Wok

300px|thumb|right|upright=1.33|A wok being used for [[stir frying]]

A wok () is a deep round-bottomed cooking pan of either indigenous Chinese origin or derived from the South Asian karahi. It is common in Greater China, and similar pans are found in parts of East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as being popular in other parts of the world.

Woks are used in a range of Chinese cooking techniques, including stir frying, steaming, pan frying, deep frying, poaching, boiling, braising, searing, stewing, making soup, smoking and roasting nuts. Wok cooking is often done with utensils called (spatula) or (ladle) whose long handles protect cooks from high heat. The uniqueness of wok cooking includes the Cantonese tradition of wok hei, "breath of the wok".

History

The origin of the wok is unclear, with both an indigenous origin theory and a South/Southeast Asian origin theory. In the indigenous origin theory scholars believe the Wok to have originated from ancient Chinese cooking pots that are at least 3000 years old. Wilkinson in his 2012 book Chinese history: a new manual, believes the wok evolved from an ancient prehistoric cooking pot called the , a round bottom multi-purpose cooking pot.In the South/Southeast Asian origin theory scholars believe it originated from the karahi, as well as the Southeast Asian (believed to be the etymology of Mandarin ). These cooking vessels are universal in South and Southeast Asian cuisine for stewing and quick evaporation. They likely entered China via Central Asia from India where it evolved into the wok.

In his 1988 book The Food of China, E.N. Anderson writes:

The first possible depictions of woks in China appeared in the Han dynasty ( – 220 CE). But these are conjectural, since these "woks" were made of clay and were only used to dry grains. Metal woks only started to appear in China in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), where it was first used for stir frying (an original Han Chinese innovation).

Most woks range from or more in diameter. Woks of (suitable for a family of 3 or 4) are the most common, but home woks can be found as small as and as large as . Smaller woks are typically used for quick cooking techniques at high heat such as stir frying (). Large woks over a meter wide are mainly used by restaurants or community kitchens for cooking rice or soup, or for boiling water.

Materials

The most common materials used in making woks today are carbon steel and cast iron.

Carbon steel

Currently, carbon steel is the most widely used material, being relatively inexpensive compared with other materials, relatively light in weight, providing quick heat conduction as it has a low specific heat capacity, and having reasonable durability. Their light weight makes them easier to lift and quicker to heat. Carbon steel woks, however, tend to be more difficult to season than those made of cast-iron ('seasoning', or carbonizing the cooking surface of a wok, is required to prevent foods from sticking and to remove metallic tastes and odors).

Cast iron

Two types of cast iron woks can be found in the market. Chinese-made cast iron woks are very thin (), weighing only a little more than a carbon steel wok of similar size, while cast iron woks typically produced in the West tend to be much thicker (), and very heavy. Because of the thickness of the cast iron, Western-style cast iron woks take much longer to bring up to cooking temperature, and their weight also makes stir-frying and techniques difficult. Woks are also now being introduced with clad or five-layer construction, which sandwich a thick layer of aluminum or copper between two sheets of stainless steel.

Over time, with repeated sessions of long yao woks tend to build up a seasoning layer which additionally helps prevent food from sticking during cooking.

Cooking

The wok can be used in a large number of cooking methods. Before the introduction of Western cookware, it was often used for all cooking techniques including:

Boiling: For boiling water, soups, dumplings, or rice. In the latter case, guoba often forms.
Braising: Braised dishes are commonly made using woks. Braising is useful when reducing sauces.
Deep frying: This is usually accomplished with larger woks to reduce splashing, but for deep frying of less food or small food items, small woks are also used.
Pan frying: Food that is fried using a small amount of oil in the bottom of a pan
Roasting: Food may be cooked with dry heat in an enclosed pan with lid. Whole chestnuts are dry roasted by tossing them in a dry wok with several pounds of small stones.
Searing: Food is browned on its outer surfaces through the application of high heat
Smoking: Food can be hot smoked by putting the smoking material in the bottom of the wok while food is placed on a rack above.
Steaming: Done using a dedicated wok for boiling water in combination with steaming baskets
Stewing: Woks are sometimes used for stewing though it is more common in Chinese cuisines to use either stoneware or porcelain for such purposes, especially when longer stewing times are required. Small woks are for hot pot, particularly in Hainan cuisine. These are served at the table over a sterno flame.
Stir frying: Frying food quickly in a small amount of oil over high heat while stirring continuously.

Wok hei

() literally, the "breath of the wok", is the distinct charred, smoky flavor resulting from stir-frying foods over an open flame in Cantonese cuisine. The second character () is transliterated as () according to its Standard Chinese pronunciation, so is sometimes rendered as in Western cookbooks. refers to the flavor, taste, and "essence" imparted by a hot wok on food during stir frying. It is particularly important for Cantonese dishes requiring high heat for fragrance such as and beef . Out of the Eight Culinary Traditions of China, the concept is only encountered in Cantonese cuisine, and may not even be an accepted underlying principle in most other Chinese cuisines.

