Authentic Chinese Wok
made in cast iron in three sizes 14", 15" or 16"
seasoning required
Special - Wok Starter Pack includes 14" wok, wok ring, wok spatula, wok skimmer/strainer
if purchased separately $63.96 - PACKAGE PRICE $49.99
I own and use this exact wok. I was looking for a good wok and found this one in Chinatown. At the shop that I bought it they explained to me, in broken english, that I have to clean off the protective coating and then season the wok before I can cook in it. I brought it home and scrubbed it with Brillo pads until the water rinsed clear. There's a coating which is put on at the factory to prevent rusting I guess and it's a kind of oil or something and needs some pretty aggressive scrubbing to get it all off.
Once I got it clean it needed what they call 'seasoning' so I googled something like 'how to season a wok' and of course a bunch of articles came up. The gang in the store where I bought the wok were telling me something about in China when you buy a wok it comes with a hunk of pork fat but when they were telling me this I didn't connect it with 'seasoning' until I read the articles online. The pork fat is used for seasoning the wok. Basically to season the wok you can use either pork fat or another fat such as an oil. Lacking a big hunk of pork fat I read that peanut oil works well because it can take high heat, and in seasoning a wok there is some high-heat involved. First I rubbed a coat of oil all inside the wok, then put it to high heat until little wisps of smoke start to come off it, then remove it from the heat, let it cool, apply more oil and heat it up again. Do this a few times and a black coating will form on the inside of the wok and this is the coating that will help prevent food from sticking.
When I first used the wok to cook a meal food did stick a little but with some practice I got the hang of how much oil to use to prime the wok before cooking and less food stuck. Then one day I cooked bacon (remember the pork fat) and used some of the leftover oil/grease to season the wok again, and that really worked well, so if you don't mind the whole pork fat thing then I recommend you use it for seasoning.
Once the wok is seasoned you are not supposed to scrub or use soap on the inside, that surface and coating you created with seasoning and that's added to by every meal you cook in in it is supposed to stay, at most a mild rinse with clean water is needed. It sounds weird but that's the way it works and it really makes the food you cook in it taste great.
I use mine for all kinds of things, of course stir-fry but also as a frying pan for making french fries and I even cook eggs in the wok. It's tremendously versatile and easy to use, it heats up almost instantaneously, holds down oil splatters, makes flipping and turning food very easy and is just a pleasure to use.
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