Evidence index · Cookware
66 quoted claims about woks from 8 named people across 13 long-form sources, covering 5 products, 15 of them raising objections. Every claim links to the second it was said.
8 voices across 13 sources. One publisher, J. Kenji López-Alt, accounts for 47 of the 66 claims.
Cohort pages restrict the same woks evidence to one group at a time. Authority is scoped to woks, never to how large someone’s audience is.
The attributes cooks cite most often about woks, counted from the reasons attached to each claim rather than read out of the prose.
The woks below are ordered by how many independent voices are on record about each one: a count of evidence, not a rating. Products without their own page have not yet cleared the evidence threshold for one.
and I kind of forgot about it until about the beginning of this past November November 2023 when I noticed that my 8 in and the 10-in and the 12-in and even the walk in some places and we barely ever used the walk was actually missing the non-stick Coating in some pretty big large areas and the walk we very seldom…
Cites coating durability (against)
We don't use the walk that often, but when we do, it was nice to have.
All right, I'm very excited about my new pen. More excited, I think, than I've been about anything so far because I mean, I literally wrote a book on walks. Um, and this is sort of a dream pan of mine. Uh, and it's come out better than I could have possibly imagined.
J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “It's a product I've been working on for the past year. I'm sort of refining the shape and the feel and the look of it, working on it with the folks at Art Place.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.
That's why we call it super nitrided, and why um you know, why it's my favorite wok.
J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “It's the wok from our place. Um we designed it according to my specs and it's sort of the wok I've always wanted.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.
it creates this um much harder. It's about about two times harder than than raw carbon steel, um and also much sort of slicker. Also importantly, um much more robust. So it's not um you know, nitrided carbon steel won't rust as easily.
Cites coating durability, durability, rust resistance
J. Kenji López-Alt co-designed this product. Stated in the source: “It's the wok from our place. Um we designed it according to my specs and it's sort of the wok I've always wanted.” Kept and labelled rather than dropped: a paid endorsement is still evidence, and you should be the one to decide what it is worth.
The process we use on this wok involves both high heat uh and high pressure in the nitrogen treatment. Um so it comes out about twice as thick as a standard nitrided steel wok.
Um, not too much of an issue with the super nitrided wok because it's not reactive the way carbon steel is, but definitely if you have if you have a raw carbon steel wok, you're going to not want to skip this step.
number one definitely keeping this wok
walk with the lid definite keeper this is like my most used pan
2 millimeters thick carbon steel well-seasoned it's essentially nonstick at this point
Cites maintenance, non-stick surface
I got this wok for 19 bucks at a target 20 years ago I think the brand was typhoon
Owned 20 years
Um, this is a great um if you're going to do Asian style cuisines because it allows you to kind of heat up and crisp up on the side where the direct heat really sticks to the bottom. Um, but if you have a gas stove, the flames will go up and it just gives you more surface area while allowing the sauces to stick down…
Cites searing and crust, shape and form
So, a walk is definitely if you're into cooking Asian foods and cuisines, it is a great tool to have in your kitchen um because of the its unique way of cooking, allowing the sauces to drip down but giving you a crisp edges on the side.
Well, this wok is a great one. Um Uh this one is a is a Yoshikawa. It's it's a Japanese wok.
The the Yosukata wok here that I have, this one comes pre-seasoned.
Claims about woks that name no single product: technique, materials, what to look for. Still evidence, and often the claims that decide a purchase. There are 48 of them; the 40 with the strongest evidence are below, and every one is in the claim search.
Uh this wok is made of carbon steel. All the woks I recommend uh are made of carbon steel.
walk what do I do should I just Chuck it throw it away but absolutely not these both of these are carbon steel walks and they got a lot of life to them
Cites maintenance, scratch resistance, seasoning durability
that's the regimen you follow that regimen your walk's not going to rust and you're going to build a beautiful patina over time that you'll going to be proud of and get nonstick uh surface nonstick cooking
of course you didn't a few scratches not going to ruin anything
and I know people think that that hey I ruined the seasoning and and there's rust in there and I'd have to start from square one that's actually a fallacy you don't really have to do that
Another thing I really love about my wok is that it gets better with time, and that's not true for a lot of equipment in general, but when you buy a wok, it really doesn't have much of a seasoning on it, and that is polymerized oil stuck to the surface. That gets really nice and black like this. But it also creates…
Unfortunately, just as my walkbook came out, the handle, the rivets on the handle of that walk um fell off. Uh and so the walk became unusable.
Cites handle (against)
Um so I always recommend for home burners a flat bottom wok that's going to rest steadily but also closer to the flame of your burner.
Cites shape and form
Um if you're just starting out in wok cooking and you don't have a lot of budget for it, those woks will do you just fine.
You can absolutely cook on a wok on an induction stove.
