On 4/24/2016 11:14 AM, dsi1 wrote:
> On Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 4:37:29 AM UTC-10, d.o.r. wrote:
>> On 4/24/2016 2:29 AM, dsi1 wrote:
>>> On Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 11:41:26 AM UTC-10, W wrote:
>>>> I am trying to find a decent Wok under $80 that would work on either an
>>>> electric stove or an induction top.
>>>>
>>>> The two I find a
>>>>
>>>> * stainless steel (with no anti-stick surface) that is a sandwich on an
>>>> aluminum core
>>>>
>>>> * carbon steel
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone have opionions on which of these would be better? I guess
>>>> carbon steel is going to be similar to cast iron and would require
>>>> seasoning. I also guess carbon steel is not going to heat uniformly on an
>>>> electric stove. How uniformly will carbon steel heat on an induction
>>>> stovetop? I have noticed that cast iron does best inside an oven where
>>>> all surfaces get high heat, so not sure that it is best suited to any heat
>>>> source that comes from below in a small area.
>>>>
>>>> I'm concerned that a stainless Wok is going to stick to food and be
>>>> difficult to clean.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> W
>>>
>>> The idea of a wok approaching 80 bucks makes me ill. The truth is that the good cook doesn't need fancy, expensive, pans or name brand utensils to make tasty food. Mostly they need knowledge and experience. The great cook will also have imagination.
>>>
>>> What the Chinese have achieved is created the world's most versatile pan, that's easy to clean, cheap, and lasts forever. They've done this with a single material that's dirt cheap without any multi-metal layers or space-age coatings. I made some lemongrass chicken last night - this was wokked with the induction cooktop at the highest heat the entire time. It took about 30 seconds to clean the pan using only cold water and a soft plastic scrubber. The pan was dried on the stove with high heat. Could it be easier? I don't think so.
>>>
>>> This thin metal pan will certainly develop more hot spots than a pan with thicker metal construction. It's not a problem for people that know how to use the wok - it's the reason the food being cooked is kept in almost constant motion.
>>>
>>> My recommendation is that you get the carbon steel wok with a flat bottom. Pick one with a handle instead of two rings. If you're not willing to learn to cook at high temperatures, just call the whole thing off. Repeated high temperature cooking is how the wok develops it's wonderful, magical, surface. Don't let anybody but yourself wash the pan.
>>>
>>> OTOH, fancy cast woks and multi-layer stainless steel and non-stick coating would probably be OK for regular American style cooking at lower temperatures. If that's your style, you can just forget about trying to develop the classic wok cooking surface.
>>>
>>
>> The flat bottom tip is the best advice of all.
>>
>> I do not care for a 14 lb. cast iron wok, and I saw where the light
>> gauge cast iron ones develop cracks easily.
>>
>> I wasn't happy with my round bottom carbon steel wok and ring.
>> Especially on a smoothtop cooktop at the time.
>>
>> The TFAL will take high heat with no complaints, and cleanup is zilch.
>>
>> Can you speak to whether you lift your wok off the induction when
>> cooking (to flip) , or just keep it hard to the surface?
>
> The wok cannot be moved around on my induction range due to the glass surface and, at the high temperature settings, my range doesn't like to lose contact with pan. If I lift it over an inch or so, the error symbol comes up and sometimes the thermal fuse on the coil gets tripped. This renders the coil inoperative for a while. Not a good thing! I may be able to get it working by starting at a very low setting and gradually moving up to a high temperature.

Thank you, that jibes with what I would have expected.

> These days I'm careful about lifting the pan at high heat settings. I'll turn off the range when I need to lift any pan off. That's kind of crappy but I've learned to live with it and everything is beautiful again.

Lopl, good deal.