Is this an iron Wok?

[mungouk]

I recently moved into teachers' accommodation and was supplied with this new wok, which I haven't used yet. (I only have a single electric induction hob so I have pretty low expectations of the experience...)

 

Is it iron?  Does Chinese differentiate between iron and steel? I'm having a hard time using Pleco to OCR the text because of that white stroke around all the characters.

 

I can see 铁 (iron) in there but it seems to be bragging about health benefits rather than tell you what the wok is made of...?

 

 

 

One of my colleagues says his went rusty after using it, so I'm presuming he didn't bother seasoning it and drying it properly.  I've found the many useful wok-related threads and am working my way through them now... I just realised that last time I had a steel wok was in the 1980s!

 

Thanks!

 

[Jim]

The big characters read 经典铸铁 - "classic cast iron"  - so you'd assume that's what it is. https://baike.baidu.com/item/铸铁/1994472?fr=aladdin

 

ETA In fact reading the rest of the label it claims to help add iron to your diet as it's been cast at high temperatures to reduce the carbon content and make the iron purer, which apparently allows molecules to enter your food in a way that's easy to metabolise. As recommended by some national health body, apparently.

[mungouk]

Thanks @Jim ! ?

[abcdefg]

This wok, as @Jim said, is a cast iron wok. It should work fine on your induction hob if the bottom of the pan is relatively flat. This is the kind of wok that I've used the most for many years, even though I used mine over a gas burner. Chinese cookware made from cast iron is thinner and not as heavy as cast iron cookware that one finds in the West. It's my understanding that the pan is cast in a mold to acquire its basic form and then finished by pressing and even sometimes hammer forging. 

 

It's an excellent material and I prefer it over the coated aluminum "non stick" pans. The cooking surface of this wok is not intrinsically non stick. It needs to be seasoned before its first use so as to become non stick.The longer you use it, the better it gets. 

 

I will tell you how to season it tomorrow. It's not complicated. The steel will take on a deep luster. (Photo below of mine.) A wok of this type can be a real pleasure to use if handled properly. I will be glad to help you in the morning. 

 

 

[xinoxanu]

Yes, and it rusts like hell if you don't know what you are doing.

 

Avoid using it and get a 50kuai teflon/whatever one in IKEA: https://www.ikea.cn/cn/en/p/tolerant-wok-black-90247318/

 

Had this bad boy for 3 years and was all-purpose. The iron one rusted away after a couple washes, despite me following proper care guidelines... although, to be honest, Chinese people still use them if they have rust on them - however unsanitary that might be.

[mungouk]

@xinoxanu thanks, but an aluminium wok on an induction hob isn't going to work...

[abcdefg]

@mungouk -- About seasoning your new wok, even though you probably already know these basics, please let me review them here all in one place. (These are specific to your wok, a cast iron wok 铸铁炒锅。) 

 

1. Scrub the wok out with dish detergent and warm water. This is mainly to remove the surface protectant coating which the manufacturer applies to keep the wok from rusting while it is in a warehouse or on the shelf of a retail store. A dish rag or plastic dish scrubbing pad will usually do the trick, but if not, it's OK to resort to harsher measures. In China one can easily buy stainless steel wire scrubbing balls in all grocery stores and supermarkets for very little money. They make quick work of the process. They are called by several brand names, but asking a clerk for 厨房用清洁炒锅铁丝求 will get what you need. (Dishwashing detergent is called 清洁剂 and 白猫 is a popular brand.) 

 

           

 

 

 2. Rinse the wok several times to get rid of all the detergent you have used. Heat it on your burner or flame at a medium-high setting for a couple minutes until it is completely dry. Pour in a little bit (one or two teaspoons) of high-smoke-point cooking oil. Canola oil 玉米油 or rapeseed oil 菜籽油 are suitable and readily available. （Olive oil 橄榄油 is not a good choice.)  

 

Rub it around. I do this by grasping a wadded-up paper towel with chopsticks. You want to thinly coat the entire surface, but you don't want a pool of oil in the bottom of the pan. Let it continue to cook on medium-high for 15 or 20 minutes, rubbing it with a little fresh oil when it begins to look dry. It will smoke during this process. 

 

At the very end of the process, with the pan still hot, I rub the outside well with an oily paper towel. I don't obcess over truly curing the exterior surfaces. 

 

3. If you have time, let the wok cool down, rinse with soapy water as above, dry it and season it again.  Even twice more makes sense. If not, that's OK. Once will get the job done pretty well. The idea behind this seasoning process is that the steel of the wok is microscopically porus and the clean hot oil is allowed to bond with it and produce a smooth, non-stick surface.

 

The high temperature allows this oil to polymerize and behave somewhat like a plastic. Since you are using an induction hob instad of a flame, take special care to get the wok thoroughly hot. If it is not hot enough, the surface will wind up being sticky. 

 

     

 

 

4. Serious Chinese home cooks carry it one step further. I am not personally convinced it is actually worth the trouble, though I do follow the dogma out of a religious hope that it is slightly beneficial. This step involves seasoning the wok with a neutral vegetable in addition to oil.

