FYI, I'm really happy to make this post!
[ram27bat]
Thicker the wall the better.
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/woktype.html
I'm white, so I've owned/used flat bottom woks, teflon coated woks, even an electric (it was a good deep fryer though), used wooden spoons, tongs and other improper tools. Through trial and error, I ultimately ended up where she starts you off in the first paragraph or so: round bottom, un-coated, and with a metal wok spatula and a burner ring. And, surprise, it works properly, unlike any of the others.
Season it and NEVER scrub it with abrasives,,,,
High heat and minimal oil is the way...
wheel,.
go to your local Asian grocery and get one there, you can buy a medium size one for $25,,( hollow handle)
wheelrite wrote:
Yep, and use a high quality oil that will hold-up to the heat, like sesame or peanut oil (if allergies allow).
I like mine, it spun/beaten metal and came with a propane burner for outdoor use. Perfect for really sauteing without stinking up the house. Similar to cast iron, it needs seasoning and washing in soap will remove the seasoning. There are nonstick coated woks but they are not going to tolerate the high heat if you use it correctly. Aluminum oxide coating like Calphalon are good, my wife has one and it's good.
Two things about wok cooking: High heat and work fast, repeat, high heat and work fast.
[sarcasm]
cacman wrote:
Sesame oil is typically sold as an unrefined finishing oil used for flavoring and has a rather low smoke point making it unsuitable for high-heat cooking.
Refined peanut oil, rice bran oil and palm kernel oil are all traditional high heat oils. For commonly found non-traditional you can use sunflower, safflower, avocado, extra-light olive or grapeseed. Sometimes extra-light olive is sold blended with extra-virgin, which doesn't benefit from high heat. Grapeseed can be tricky as a lot of them are extracted with hexane, something which is best not ingested. Spectrum Organics has a non-hexane grapeseed, but it's freaking expensive; awesome stuff though, nothing sticks to it, including foods that I've had stick with other high-temp oils just slide right off of it. Avocado is also amazing, but again, kind of spendy.
Or was it oily palms?
I would use coconut oil before I used light olive oil, no votes for lard?
ZRX1200 wrote:
Just curious, any particular reason why? Aside from the obvious "it's better". Sure, refined coconut oil is certainly another high temp option, but it's not that common. Big push with coconut oil these days is the unrefined, which smokes and burns at like 340F which makes it worthless for high heat cooking. Extra virgin olive oil isn't much better. Extra light on the other hand is good for like 460F iirc. Extra light olive is certainly not my first choice for this, really just mentioned it as one more oil option for the OP.
Lard is a pain. You have to render it yourself because the blocks / buckets in the market are hydrogenated crap. It also smokes just below 400F which isn't really high temp. Tallow is much higher temp but man that stuff stinks.
I can't recall any specifics to recommend. I'll have to wait until I get home to refer to my Korean cook book: 101 ways to wok your dog.
tailgater wrote:
HaHa!!!!!
Seems it'd be easier than figuring out what oil you're supposed to use and all that.
Negative on your rec. Guess you did not run the numbers - wok a lot cheaper.
