Want to keep your wok looking and working like new? Chef Eric Huang demonstrates and explains everything you need to know to get the best out of your wok at home, from seasoning to cleaning to storage.
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00:00Hi, I'm Eric. I'm a professional chef and today I'm going to teach you everything you need to
00:03know about walks. We're going to be talking about how to choose one, how to clean one,
00:09how to season it, and of course, how to cook in one. Prepare to receive more walk knowledge
00:13than you ever hope to have in your entire life. This is Walk 101. At its core, a walk is a hot
00:22bowl. It hugs food. It keeps food cradled in such a way that you can toss them differently. You can
00:27also steam. You can braise. You can stew. You can season and emulsify in a very different way than
00:32from using a frying pan. That's really what makes them special. And there's a reason why walks play
00:36such a pivotal role in Asian cuisine and history. The thin metal is very receptive to a scarcity of
00:43combustible fuel. So you're always meant to be cooking things really quickly. That's how you
00:47really need to think about the walk when you're using it. When it comes to walks, there are so
00:53many options out there. All sorts of shape, sizes, materials, carbon steel, cast iron,
00:59Teflon, all the nonstick ones. They all have viable uses and they'll all get the job done.
01:04So for a home cook, I would recommend either heavier carbon steel or cast iron. These are going to be
01:09kind of unwieldy for a restaurant. They're heavy. They get tiresome to use all night. But if you're
01:14just cooking a couple of dishes, they retain heat really well. So you're going to have better nonstick
01:18properties, better heat distribution as you cook. It's a little more challenging to do that with thin
01:22carbon steel. If not, finally in that, nonsticks are great. They're very simple. They're obviously
01:27very forgiving and you can still make great food out of them. So this is a nonstick walk. I think
01:32they're perfectly acceptable for your home cook. People have their feelings about Teflon and plastics
01:36and such like that. But if you maintain it well, these work great and they last a really long time.
01:41Personally, I use these all the time. I think they're very easy. They make cleanup really easy. So
01:46no shame about using a nonstick walk. This is a restaurant style walk. It's thin carbon steel. It's very
01:52light. It's inexpensive. The handle is just riveted here. This is what it looks like when it's brand
01:57new in the store. It's not ready to cook on yet. You need to season it. These aren't ideal for your
02:01home cook. The firepower you have at home is not really enough to keep this thing hot and nonstick
02:06the entire way through. These are better suited to a restaurant. This is the same thing, only it's been
02:12seasoned. So as you can see, it's a pretty dramatic difference. It turning black is the oils
02:16carbonizing together with the metals and hopefully forming a nonstick surface. If you maintain this
02:21well, it lasts a really long time, even in a restaurant setting. This is the walk that
02:25Epicurious recommends. This is carbon steel. Really great material for your cookware to be
02:30made out of. It has almost all the same heat retaining properties as cast iron, but it's a
02:34lot lighter and easier to clean and maintain. It's heavy, but not too heavy. So I mean, it's
02:39going to retain heat, but it's still able to be manipulated pretty well. It has this nice
02:43angled handle, which is ergonomically friendly. And the wooden handle is great. It's never going to
02:48get too hot. You're not going to hurt yourself grabbing it. Has a nice flat bottom. This is
02:52good here for your electric tops or even your gas top or induction. And then it has a handle
02:58here. So if you've got something heavy in it, it's full of soup, full of stew. You can just
03:02use a towel here to grip it here. Easier to manipulate, safer. It's nonstick already. You don't need to
03:08go through the process of seasoning it at home. I don't think there's any reason to spend more
03:11than 50 or $60 on a good walk. This one, for example, is about 50, 60 bucks. You can get it
03:16online. So for a lot of good reasons, this is a really nice home walk. Seasoning a walk means to
03:24create a protective nonstick layer, basically by burning the bejesus out of it and adding a light
03:30sheen of oil. That heat will cause the oil to bond to the metal. If we did it right, it'll stay
03:36nonstick for a very long time, so long as we don't do anything too damaging to it. What we have here is a
03:41round-bottomed, unseasoned carbon steel walk. Walks should never look kind of silvery and chrome
03:48like this. They need to be dark black because that indicates they have been seasoned. This is
03:51not ready to cook in. This round bottom does not sit very well on these Western-style burners, so
03:56I am using a walk ring. Very inexpensive, very handy. To begin seasoning, turn on the heat.
04:04Wait. So in a restaurant, you would have this
04:07giant jet burner that cradles the walk perfectly, and you would turn it on full blast, and this whole
04:13thing would turn black very quickly. You'd add a light sheen of oil, let it chill out, cool down
04:18for a second, done. Seasoned. That's a little harder to do at home because you have this gas
04:22burner that doesn't quite exactly fit the walk, so you're going to have to show some patience.