 

Jiuci 韭菜 is the one usually recommended; it is sold year around in fist-sized bunches for 5 or 6 Yuan. Heat the wok to medium high, add oil as before, but this time put in enough jiucai to loosely cover the bottom of the pan. Let it cook until it starts to blacken and char, then grab it with your chopsticks and rub it all around the inside of the pan, being careful to include the sides (not only the bottom.) I do that several times, with several batches of jiucai. (The jiucai is ruined by this; throw it away.) Spring onions 小葱 can be used for this, but they cost more than jiucai. 

 

5. When I use the wok for cooking, I clean it mainly with warm water and a scrub brush. If something has stuck to the pan, I let it soak with hot water for half an hour or so, then scrub it again. I don't use detergent. Rarely I will use the metal scouring ball. Mechanical cleaning is preferable to chemical cleaning since it is less likely to remove the deeply-bonded food oils. (You want those to remain because they make the pan slicker and shinier over time.) 

 

6. When I have washed the wok and rinsed it well, I set it over low flame for half a minute or so and wipe it out with a paper towel. This insures that it is thoroughly dry. Put a small splash of cooking oil on a wadded-up paper towel and rub it all over while it is hot. When it cools, wipe it with a dry rag or paper towel to remove excess visible oil and put it away. I keep my wok in a disposable recycled rag-fabric bag from the supermarket. This allows me to "nest" another smaller pan in it without scratching. (A plastic bag is not a good idea because it traps atmospheric moisture and encourages rust; the bag needs to "breathe.") 

 

7. Once every six or eight months I give it a "mini re-seasoning" just to maintain it at its prime. The only other care precaution that comes to mind is that I don't store food in it overnight since that can degrade the cured surface of the metal and might also make the food taste funny.  

 

 

 

     

     

 

 

My wok keeps getting better and better. It's a pleasure to use. I can usually heat it to medium, wipe it with a tiny amount of oil on a paper towel, crack one or two fresh eggs into it sunny-side-up and move them around just by gently shaking the pan. (That's only when I'm showing off or testing the pan; typically I do use oil when frying.) 

 

 

[abcdefg]

Alternatives: 

 

In the unlikely event that, for whatever private personal reasons, you aren't interested in forming a careful and loving long-term relationship with your cookware, remembering the wok's birthday with roses and chocolates, calling it sweet names attached to terms of endearment, never raising your voice to it in anger,  and so on -- other options that will still do a good job of cooking a one-burner meal do come to mind. I would be remiss to imply that seasoning and caring for your cast iron wok is the only way to go. 

 

The most frequently encountered inexpensive non-stick coated pans are made of anodyzed aluminum and are not going to work with your induction hob, as already pointed out. For a little bit more, however, you can find steel pans, some made of stainless, some made of copper-steel alloys, that have a decent non-stick coating bonded to the inside surface.

 

These do a decent job in most applications and definitely require less care. A screaming hot Sichuan stir fry is where they fall down. Most cannot tolerate extremely high temps. 

 

If you go shopping for one of those, it's helpful to take a small magnet (the kind used for holding reminder notes to the door of your refrigerator.) Also clearly tell the salesclerk that your kitchen only has an induction burner. In Chinese these are called 电磁炉 (dianci lu) and they are not at all uncommon. You won't get blank stares. 

 

 

Induction cooking is supremely fast and efficient. (I used to have one and loved it, especially when boiling water for tea.) It hasn't made large inroads in the US, where I am now, but that's just because lazy consumers have not gotten informed. Professional chefs sing their praises and use use them in their restaurant kitchens. (Admittedly less so in China.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So if you should decide to get one of the alternate non-stick pans, please let me know and I'll share some insiders' secrets about how to extend its life and get the best performance from it.  

[大块头]

56 minutes ago, abcdefg said:

In the unlikely event that, for whatever private personal reasons, you aren't interested in forming a careful and loving long-term relationship with your cookware, remembering the wok's birthday with roses and chocolates, calling it sweet names attached to terms of endearment, never raising your voice to it in anger,  and so on -- other options that will still do a good job of cooking a one-burner meal do come to mind.

 

This a judgement-free zone, but perhaps you don't need to share all the scintillating details of your man-on-pan love affair. 

[杰.克]

Is this an iron Wok?

You Call That A Wok? This Is A Wok!

 

[abcdefg]

Haha @杰克! Yes, that takes the size prize! 

 

Quote

This a judgement-free zone, but perhaps you don't need to share all the scintillating details of your man-on-pan love affair. 

 

Apologies @大块头。 It was pretty steamy. I should have posted a warning. 

[大块头]

Now if 杰克 could kindly start using not safe for wok warnings before sharing such lurid imagery, we can get back to troubleshooting how Mungouk is going to cook his food.

[Balthazar]

Second all of @abcdefg's points.

 

I'd only add that I don't think using and maintaining cast iron cookware is that much work. The initial seasoning takes some time, but the steps are easy to perform and strictly speaking it's an optional thing. Other than that, the only thing you really need to be careful about is to not use anything too abrasive when cleaning it (not that it's a huge issue if you do (although, why in the world would you?), but you might have to season it all over) and most importantly to dry it properly afterwards.When it's fully dry, I add a couple drops of cooking oil to the pan and spread it around with some kitchen paper.

