth it. Now I have non-stick wok 😆
just bought a matfer pan did the salt potatoes and oil for the first seasoning? should i finish up the process like you .......that's my goal to get the pan like yours all black wow love it looks great
It's personal preference! It'll naturally turn all black as you cook with it or you could finish it off for a completely nonstick surface. If I were to choose, i'd finish it off :)
thanks for the reply sir
Well Done 👍 Matthew. Wok for sale?
3:26, was there a reason why you didn't rinse and left soap in there while boiling the soapy water?
high smoke point oil and flaxseed oil - high or low or both ?
How much diameter of your kwali range stove? Fits the wok
Hi, may i know where to purchase this wok? Thank you very much
Just got my carbon steel wok and followed the instructions and got good results up to the point where I oiled the wok and heated it up. The oil turned to this black goopy mess and stuck to the bottom. I had to scrub it out and restart but with a brown sticky film now. Guess that’s better than the black goopy stuff.
Can you advise what I might be doing wrong? Could it be the type of oil? I only have olive oil so that’s what I used. Thanks.
Your video is pretty helpful and will follow next seasoning once it is cooked and scrubbed clean again.
Hi! So my first troubleshoot is you want a super thin and even layer of oil. Like paper thin. That goopy thick stickiness is most likely happened because there was too much oil. Also don't use olive oil! If you can, use peanut or canola oil which don't have as many additives and have a higher smoke point. Let me know how it goes 🙂
@@takeoutmadeeasy thank you sooooo much for responding and the advice. Fortunately I had the bar keepers scrub so that helped a lot with the thorough and deep cleaning that I had to do. I bought peanut oil and redid the entire process and the wok turned out great. Wish I could upload a photo. Again, great tutorial so thank you!!!
Why some woks has this rings lines around the inside and outside?
Where does one get a jet engine burner?? Great video by the way!
Thank you! And from eBay: www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-iDEAL-18-Commercial-Wok-Range-Restaurant-Stir-Fry-Chinese-Food-USA-Made/153600505473?hash=item23c34db681:g:Td8AAOSwzyBbkGrz
To you all who want to seasoning your wok, just seasoning it until its color change to blue grey, and use your wok to cook on high temp so the wok will seasoned by it self, if you always use the same wok then the wok will geeting darker and darker by itself
Bench made blade? Nice video
It's actually a $5 blade from AliExpress haha! Benchmades are super nice though
Hi Matt, i just seasoned a wok...everytime after using and washing with warm water, i tried to put a coating of oil and use a tissue to wipe evenly around the pot...but the tissue seem to be wiping off some brown substance...what is that?
Hi Lynn, that's normal! The more you cook with a wok, the oil heats up to a temp where it turns brown and forms a patina like you saw in the video. The brown stuff coming off is the top layer of oil 🙂
1. Should we do seasoning everytime before cook?
2. Can we wash it with soap after cooking? Or only wash with water?
1. This was just the initial seasoning for a brand new wok. Everytime you cook actually adds to the seasoning as the oils and fat from the food infuse layer after layer into the wok. So no just season like in the video 1 or 2 times for a new wok.
2) You can use a little bit of soap every so often. But it's better to just use hot water and a harsh scrub. Soap chemicals can become part of the seasoning if you clean with it a lot.
Dude its Time for a new tarp !
I do this in the oven now. My first time on a stove top I ended up with an uneven coating of lines and smears.
the key is a very thin coat of oil! Otherwise, you end up with sticky and uneven seasoning
This is BRILLIANT instruction Matthew. The best and informative one that I have seen. Now tell me; where did you get the JET flamed wok cooker. I have been trying to find one all over without any luck. Love the set up mate.
Thank you! I got it off eBay of all places haha: www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-iDEAL-18-Commercial-Wok-Range-Restaurant-Stir-Fry-Chinese-Food-USA-Made-/153600505473?pageci=0a84cf3d-f7f7-4f8d-a5aa-8359f070a4a8
Let me know if you have any questions about it 🙂
@MattKwong Where did you purchase your wok?
hi... where can i get that burner/stove from?
