Why do woks need to be seasoned

Rinse very well. Put the wok over a low flame and heat it until all the water is evaporated. What is the best material for a wok? How do you season a used wok? I prefer peanut oil, but any oil can be used — sesame, chili, or canola. Coat the wok surface evenly with oil by tilting and turning it. Can I use coconut oil to season a wok? Steps for seasoning a cast iron skillet or any cast iron cookware : Start by rubbing a thin coat of coconut oil or lard all over the entire surface of the pan.

Rub off any excess with a cotton cloth or paper towel. How do you restore a rusty wok? In order to get your rusty wok back to new, all you will need are a few pads of fine steel wool and liquid detergent: Rinse the wok, and scrub the rusty area with the steel wool pad and soap until the rust finally comes off.

What should a seasoned wok look like? The wok is seasoned and ready for cooking. Do not be alarmed if the wok looks mottled or has blackened areas.

The patina will gradually darken the more you cook with the wok, giving you a natural nonstick surface. A newly seasoned wok left, below looks mottled and some think they've ruined the pan but they haven't. Do you have to season a wok every time you use it? Most carbon steel woks do require a seasoning process before the first use and continued care and maintenance to build that perfect nonstick patina.

Cooking with your carbon steel wok regularly means that the steel will be exposed to lots of oil at high temperatures and over time, it will season naturally. How do you season a wok for the first time? Use a blowtorch for faster results!

So remember, the secret to seasoning a wok is to scrub, burn, oil , and smoke. Happy wokking, folks. Begin your journey to wok stardom with a custom-made School of Wok wok!

Just click here to check out your options online, or pop by our Covent Garden cookery school to take a look in person! Posted on Sun 14th November So… how do you season a wok? Scrub Most shop-bought woks are layered with an anti-rust film to protect them while sitting on the shelf - so the first step is to scrub this off.

Burn Burn, baby, burn! Here's how it's done. Getting it right with a wok means getting a good start right out of the gate, and that means picking the right one. There are a lot of choices out there, and fortunately, chef Adam Liaw has some valuable tips to steer new users in the right direction via SBS. First, size. Bigger isn't always better, and Liaw says the bigger woks out there are generally made for commercial stoves.

If you're cooking in your home kitchen, he recommends sticking to one that's 35 centimeters in diameter. Anything larger, and the heat won't be properly distributed. Then, let's talk materials. He recommends getting carbon steel, because it's durable, easy to clean, won't bend like aluminium or crack like iron , and it will hold its seasoning more on that in a minute. And even though you might instinctively reach for a non-stick wok, you shouldn't. They're going to be too heavy to maneuver easily, and they're not really designed to be used over the high heat you want when cooking with a wok.

Then, remember you're going to be holding that wok off the stove, so get one with a handle or handles that is comfortable for you, preferably one that has wooden and heat-proof grips. You might think of seasoning a pan as something you do with cast iron, but you need to do it with your wok, too. Adam Liaw says via SBS that part of the reason for seasoning is that nothing will stick to a properly seasoned wok, and that's just going to make life that much easier.

It's also going to make it easier to keep clean, and The Woks of Life says that getting your wok properly seasoned isn't as difficult as you might think. Start by giving your new wok a quick wash, then dry and cover any handles you won't be using with aluminium foil. Then, put the wok on your stove and turn the heat on high.

The wok will start to change color as you hold it over the heat, and it'll probably start to smoke. That's all right — that's residual oils left from the manufacturing process. Heat all areas of the wok completely, turning and tilting it as you go, then set it aside to cool. Give it another wash, then put it back over a medium heat to dry.

Once it's completely dry, add a dash of vegetable oil and lower the heat. Spread it around, and push a paper towel around with a spatula to cover the whole wok as it heats. Once the oil disappears and your wok starts to change color , you can let it cool, wash it, and repeat the process the next time you cook with it. That's it! Most of the time, a super-high temperature means you're going to burn the outside of whatever's in your pan before it's cooked all the way through, and it's this belief that brings us to another common mistake that happens when you switch to a wok: you probably don't have the temperature high enough.

According to Andrew Zimmern , one of the keys to getting those stir-fried vegetables just the right texture is to have the heat very, very high — so high that when you throw your ingredients in, they're going to hard sear. And that's key, too: your wok should already be hot before you put any of your meat and vegetables in, so there's no slow rise in temperature.

Start each dish by putting the wok — and the wok alone — over the heat, and you'll know you're ready to start cooking only when it starts to smoke. Chef Ken Hom has also specified via The Telegraph how important it is to start with a very, very hot wok and to continue with that high heat.

His pro tip? If you're taking your wok off the heat, you're doing it wrong. If you do decide you need to bring the temperature down, use just a dash of water, broth, or rice wine — don't lower the heat. Cooking with a wok is all about speed, and if you're the type that likes to set the pan on the stove and add ingredients as you cook, you're not doing your wok justice.

One of Andrew Zimmern 's key tips is to prep everything in advance, and have it ready. And that means prepping everything correctly , too. You'll need to pay close attention to how you're cutting your meat and vegetables. Look at it this way. You're going to want to sear your ingredients fast, so that means you're going to want the most surface area you can get. Cut veggies very, very thin, and cut them on the diagonal to maximize the area that's directly exposed to the heat.

Chatelaine recommends cutting your meats against the grain, which will help keep them tender. Finally, one more bit of prep advice from Grace Young via Epicurious : Bring your meat to room temperature before throwing it in, as that will help you cook it more evenly.

Choosing the right oil can be tough — there are so many out there, after all, keeping their strengths and weaknesses in mind can be a challenge. But according to Andrew Zimmern , picking the wrong oil for using in your wok isn't just going to make it taste a little off, it'll ruin your whole dish. That's because different oils start to burn at different temperatures, something MasterClass calls the smoke point. Because you're working with extremely high temperatures, you'll need to choose an oil that has a high smoke point so it holds up against the heat and doesn't break down and burn quickly.

Zimmern suggests oils like grapeseed and peanut for using with a wok, partially because of their high smoke point and partially because they're low in polyunsaturated fat.