 

I'd also recommend heating it up slowly (not super-slow, but giving in 4-5 minutes of gradually increased heat increments before cranking it up to full force)

 

If you do see rust developing, remove it before it's been allowed to spread too much.

 

With a minimum of care you'll have a truly "buy it for life" cooking item (assuming the item is what it says, as usual China offers both the top and the bottom of the range with the price being the most reliable indicator of quality).

 

All that being said, the pictures looks almost like pure iron and not cast iron to me (but it's probably the lighting of the pictures).

[mungouk]

17 hours ago, Balthazar said:

the pictures looks almost like pure iron and not cast iron

 

Thanks @Balthazar ... how are they different?  

By "pure" do you mean Pig Iron with a higher carbon content?  Is that better for woks or worse than cast Iron?

[Balthazar]

I see that it's more commonly referred to as "wrought iron".

 

Here's an example of a wrought iron pan

Here's an example of a cast iron pan

 

Here's one explanation of the main difference:

 

Quote

Cast iron is iron that has been melted, poured into a mold, and allowed to cool.

Wrought iron is iron that has been heated and then worked with tools. In fact, the term “wrought” derived from the past participle of the word “worked.”

 

and:

 

Quote

“Cast iron” is a generic term that refers to a range of iron alloys, but is typically associated with the most common, gray iron. While cast iron may sound like the cast form of pure iron, it's actually an alloy containing 2 to 4% carbon, plus smaller amounts of silicon and manganese. Other impurities, such as sulfur and phosphorus, are also common.

 

[...]

Wrought iron is composed primarily of iron with 1 to 2% of added slag, the byproduct of iron ore smelting—generally a mix of silicon, sulfur, phosphorous, and aluminum oxides. During manufacture, the iron is removed from heat and worked with a hammer while still hot to get it into its intended final form.

 

 

In terms of application in cookware, cast iron is harder, (usually) thicker and significantly heavier, but also more brittle. Wrought iron is supposed to be really close to carbon steel pans in how they perform, so they're excellent for woking (as are thinner cast iron pans). Not sure if I've ever used one myself (wouldn't be able to determine whether or not my mother-in-law's pans are carbon steel or wrought iron), though.

[mungouk]

Thank you all for your sage advice!

I've got a couple of bunches of 韭菜 jiǔ cài and some sunflower oil at the ready, and as soon as I've got a spare moment this weekend I will do the business (we're working of course since it's PRC, and actually I'm working Saturday 26th as well).

 

Cheers and Merry Christmas? to anyone who's celebrating!

 

[abcdefg]

Merry Christmas to you too! 

 

Did any of your students give you a "Christmas Apple?" It became a popular thing to do in Kunming, though I'm not sure if it is the same all over China. Street vendors with pushcarts suddenly showed up about 23 December on every street corner. They appeared from nowhere. And sales were over by 25 December. It was mainly a "Christmas Eve" phenomeon. The apples are wrapped in brightly-colored paper, often tied with a ribbon as well. Some had a "Good wishes" message stenciled directly onto the peel. 

 

 

     

 

 

I'm told that the custom originated because of the similarity in sound between Christmas Eve 平安夜 and Apple 苹果。I've attended parties and even raucous street celebrations on the eve of December 24th in Kunming. All quiet on the 25th, Christmas Day. By then the fun is over. 

 

 

[mungouk]

I didn't get any apples, but did get a small "hamper" of snacks from one student, which is all crisps and sweets (potato chips and candy), so I'll be donating it to colleagues. It was a nice thought.

I had to head downtown in Hangzhou last night and the Kerry Centre was packed full of shoppers and restaurant-goers, many girls wearing little reindeer antlers, and lots of twinkly lights and xmas trees everywhere. I'm surprised at the amount of buy-in to the idea of xmas here.

Being able to go out and about is the real gift though. Back home in the UK everyone's back in full lockdown now.

[mungouk]

OK I gave it a go. 

 

It didn't seem like the induction hob was up to the task... it kept cutting out with a beep and "E2", "E3" or "EA" on the display, presumably because it was overheating.

 

Is this really what it's supposed to look like? The wok was completely covered in oil on the inside, but it was only smoking around the bottom, presumably because the heat wasn't spreading everywhere.

 

  

 

And when I wash this (and scrub it with a sponge-scourer thing but no detergent) should I expect this black stuff to come off?  Presumably this patina, such as it is, is the aim of the exercise?

 

 

[Balthazar]

I've never seen anything like that before. Doesn't look good at all, I don't think the black stuff is patina (you didn't season the pan, right?). I'm starting to think that the pan may not be what the sticker says....

 

Did you slowly heat up the pan or go straight to maximum effect? One of the benefits of iron pans is that the heat spreads out really well, so even the areas not touching the heat element will get really hot provided you take your time when warming up the pan. (The setting on the first picture is 1000W, but I assume you'd been on higher levels before the black mark appeared?)