The vast majority of dishes, you can cook very easily on an induction burner. Anything that doesn't really require that sort of wok hay flavor, you can do it on an induction burner.
which is, you know, one of the reasons I love using a wok for cooking for groups or doing dinner parties because you can cook one dish after another all in the same pan.
there you go first time first time use eggs just slide right around
Cites maintenance, non-stick surface
so basically a wok as long as it's properly preheated seasoning is a snap
well the vinegar kind of ate through the uh the patina if that's not cared for right away it makes it a lot easier to rust because that patina kind of is like a protective coating that prevents rust
Cites acid resistance (against), coating durability (against)
You obviously can do amazing stir fries in here. It's bowl shape means that you can toss and stir ingredients and they stay contained in there.
Cites shape and form
One of the reasons that I love wok, as I mentioned, is that it's so versatile. So, stir frying obviously makes sense. It's a great steaming vessel when you have bamboo steamers. It's fabulous for deep frying.
It's also great for floating fried foods because there's more space at the top. So, something like donuts works really, really well.
So, this combo here of wok and wok brush with a few wok tools, there's really nothing that I don't cook in my wok. I find it super, super versatile.
just get go to a restaurant supply store, go to a um an Asian supermarket, um and pick up any uh carbon steel walk that's 14 in, has a flat bottom, uh and feels relatively heavy gauge.
Cites shape and form, weight
if you're nervous and you're worried about spending that much money on a single pan um that you might not use, um I would say don't get that pan. Get a cheaper one.
and then when you finally feel like you, um, you know, walk cooking has made a solid improvement to your life and you might want to get something, uh, that makes that even better, then you can upgrade to the other pan, to my new pan.
with a with a with a walk like you do want this sort of concentrated heat zone at the bottom um and progressively cooler zones going up the side. Um they're also sort of designed for for tossing and encouraging evaporation.
Cites flavour impact, shape and form, versatility
that's much easier in a walk because you're able to toss much more effectively in a walk and get the food really moving up into the air.
That's part of the flavor that that you get when you cook in a walk, by the way, is that sort of that that carbonized that polymerizer carbonized oil um uh getting into your food, the glazing and getting into your food.
Uh but once you're there, um you'll be able to cook anything in it.
the the the walk that I used when I was testing every recipe in my book, I bought um when I was 19 years old. I think I paid I don't remember somewhere between 20 and $40 for it and it lasted for 20 years, you know.
Cites durability, scratch resistance
Owned 20 years, no longer
Um, it won't damage the walk.
this one is nitrited, so the metal is very very hard. It's about twice as hard um as raw carbon steel.
Um and this one ends up being hopefully it's going to last the rest of my life.
so when I was working on my book uh the walk um I recommend this walk in the end a 14 inch carbon steel flat bottom walk flat bottom because it fits Western stove tops better
Cites stovetop compatibility
Um if you have an outdoor wok burner uh then by all means use a round bottom wok. That's that's what I have this one still for so that I can use it on my outdoor burner more easily
It's difficult to get on an induction cook top because that flavor comes part of it is directly from the food interacting with the carbon steel, with the metal surface itself and the seasoning on there.
Cites flavour impact (against), induction compatible (against)
The other problem that an induction burner can cause with wok cooking is that often times when you're cooking in a wok, you know, you're going to be doing a lot of sort of this tossing motion. So, often times your wok is actually not going to be in direct contact with the induction burner.
the metal is kind of warping every time you cook in a wok, which means that any layer of sort of hard polymers that you build on it are going to have a really tough tough time sticking on.
Cites acid resistance (against), repairability (against), rust resistance (against), seasoning durability (against), warp resistance (against)
Um so, if you have a wok that has some polymers built up, you've probably noticed that it tends to flake off um a lot more easily than in a cast iron pan.
The other thing is that with a wok, pretty much every time you're cooking in it, you're going to be deglazing it with a liquid, you know, at the end you're going to be putting a sauce in there. Um and that liquid is very often going to be um acidic. So, that's also going to strip the seasoning.
Um so, if you order a raw carbon steel wok, the first thing you want to do uh is scrub it out really nicely because um there's a layer of sort of thick machine oil on there that's there to protect it from moisture because moisture will cause carbon steel to rust.
if you leave your wok uncoated with oil, the moisture in the air is going to interact directly with the carbon steel and it can cause it to rust.
You know, the only extreme cases are if you put it in storage for a couple years and you come back and the rust has attacked the metal so much that there's actual sort of pitting. Sometimes I've even seen carbon steel pans that are almost eaten all the way through as the rust spreads. In those cases, there's not…
and you can get a good carbon steel wok for, you know, 40 to 60 bucks.
