ppplllleeaassssseeee does anybody know hows best to season a wok properly. i have been to my local chinese supermarket and purchased one twice now and tried unsuccessfully. i did however see on tv (forget the prog) someone using quite a lot of salt,but cant remember. its nothing like what i was advised to do,mabe im not heating it enough.

The traditional way to season a carbon steel wok is to burn fat or oil onto the pan so that a coating of carbon is formed which then acts as a non-stick surface.

If you want to use oil, then one with a high smoke point is best, such as groundnut oil.

Cleaning off any coatings that have been applied to prevent rusting pre-sales is very important.

I would suggest using a stainless steel scourer on the new wok, and then scouring it with bicarb, followed by simmering a solution of bicarb and salt in the pan for around 20 minutes.

Then thoroughly dry the pan and check that the surface looks spotlessly clean and free of any anti-rust coating.

The next step involves heating the wok until it goes a straw colour and then blue - you will probably need to tilt the wok so that the flame from your burner can heat the sides so that they turn blue.

As I'm sure you can appreciate, this is heating a pan to a level that is never usually reached and so safety is an important factor - keep your bottle of oil well away from the wok, just put about a table-spoon of oil in an egg-cup and then drizzle it around the sides of the wok so that it runs down to the base - but make sure you don't get any over the edge and on the outside of the wok because it may flash - if it does, it will soon burn out, so don't panic.

As soon as the oil goes into the pan you need to wipe it around - kitchen paper towel works well enough, but it is very easy to burn your fingers, so you might want to put a piece of folded kitchen towel in a pair of tongs and do it that way, or your local Chinese store probably sells bamboo brushes that will do the job. Another way is to use chopped chives, or even spring onion stalks, to swish the oil around inside the pan.

The aim is to burn the oil over the entire surface of the wok until it stops smoking and begins to form a thin layer of carbon.

Open your windows and disable any adjacent smoke alarms.

Unless you have a very powerful burner, you may find you have to tilt and roll the wok in order to get the side walls hot enough.

Having burnt on the first layer, you can then repeat the process three or four times more until you have a good layer of carbon building up.

The next step involves keeping the wok at a lower temperature for an hour or so in order to consolidate the seasoning. You may be able to do this in the oven if the handle will unscrew - very often the wooded handle is held in place with a long metal spindle that has a ring at the end, and if you put a bar through the ring and turn it, it will unscrew and release the handle.

If you use your oven, set it to one/low, and leave the wok to bake for at least a couple of hours - turn it upside down and put a tray underneath to catch any drips.

You should then end up with a well seasoned wok.

To be frank, I've found carbon steel woks to be more trouble than they are worth. I know people say you can pick up the 'real deal' for about a fiver and season it, and it will last a lifetime as long as you don't scrub it, but I've never found things are that easy, because when adding anything liquid the carbon tends to flake off - plus the average large burner on a domestic hob is not really powerful enough to run a wok at the high temperature it needs to be used at to produce crispy stir fried vegetables.

Whenever cooking on TV these days, Ken Hom uses a non-stick wok, as does Ching, and I think that says something about how versatile such pans are.

If you get fed up with re-seasoning your wok, I suggest getting a hard anodised aluminum-alloy wok, which will have much better thermal properties than a steel wok, and will work more efficiently on a standard domestic hob. They can be used as a large generic 'chef's pan' for all sorts of cooking, and although the initial investment is higher, I feel sure you will never regret the outlay.

Good luck - I hope this helps.

yes it does a lot.thank you,you just confirmed what i was already thinking that they are more trouble and hard work. think im just going to invest in a non stick one. once again thanks.

Be careful when buying a non-stick wok - the ones with the red heat spot have been known to peel if used over and above the temperature that the heat spot indicates (which is not very high at all), and the carbon steel non-stick woks scratch easily and also don't stand up to high heat very well.

The hard anodised ones are durable and stand up to high heat and are easy to wash up. The cheapest I have seen is ASDA - larger branches, around £16. TK Maxx have also stocked the Beka MPW HA woks - about £30, but with a long warranty.

Gosh gastro!

You never cease to amaze me with your knowledge of pans. I feel like starting a thread titled, "Lets try and stump gastro with a pan or gadget question"



Any takers?

lol

Hi there posset

I'm not sure it's the kind of thing anyone would want to be known for - lol

Must be a joke about being potty there somewhere !



I do my best though - with an emphasis on value for money

All the best posset

And you do a fine job of it gastro.

I bought a wooden salad bowl (massive) on a stand from TK Maxx yesterday. My husband is in despair, I'm delighted, or was until I discovered the base has come adrift from the sides of the salad bowl. So I'll have to take it back today, I'm so disappointed and I had assembled the wretched thing and was admiring it. So much for value for money.

Anyway positive note, who knows what treasures I will find today?

lol . hi there posset , somehow i dont think that can be done but will mull it over. happy shopping , i love tk max especially the homeware section will be in there soon looking for a hard andonised wok ha ha