Us a carbon steel wok expensive ?? How much does one costs ?
Where did you buy jet engine burner. I want one
where did you get the burner and the stand?
Hello i am french.
For you what is the n'est wok carbon please?
Great video Matt! Where did you get your Wok? The one i bought is a 14” and I can’t seem to heat it up enough for it to change colors.
Tyty! Mine is a 14" WinCo wok from a local restaurant supply store. Are you working with a gas or electric stove? Another alternative is oiling it and putting it in the oven for 20 min at 400F. This video explains it pretty well: th-cam.com/video/hNPe5-swL-k/w-d-xo.html
I have an old wok which I use. And abuse it by washing with soap. I'm thinking of re-seasoning it. Will it work? I'm not sure if it's steel or cast iron. I inherited it.
If it's quality steel or cast iron, you can definitely re-season it. Just really scrub it initially to get back to the bare metal (:
OK thank you!
Where to buy this wok
What’s the size of your wok?
Where did you order your wok?
Do I have to wait until NASA has a garage sale to buy one of those burner's or will my gas stove with a 15,000 BTU burner do the job. Great video.
0:17 what knife is that?!
So it's ok to use steel wool to prepare it for seasoning?
Yes to get off the manufacturer coating so it doesn't rust in the warehouse
If you have a jet engine stove, why buy/use a flat-bottomed wok (unless it's your "inside" wok)??
It's an inside wok 👍
Have you seasoned your ladle too?
It's an iron ladle so it was naturally black (:
something ? why you did not use dry cloth after using water. Whater spot formed . you not seen?
That's actually oil! After I dried the water, I had to step away and do something else. I edited out the part where I put that oil in the wok. Sorry for the confusion!
what to do when wok got rusty? thanks, Matt.
Scrub the shit out of it with a steel scouring pad to clean the rust off, then season it per the video.
Yes exactly what hunter said. First, you'll need to remove the rust by scrubbing with a stainless steel scrub or steel wool, soap and warm water. If the rust isn't coming off, try soaking the wok in distilled vinegar for a few hours to loosen those stubborn rust spots. Once you remove all the rust, season it just like in the video. And everytime you're done cooking and cleaning the wok, dry the wok on the stove and then oil it. Hope this helps!
Matt where did you get that burner
Of all places, we got it off Ebay haha:
www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-iDEAL-18-Commercial-Wok-Range-Restaurant-Stir-Fry-Chinese-Food-USA-Made-/153600505473?pageci=1aa07c2f-fb8c-4c62-acf5-906b56048745
3:15 You just (season) bake back in what you washed off by not rinsing properly. - notice the marks on the bottom that never went away.
Won’t washing at the end there ruin the work just put into it ?
not if you don't use soap
Matt, may I ask, is that from Webstaurant.com? I'm wanting to order that same pan...
Hi Craig, it's actually the pow wok from The Wok Shop based in SF. www.wokshop.com/newstore/product/carbon-steel-pow-wok-hollow-metal-handle/
If I'm going to be 100% honest, the metal is a little more thin than I'd like. It get's the job done but it might not be worth it long term. I've heard the Joyce Chen wok on Amazon is quite good though 🙂
where can I get a jet engine to heat wok up?
I got mine off eBay: www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-iDEAL-18-Commercial-Wok-Range-Restaurant-Stir-Fry-Chinese-Food-USA-Made-/153600505473?pageci=0a84cf3d-f7f7-4f8d-a5aa-8359f070a4a8
look job
Does the handle get hot?
This specific wok does which I don't like. But higher quality works shouldn't (:
Why do we do the seasoning of the wok?Is it necessary?
for non stick coating. chinese food requires stirring food frequently and the food shouldn't stick to the surface of the wok.
this basically burns every single burnable particle that was left after the wok was made. it makes a very smooth coating on it and increases the life of your wok.
do it only on silver woks that hard enough and not prone to wrap.
