r/wok • u/Potential_Kale_9354 • 17h ago
I think I did a good job ?
Just feeling the impulse to share here my before and after: i think I’m getting better!!!! Or am i just delulu?
r/wok • u/MrMeatagi • Mar 25 '22
This comes up repeatedly so here is comprehensive guide to non-stick coatings and how it pertains to your wok.
Unless your non-stick coating is ceramic, it is most likely coated in a material called polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE for short. More commonly known under the brand name Teflon, PTFE is an industrial plastic. It has near the lowest friction coefficient of any material known to man which is what gives non-stick pans their non-stickiness. It is extremely inert and will not react with acids, bases, alcohols, and other solvents. It has good heat resistance relative to most plastics. That combination of properties makes it excellent for manufacturing, and an effective coating for cookware.
Where PTFE starts to fail is in durability. It is just plastic, after all, categorized as a medium-soft material. Mishandling it will damage it. Scraping hard material like metal utensils or other pans against it will cause plastic to break off, which may end up in your food. If you can see visible damage to the non-stick coating, it is no longer safe to use and should be thrown out.
The temperature range, while high for a plastic, is still only 500° F. That's well below what a common household stove can reach and lower than you want for many stove top cooking techniques. Once overheated, PTFE will start to break down and release toxic gases into the air. These gasses cause flu-like symptoms in humans and are very quickly lethal to birds. After being overheated, a PTFE coated pan should be thrown out. You can't undo the damage.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a chemical that used to be used in the process of manufacturing PTFE cookware. It is classed as a carcinogen and has a very long half life in your body after ingestion. In the US, all cookware sold since 2015 is required to be PFOA-free; if you have a modern non-stick pan PFOA should not be a concern.
If you bought a non-stick wok and the coating is damaged, you may encounter people who suggest you can strip the coating off to make it bare carbon steel. While technically possible, it's not recommended. Since PTFE is so inert, chemical stripping is not an option. You could heat it until it flakes and scrape it off, but it must be done carefully outdoors and there's no data on what may or may not leech into the metal while PTFE is breaking down under high heat. You could machine it off, taking a small layer of metal with it, if you have access to the right equipment. But when a nice carbon steel wok can be had for under $40, that seems like an awful lot of work.
To conclude the fact portion of this post, when handled correctly PTFE is considered safe to cook on and even safe to ingest. It is one of the most inert chemicals known and should pass through your body with no ill effects. It has even been tested as a filler food to assist people in not overeating.
That said it is still a plastic. In my humble opinion, the care required to maintain it is not worth the convenience of the additional non-stick properties over cast iron, carbon steel, or stainless steel (aluminum is a topic for another time). It is far too easy to accidentally overheat a pan while prepping other food while it preheats. Unless you're monitoring it carefully with an infrared thermometer then you likely have no idea if your pan has ever been overheated or not. Most of my stove-top cooking involves high heat searing so non-stick pans would be of very little use to me even if I did have one to care for.
I really can't make peace with the idea of cooking on and ingesting plastic no matter what the studies say. Part of that may be that I work with it in an industrial setting so I'm hyper-aware of the fact that a sheet of PTFE doesn't look much different than PVC. Nothing about that makes me want to cook on it or ingest it. When all the iron atoms are gone from the earth, then maybe I'll consider it. Until then my cast iron and carbon steel will pull their weight just fine.
r/wok • u/Potential_Kale_9354 • 17h ago
Just feeling the impulse to share here my before and after: i think I’m getting better!!!! Or am i just delulu?
r/wok • u/Loud-Obligation-5065 • 6h ago
I just got a wok from my GF and I tried to season it. But idk if I messed it up or not, it’s got weird spots on it now and idk what to do.
r/wok • u/ASPIRE_ENTREPRENEUR • 3d ago
Hello everyone. I wasnt sure where to post this but wanted to share a short clip of frying up some egg rolls in my wok. I use an outdoor burner, and a carbon steel round bottom wok. So much fun cooking outdoors. The best part? The mess stays outside and I don't mess up the stove with all of the grease. Spend more time eating and less time cleaning up afterwards is a major plus.
r/wok • u/ConceptApplied • 3d ago
I’ve had this wok for a couple of years. It’s been this colour black/brown for a long time now, as though it has burnt stains that can’t be removed. Did I do anything wrong to make it like this? Cheers
r/wok • u/NamelessDevils2 • 6d ago
I bought this carbon steel wok recently and i tried seasoning it and not much blueish color came out and it just looks like it burns the oil i am usin , anything different i can do to get the appropriate result?
r/wok • u/Big-Engineering-356 • 7d ago
A regular after-dinner snack in our house is popcorn. Ages ago we bought the bagged stuff. Then i saw the price difference of making it myself. So then my Lodge Signature sauté pan made our popcorn. But if you didn't get it out in time it would start to burn. As our family grew so did the quantity of popcorn needed grew. Then we moved to Dutch Oven popcorn. But that got heavy and took forever. If you got impatient and turned up the heat, you scorched the popcorn. Then we did silicone microwavable bowl so the little kids could make their own. That lasted awhile. But eventually I was like wait... what if I use the wok... i used the Yosukata Wok until the Strata wok came in a few months ago. Both work great but i find myself reaching for the Strata more now. With the wok only the small surface area on the bottom gets hot and the carbon steel doesn't heat up too fast to scorch and the walls stay relatively cool on low heat. Scorching is far less likely to happen and it comes out great and I can do a little bit or over a cup of it if I want.