Cites price
the wok um you want to build in these heat zones. So you want the bottom to be very, very hot and then sort of progressively cooler around the sides. The other thing is that you want the heat kind of in a jet going up. You want this like real hot steep column of hot air so that when you're tossing food, um the food…
Cites heat control, non-stick surface
the reason a wok is not made with that is because, first of all, we don't want aluminum in a wok because we want there to be uneven heat patterns. We don't want the entire wok to get hot. You kind of end up wasting energy that way because you want the bottom to be very hot. You don't really do much cooking on the…
But yeah, if they're if they're greasy, use less fat, use a better seasoned wok, use higher heat, and emulsify a little better, and you should be good to go.
so this is a carbon steel wok which is what i recommend 14 inches flat bottom
carbon steel walks are definitely more prone to rust as are these uh you know Chinese Cleavers you know they're they're made of like a carbon steel
Cites rust resistance (against)
one other really common thing that happens is if you if you're steaming so if you steam with this walk and you leave the water in without cleaning it if you leave some water in for even an hour or two you'll see a ring that starts to form with uh with rust because the water has some time to work
so this walk after we after we uh scrubbed it it sat literally for just a few minutes and you can see that there's a little bit of surface rust on
You simmer something acidic for too long or you didn't wash up your wok properly and it looks like this. So, this is what happens when your patina gets damaged.
Cites acid resistance (against), seasoning durability (against), warp resistance (against)
This sort of damage is really common.
down and heating up is that obviously, if you keep the wok heating and heating and heating, one, your fire alarms might go off, and two, you do risk the wok popping or warping because you're heating an empty pan.
So, it's not really catching too much there. And now, that's pretty good for a first use wok.
Cites flavour impact, non-stick surface
The seasoning has been really baked in there and it has a wonderful, naturally nonstick capability when I'm stir-frying and cooking.
So, wok hei translates to the breath of the wok and it's what happens when this beautiful seasoning layer lets off its smoke and all its flavor
This is the kind of thing that you could pass down to the next generation of cooks as well.
So, if you have a wok and you love it, great, if you don't, now's your chance to go out and get one.
You also get these different heat zones. So, on the bottom you get really good searing where it has contact with a burner, and as you get higher up, you get less cooking and some steaming going on. So, you can really control how you cook.
Cites speed and efficiency, heat control
What's interesting is you actually need to use less oil with this than you would say a dutch oven because of its shape. So, you need less oil to fill it.
I think we all have a pan that just lives on the top of the stove. We use it so much, it never gets put away. And for me, that is my wok.
Um so you get this uneven uh metal expansion um which is which makes it really difficult for any sort of seasoning seasoning layer to actually stay there. Um it's going to it's going to come out each time you cook.
Cites seasoning durability (against)
Um that said, you you don't need a walk that expensive um to cook great food.
Cites price (against)
So, you know, maybe it's still it's even then it's still amortized over its lifespan. It'll still be a little more than a cheap walk.
So, that's that's uh a dollar or two a year um for for cooking in it.
Cites ease of cleaning, price, seasoning durability
Owned 20 years, no longer
but with a walk like that that's sort of easier to clean, easier like easier to maintain its seasoning, like for me the extra cost was worth it.
You can't get walk flavor out of it,
Cites ease of cleaning (against), flavour impact (against), learning curve (against)
there is more sort of temperature control um and adjustments uh necessary in walk cooking than there are in most styles of um western cooking.
it'll take a little bit more work to get the seasoning, you know, the initial seasoning done, the the black the the blackening um of the surface.
Um it'll just be, you know, slightly more difficult to clean and and uh and you can't do things like let it sit soaking in your sink overnight, etc.
even my new walk uh will work on induction.
Cites induction compatible
but you can get good stir frying out of it.
If you've read my walk book or seen some of my other videos, you'll know that I had a uh a walk that I picked up, I think, from a a Target um when I was like 19 years old. Um and I had that same walk. It was a carbon steel walk, very similar in shape and size to this one, slightly different contours. I don't remember…
Owned 20 years, no longer
if you have a walk range get a round bottom bottom block
Um for home cooking for indoor cooking um I would not necessarily recommend a round bottom wok.
If it's rusted completely all over, you can also do the same thing you could do you can do with a cast iron pan, which is treated like in an electrolysis bath, but that's sort of like a big process and woks are honestly generally inexpensive enough, at least the kind that are going to rust are generally inexpensive…
Cites price, repairability (against)
I used one for like 20 years before I upgraded to this one.
Cites durability, maintenance, rust resistance
Owned 20 years, no longer
So, if your wok has little spots of rust on it, it's no problem. You can just wash them out. I mean, honestly, the best way to maintain a wok is to just cook in it regularly. You know, the cooking is going to naturally coat it with oil. It's going to make sure that it maintains any seasoning you put on there. If it…
deep frying is especially good for a brand new wok
of course the more you use the wok the better season it's going to get
Cites seasoning durability
if you were doing this on an electric stovetop or an induction stovetop you run into this issue where um the bottom is going to heat up really well but it's very difficult to get the sides hot
Cites even heating (against)
you're frequently going to be deglazing with soy sauce rice wine sort of acidic ingredients that are going to break down that uh those layers of polymers as well
Cites acid resistance (against)
whereas with a wok typically when you're heating it you're getting the bottom very hot but but the temperature is going to go down as you get at the sides
Cites even heating (against)