@@nikhilchopra7972 thankyou brother🙏😊 I thought it is done for removing some harmful chemicals or substance that are used in making carbon steel wok😂
how thick the ideal wok for the begginer?
Hi Jocelyn, they don't really sell wok's by thickness but a wok should be firm. If you try to bend/flex it, it should have no bend. If you're talking about the diameter, a 14 inch diameter will feed 4 to 8 people. Let me know if that answers your question (:
Actually I have been shopping around and doing thorough research on available woks. They do have varying thicknesses. It is measured in mm or gauge. The most common I’ve seen is 12g, with 14g also being common.
I wouldn’t use soap and an abrasive scrubber after you’ve burnt the wok at high heat. You’ll scrub off some of the coating you’ve worked so hard to put on. Just give it a good wipe down and then cook up your first batch of veggies and stuff to oil the surface.
If you ever decide to sell a wok completely seasoned, I am interested in buying one from you!
That'd be awesome to one day have my own product line! But it'd probably be unnecessarily expensive if I sent you one now bc the shipping. If you're currently looking, I can link you some good online options 🙂
@@takeoutmadeeasy you are so sweet Matt to even consider shipping one to me. Yes I would be interested in the sites you recommend to buy a good wok. Thank you so much!
@@lynz45
So for a 14 inch wok, which is what I use to feed 4 to 8 people, I recommend: www.amazon.com/Joyce-Chen-22-0060-Uncoated-14-inch/dp/B0001VQIP4#customerReviews
For a 12 inch wok, it'll probably feed up to 5 people max: www.wokshop.com/newstore/product/carbon-steel-wok-with-metal-side-handle/#reviews
www.wokshop.com/newstore/product/carbon-steel-wok-with-wood-side-handle-made-usa/
@@lynz45 These are some other great videos to learn how to season a wok. You could also try bringing it to your local chinese restaurant and asking them to do it. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Stove: th-cam.com/video/aZjkTPWBOf8/w-d-xo.html
Oven: th-cam.com/video/hNPe5-swL-k/w-d-xo.html
Grill: th-cam.com/video/v0Fy3lIRifQ/w-d-xo.html
Which wok burner are you using?
It's an iDeal wok burner from eBay (:
@@takeoutmadeeasy Thanks
What is the purpose of adding the water to it?
To help clean it and cool it down. You don't want to add soap directly onto a hot wok or the soap molecules would get stuck in the wok pores. I could be totally wrong though haha 😂
@@takeoutmadeeasy that makes sense, thanks!
Won’t cold water warp the pan
If it's a quality wok it won't! But if you buy a really cheap thin one it most likely will.
Could you tell me the size of this wok?
It's a 14 inch!
Thanks 😃
Canola and flax seed is a low smoke point oil, but are excellent for seasoning because of this low smoke point. We want to oil to burn for a lack of a more technical term and bond with the metal. A high smoke point oil would do the same just at a much higher temp. With your awesome burner i'm sure heat is not issue but for most home seasoning low smoke point just makes things much easier. FOr cooking we do not want to use high heat on a low smoke point oil as we create gross flavors and carcinogens.
Excellent video other than that minor point!
why can't this be done from the factory?
If it's not oiled once in a while, it'll rust in the factory storage or the home cook's cabinet due to humidity. I think a lot of restaurant chefs prefer to do it themselves too 🙂 they're the main costumers of the factories and not us home cooks
Haha - close, man - you almost dumped those veggies and bacon and SUPER HOT grease into the plastic plate! That would've been amazing to see!
Surprisingly they can take quite the beating haha
Good video but the flame on your burner looks very orange and needs adjustment to get it blue and more efficient!
Thank you! Yeah we have small leak due to faulty manufacturing 😕
Right. The average person can do this. No problem. There are much simpler ways to season your wok.
It's like nails on chalkboard = steel wool and steel
Step one, buy a jet engine stove. Step two, set afterburner to stage four. Step three, season the pan. Unfortunately, I am stuck with an electric range.
Well then, give up now, sell your wok, it'll never work properly. 😂
1st application had too much oil.