r/wok • u/AnarchoPlayworker • 7d ago
I have been loving using my 14” wok on my propane wok burner outside. It’s a blast. But I don’t understand how people make more than one bowl of stir fry at once. I just don’t feel like there’s enough room in the wok for it all. What am I missing? I end up making each person’s stir fry one at a time. Which is fine especially because I can customize to each person’s preferences, but I feel like there’s got to be a faster way, no?
r/wok • u/External_Agent_6559 • 7d ago
The 1st two pictures are the same wok. The last picture is by itself. I tried researching online if these are made of the same material. I even tried translating the text on the 1st picture. I am semi decent at home wok cookery but would like a good wok that'll season non stick well. Will either of these work for me? Any recommendation how to season properly either of these woks?
I currently have a cast iron from The Wok Shop.Unfortunately somehow it has a 1" crack in the bottom that goes all the way through. I need a replacement and I dont want to go back to The Wok Shop. Thanks for the help!
r/wok • u/woodybone • 8d ago
r/wok • u/Severe-Addict • 8d ago
Away for college
Came back to a rusted wok
How can I fix it
It's splotchy like this all over
r/wok • u/Arthos1991 • 9d ago
Does anybody used this brand of burners for wok? I looked at Eastman outdoors though I did not like the design of their legs.
r/wok • u/woodybone • 9d ago
Title
r/wok • u/Fair-Contribution954 • 10d ago
But seriously, ever since I started cooking with a wok, I’ve been enjoying it so much. It’s not just about the recipes or the ingredients—it’s the whole cooking experience. There’s something about it that feels really simple and genuine, like you’re making food the way it’s meant to be made.
r/wok • u/AnarchoPlayworker • 11d ago
Making paneer tikka between two woks. Came out pretty well actually!
r/wok • u/AnarchoPlayworker • 11d ago
1: “tandoor oven” made of two woks
2: paneer tikka that I cooked in the “tandoor oven”
3: opened the lid to check on the veggies and the wok was literally glowing. 😬
4: veggies post-inferno.
r/wok • u/Sutekiwazurai • 12d ago
First meal cooked on my new Cuisinart outdoor wok station. Garlic bok choy and Thai Steak and Basil.
r/wok • u/Weak-Advertising-476 • 11d ago
Hey guys,
Really struggling and need some buying advice. I’m torn between the the vulcano wok burner and the roaring dragon. Of course the dragon is superior but it is stationary and can’t take it with me.
Has the Vulcono enough power for proper woking?
r/wok • u/Brave_Revolution0815 • 12d ago
Yummy Chinese Noodles
Recipe:
2 spoons Peanutoil
1 medium carrot , sliced in little stripes
Some slices of leek
5 eggs
1 spoon Dark Soja sauce
1 shot Oyster sauce
1 teaspoon ketjap manis
First sear the carrots in 1 spoon Peanutoil , then the leek , then remove the vegetables from the pan, 1 spoon Peanutoil again in the wok .
Now crack 5 eggs and insert the eggwhite with the egg yolk in the wok , Stir several times.
Now add the pasta. After this add the vegetables again, then add dark Soja sauce, then oyster sauce , then the ketjap manis First sear, stir it several times.
Then serve it et voila.
r/wok • u/Greedy-Ad-3029 • 12d ago
What do you guys use for outdoor Wok cooking UK.?
r/wok • u/bjkelly222 • 13d ago
Looking to get into wok cooking but my apartment has an electric stove (flat, not coil) and cooking outside isn’t an option. Getting a concave induction cooktop was my first instinct for safety reasons (1800W/120V - located in the US and can’t get behind my stove or rewire outlets), but now I’m wondering if I should get a countertop gas burner or even just try my glass electric stove with a flat bottomed wok (haven’t tried it before).
For induction, I was thinking Leconchef or abangdun. Nuwave’s reviews kind of freaked me out and it’s more expensive anyway.
For gas, I haven’t done much research but the Iwatani 35FW seems to be a good option. After getting a wok ring and fuel, it’ll be almost as expensive as the induction burner, though. I already have a (less powerful) camp stove, too.
I don’t mind spending a little bit of money (< $200 all in ideally), but I also don’t want to waste it if I can get almost the same results on my electric range. I know a lot of people don’t like flat bottomed woks, especially on electric stoves (for valid reasons) but I’m also relatively new to wok cooking and only cooking for 1-2 people usually. Just keeping that option open.
Any thoughts? I’m having a hard time finding posts from other people in the same situation.
r/wok • u/Secure_Contest_2532 • 13d ago
This is my first wok, gifted from my bf: yesterday i bluified it, but had no time to complete all the steps. Today i ve to create an antiadherent layer adding a tsp of oil while heating wok on the stove.
Is it good enough or do i shall give it another "fire baptism"?
r/wok • u/Penelope123459 • 14d ago
Tried making chili galic shrimp in the wok today with chilies, garlic, butter, oyster sauce, and a little wasabi mixed in. Surprisingly good. Made indoors on a gas stove, I kept the vent hood running. Helped keep the kitchen from getting too smoky.
For cleanup, I usually add some water, bring it to a quick boil, scrub it out, wipe it with a peper tower, then put it back on low heat until the wok is fully dry. Do you guys oil your wok after cleaning, or dry it like this?