How to Buy, Season, and Care for a Wok

A good wok is one of the most versatile pans in the kitchen. Beyond being the best choice formaking a stir-fry, it's also the ideal vessel fordeep-frying, steaming, andindoor smoking. It is the most commonly used pan in my kitchen.

But, as with most things, not all woks are created equal. They come in a dizzying array of sizes, shapes, metals, and handle arrangements. Here's what you need to know.

Wok Materials

• Stainless steel woks are a waste of money. Not only are they extremely heavy and difficult to maneuver, they also take a long time to heat up and cool down—a fatal flaw for something that requires rapid, on-the-fly heat adjustments, like a stir-fry. Food, particularly protein, has a tendency to stick to steel.
• Cast iron is a better choice, though it still takes a relatively long time to heat up and cool down. It offers a better nonstick surface. The main problem with cast iron is that when it's too thin, it is extremely fragile—I've seen cast iron woks crack in half when set down too hard. But when made thick enough to be durable, they are extremely cumbersome to lift, which is essential for proper flipping during a stir-fry.
• Carbon steel is your best bet. It heats quickly and evenly; it's highly responsive to burner input; it's durable and inexpensive; and, when properly cared for, it will end up with a practically nonstick surface. (Read more aboutwhy carbon steel is a great cookware material.) Look for carbon steel woks that are at least 14-gauge—about two millimeters thick—which won't bend when you press on the sides.
• Avoid nonstick woks at all costs. Most nonstick coatings cannot handle the high heat necessary for a proper stir-fry. They start vaporizing, releasing noxious fumes long before they reach the requisite temperature. They make browning difficult, and it's impossible to get food to stick in place against the wok when you want to clear a surface to cook in the middle.

How Woks Are Made

Woks are made in three ways. Traditional hand-hammered woks (like the ones they used to sell in those '80s infomercials) are an excellent choice. The slight indentations left by the hammering pattern allow you to push cooked food to the sides of the pan, while adding ingredients to the center without them slipping. The only problem is that it can be difficult (dare I say impossible?) to find a hand-hammered wok with a flat bottom and a handle (more on those elements later).

Stamped woks are made by cutting out a circular piece of thin carbon steel and machine-pressing it into a mold. They are extremely cheap but completely smooth, which makes it difficult to stir-fry in them properly. They are, without fail, made from low-gauge steel and prone to developing hot and cold spots as well as feeling flimsy.

Spun woks are produced on a lathe, giving them a distinct pattern of concentric circles. This pattern offers the same advantages as a hand-hammered wok, allowing you to easily keep your food in place against the side of the pan. Spun woks can be found in heavy gauges, with flat bottoms and with flip-friendly handles. Fortunately, both spun woks and hand-hammered woks are inexpensive.

Wok Shapes and Handles

传统的锅子有深碗形状设计to fit into a circular opening directly over the hearth. Unless you have a custom wok insert in your range (if you do, you probably aren't reading this article anyway), you want to avoid round-bottomed woks. They won't work, period, on an electric range, and are tough to use on a gas range—even with one of those wok rings. On the other hand, woks with bottoms that aretoo平击败purpose of a wok, making it tough to flip properly and to move food in and out of the high-heat zone.

Your best bet is a wok with a four- to five-inch flattened area at the bottom, with gently sloping sides that flare out to between 12 and 14 inches. This will give you plenty of high-heat space for searing meats and vegetables at the bottom, while still providing ample volume and room to maneuver when flipping.

至于处理,你有两个选择。Cantonese-style woks have a small handle on either side, while Northern-style woks have a single long handle, and usually a smaller helper handle on the opposite side. The latter is the type of wok you want. The large handle facilitates flipping and stir-frying, while the short helper handle makes it easy to lift.

How to Season and Clean a Wok

Just like with a good cast iron pan, a carbon steel wok's performance will improve the more you use it. Most come with a protective film of oil to prevent them from rusting or tarnishing in the store, but it's important to remove this layer before using it the first time. Scrub the wok out with hot, soapy water and dry it carefully; then place it over a burner on the highest heat possible until it starts to smoke. Carefully rotate the pan, so that every area of it is exposed to this super-high heat. Rub it down with oil using a paper towel held in a pair of tongs, and you're ready to go.

After use, avoid scrubbing the wok unless absolutely necessary. Usually, a rinse and a rubdown with a soft sponge are all that's needed. Purists may tell you not to use soap; I do, and my wok is still well seasoned and completely nonstick. Once it's rinsed, dry the wok with a kitchen towel or paper towels, and rub some vegetable oil into the surface to give it a vapor-proof coating that will prevent it from rusting.

With repetitive use, the oil you heat in your wok breaks down into polymers that fill the microscopic pores in the metal's surface, rendering the material completely nonstick. As you break in your wok, the material will gradually change from silver to brownish and finally to a deep black. This is what you are looking for.

Our Favorite Wok

After extensive testing,we actually have two favorite woks: Our overall top pick is theWok Shop Carbon Steel Pow Wok, while our pre-seasoned pick is theYosukata Black Carbon Steel Wok.

For the price, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better, easier to handle, or more heat responsive wok than this flat-bottomed, 14-inch model from Wok Shop. It is worth noting that Wok Shop is a small business and ships in batches, so—depending on when an order's placed—you might be waiting a while to get your wok (we do think it's worth it).

For those interested in a pre-seasoned wok that transfers heat quickly, is reasonably priced, has a helper handle, and is available on Amazon, we like the Yosukata wok. It comes covered in a protective film that needs to be scrubbed off prior to cooking, but is, for the most part, a solid pick. (Note: We used to recommendthis Joyce Chen wok, but it has continuous stock issues.)