04:26Let it heat up, especially this is like thicker, heavier carbon steel. We're going to take our time
04:30with it, and let it just heat up until it starts to turn color. And once we get there, we'll add a light
04:35sheen oil, and then hopefully we'll be ready to go, ready to walk. We're looking to achieve a process
04:40called polymerization. Once oil reaches a certain temperature, it's going to fill the microscopic
04:45pores of the metal. And what you're doing is developing a patina, which is a nonstick protective
04:51layer of carbonized metal and oil and fat. We're getting there. Look at that. Shiny iridescence.
04:58Getting a little darker. We're going to get the edges, getting every edge ripping hot until it turns
05:04color. Okay. It's turned a blue, purplish, dark silver kind of color. That means we're quite hot
05:10here, so be careful. Turn your heat off. All right. The light sheen oil. We're going to get a bunch of paper
05:15towels here. Moisturize your pan, basically what we're looking for. It is normal to create a lot of smoke
05:23during this process, so do this in a well-ventilated area. Metal is super hot right now, so the pores are
05:29open, and that's only going to be a short window. And then as you let it cool down, it's going to
05:34absorb all that oil and form a beautiful nonstick layer. Okay, so as you can see, pretty dramatic
05:38transformation. It was this light silver color. Now it is distinctly dark blue slash black. It's only
05:45going to get darker over time. That's what it takes to season your wok. Look at that thing. Beautiful.
05:51So when it comes to working with a wok, 90% of the work is done ahead of time. You have all your
05:59ingredients, seasonings measured out, everything ready. The noodles are blanched. That way, everything
06:03comes together in just about a minute or two. Today, I am making some stir-fried noodles. A little bit
06:08of oil in. Oil is readily smoking. That means we're good to go. I'm going to add some sausage in first to
06:13render a little bit. I'm going to add my carrots. The hottest part of the wok is on the bottom. This flat bottom
06:19part. Add my veg in. I'm going to keep tossing. You're not trying to color anything too aggressively.
06:26You're just trying to get it cooked and go snow peas. So this is just what I like to add to my noodle,
06:31but you can add whatever you like. You're always moving stuff so it's not burning. You can take it off
06:36the heat for a second if you need to. Then I'm going in with the noodle and then you're rocking the wok,
06:42going forwards and backwards. Constant movement. A little bit more oil. MSG or salt.
06:48Constantly tossing. Again, you don't want any color here. You take it off the heat for a second.
06:53I'm going to add my seasonings. I got my light soy sauce. I got my wine. Oyster sauce. We're bringing
06:59it back on the heat. I have my liquid seasonings here. I'm going to add it to the edge of the pan
07:02just to cook down a little bit. Moving it constantly. A little bit of oil. We're getting that hot flavor
07:11into it. That wok hay. That breath of the wok. Constant movement. Best you can on your home burner.
07:17I like to add scallions at the very end just to wilt them a little bit.
07:21That's it. A very quick, simple noodle stir fry. It was really only about a minute or two of cooking
07:28over really high heat. And you're adding your ingredients in. Each one requires a different
07:32amount of cooking time. It's all about movement, timing, preparation. You're gonna make great stir fry.
07:36Let's talk about cleaning your wok. It should be a very simple process. While it's hot, you just add
07:44some water to it to steam off the crud. There shouldn't really be that much if you've maintained
07:49a nice non-stick coating. You just give it a light scrub, a rinse, wipe it out, do it be dry, and that's
07:56that. This wok has been poorly treated. Some of this looks like oil. Some of it looks like rust. It is
08:03salvageable, but it is going to take some effort. First step, put it on high heat and let it rip.
08:09We are going to turn all this gunk into ashes. It's a lot like maintaining a cast iron. You don't
08:15need any soap. You should be able to just use a steel wool ball. We're smoking already here.
08:21While it's hot, this is the easiest time to scrub all this gunk off. As you can see,
08:26all elements of the wok require some heat to manage it. There we go.
08:35All right. Hope it's not lost. It's coming alive. It's all this black dust that we're picking up.
08:42It's all the grease and the rust that caked on. We're scraping it off, turning it into ash.
08:49All right. I think I've scrubbed most of the gunk off. So now all that's left to do,
08:54to re-season this thing, bring it back to life. I'm going to turn the heat off. I'm going to
08:59add a light sheen oil. Swirl it around.
09:06Kind of keep doing the same thing a couple times. You just need a little bit of oil.
09:11I think the temptation would be to put a lot, and that's not what you want. You want a very thin layer
09:15to get extremely hot. That way it's going to go past its smoke point and it's going to polymerize.
09:21It's going to basically turn into a non-stick coating, kind of like we see here. If you have
09:24too much oil, it's going to be too cool for that process to happen. This is probably still going
09:28to need a little time and love, but from where we started, this isn't so bad. We're getting back
09:33that dark blue, almost black patina with some more use and care, some more regular maintenance.
09:39This thing will be as good as new. Walks. Hopefully you have better understanding of how to cook,
09:45how to season, how to repair one. Walk really is a wonderful investment for your kitchen.
09:51Keep building your relationship with your walk.