Non-stick wok?

[pattyk]

I want to buy a new wok and I'm not a huge fan of non-stick cookware. However, all the good ones I've seen so far tend to be non-stick! The thing that puts me off the ones that aren't non stick is having to season them, and take a whole lot of extra care with them. Is this worth it?

Anyone with some good insight into the pros and cons of certain woks? All help appreciated!

 

[DancingLady]

Non-stick is not worth the health risks to me. The. Ha few that you won't scratch it in a few uses aren't very good. I know people say that if you use plastic or wood spoons you won't scratch them, but I have not found that to be successful. Once you get a scratch, the chemicals are getting into your food and that's really bad.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I want to buy a new wok and I'm not a huge fan of non-stick cookware. However, all the good ones I've seen so far tend to be non-stick! The thing that puts me off the ones that aren't non stick is having to season them, and take a whole lot of extra care with them. Is this worth it?

Anyone with some good insight into the pros and cons of certain woks? All help appreciated!

Here's mine. It's nonstick.
It is far lighter than the cast iron wok that I have. That one is fine, but it is also too heavy! I can't lift it to shake & toss the food as it cooks!!

 

[Berties]

If you dry cure at wok and don't wash it .it should not stick,

 

[GadgetGuy]

When it becomes screaming hot & coated with oil, the intense heat makes the food almost float in the wok - creating sort of an air cushion, and the food more than likely has far less of a chance of sticking to the wok. You put the oil in just before adding any food. This helps to minimize or eliminate smoking. As opposed to starting off with the wok not hot enough.

The food would stick to the surface and may burn. The wok's main purpose is for extremely fast cooking, which necessitates the veggies and meat being prepped way ahead of time, so that you can throw each thing into the wok at a moment's notice, and still have crispy veggies and well done, but not overcooked meats.

 

[OhioTom76]

I know you mentioned you weren't too keen on going with non-stick cookware, but I would personally suggest considering a non-stick stir-fry skillet with a lid instead. Something like what is pictured below. Unless you have a stove specifically designed to hold a more traditional wok, they don't work very well on traditional stoves. There is also a metal ring you can purchase to place over your burner to help with this somewhat, since the bottom of a traditional wok is often too rounded, that the pan itself wobbles a lot and the bottom doesn't quite get as hot as it should. The flames on a gas stove aren't really coming in much direct contact with the wok, and on an electric stove it's even worse.

Something else to consider is if a traditional wok is wobbling around on your stove, and you've got a couple inches of hot oil in there to fry something, that could be a real disaster. Plus the regular woks are generally so huge, but you really only can use a small portion of the cooking space, all that excess space that makes up the rest of the diameter of the wok is mainly useless, and only takes up even more space in your cupboards or cabinets or wherever you try to store it.

The stir fry skillets on the other hand solve a lot of these problems. They have a larger flatter base at the bottom so the pan heats up much more on a regular stove top, and is more stable. The pan as a whole isn't much bigger in diameter than a regular large frying pan, but it still has the nice deep curved walls for flipping your food around when stir frying. There's still plenty of space in these to make a large meal for several people, without the pan taking up too much space overall. Plus there are likely stainless steel versions of these, if you are really against the non-stick variety.

 

[ChanellG]

Those non-stick pans that are shaped like a wok are just that, coated pans that are SHAPED like a wok. I doubt they could withstand the kind of heavy use and heat a real wok is subjected to on a daily basis. As already mention, most non-stick cookware is not worth the health risk and scratches too easily. I think a better idea would be an electric wok.