Wok stoves

File:Wok cooking and the heat source by The Pocket in Nanjing.jpg|Preparing food over a modern gas-fired, pit-type wok stove

File:WokStove.svg|The two styles of traditional Chinese wok stoves ()

File:Wok Heater.jpg|Outdoor charcoal wok stove

File:Chinaherd.jpg|Natural gas burner head from a modern gas stove for woks

File:Wok-on-chinese-stove.jpg|A carbon steel wok on a Chinese wok stove

File:Cooking with a wok on an outdoor stove 2.jpg|A wok on an outdoor wood stove

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Traditional

thumb|A [[Han dynasty Chinese model with clay pots used to dry grains. The pots' similarity to modern woks has led to conjecture that modern woks evolved from basic features of pots like these. Many inexpensive propane burners are easily capable of 60,000–270,000 BTU (17.5–22 kW) or more, easily surpassing most in-home gas stoves.

Electric

Woks, round or flat bottomed, do not generally work well for stir-frying or other quick cooking methods when used on an electric cooker. These stoves do not produce the large amounts of quick even heat required for stir-frying. It is possible, however, to find round-shaped electric stove elements that will fit the curve of a wok, which allows the wok to be heated at its bottom along with part of its sides. A flat-bottomed wok may also work better on an electric stove.

Coupled with the lower heat retention of woks, meals stir-fried on electric stoves have a tendency to stew and boil when too much food is in the wok rather than "fry" as in traditional woks, thus not producing . A wok can, however, benefit from the slow steady heating of electric stoves when used for slower cooking methods such as stewing, braising, and steaming, and immersion cooking techniques such as frying and boiling. Many Chinese cooks use Western style cast-iron pans for stir-frying on electric stoves, since they hold enough heat for the required sustained high temperatures.

Induction

Induction cookers generate heat in induction-compatible cookware via direct magnetic stimulation of the pan material. While carbon steel and cast iron (the most common wok materials) are induction-compatible metals, induction cooking also requires close contact between the cooking vessel and the induction burner. This presents problems with tossing techniques, where the wok is lifted off the burner and agitated, will break contact and turn off the burner. Traditionally shaped woks, which are round-bottomed, also do not have enough contact with the cooking surface to generate notable heat. Bowl-shaped induction cookers overcome this problem and can be used suitably for wok cooking in locations where gas stoves are not suitable.

Flat-bottomed woks make sufficient contact to generate heat. Some cookware makers are now offering round-bottomed woks with a small flat spot to provide induction contact, with a specially designed support ring, and some induction cooktops are now also available with a rounded burner that is able to make contact with the rounded bottom of a traditional wok. In both cases, the food will need to be stirred with a cooking utensil, instead of being tossed by lifting the wok itself.

Advantages

The main advantage of the wok, beyond its constructed material, is its curved, concave shape. This shape produces a small, hot area at the bottom which allows some of the food to be seared by intense heat while using relatively little fuel. The large sloped sides also make it easier for chefs to employ the tossing cooking technique on solid and thick liquid food, with less spillage and a greater margin of safety. The curved sides also allow a person to cook without having to "chase the food around the pan", since bite-sized or finely chopped stir-fry ingredients usually tumble back to the center of the wok when agitated.

In Indonesia, a wok-like pan is known as a or (also spelled , from Javanese language, from the root word meaning "steel"). In Malaysia, it is called a (small wok) or (big wok).

In northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, there is a pan called a discada originally fashioned from an old plow disc and repurposed as a cooking surface. Used traditionally in vaquero cooking, giving it the "cowboy wok" nickname, it is placed over an open flame or gas burner and used to prepare a variety of meat-heavy discada dishes. Its concave shape and durability mirror the wok’s utility, particularly in outdoor cooking contexts.

In Turkey and central Asia, a similar utensil is called a kazan. Traditionally made of cast iron or aluminum, the kazan is a large, deep, round-bottomed pot used for cooking over open flames. It is widely used in the preparation of pilaf, soups, and stews, often during communal or outdoor gatherings. Though it lacks a handle and differs slightly in form, the kazan’s shape and function closely resemble a wok, particularly in its ability to cook large quantities with direct heat.

In India, a similar pan is called karahi. In Japan, the wok is called a . In South India, the Chinese wok became a part of South Indian cooking, where it is called the (literally, "Chinese pot" in Malayalam and Tamil).

In Spain, a similar wide, shallow pan known as the paellera or paella pan is used to prepare paella and other rice-based dishes. Though it has a flat bottom and does not share the wok’s concavity, the paella pan performs a comparable role in distributing high heat evenly over a large surface, ideal for cooking food quickly and uniformly.