Woks vs. Skillets: Do You Need Both? | Gear Heads
For years, we’ve tweaked conventional stir-fry recipes to achieve delicious results in a nonstick skillet rather than a wok, the traditional cooking vessel. Since American stove burners are flat, we aimed to get more contact with the heat source by using the broad cooking surface of a 12-inch skillet instead of the smaller bottom surface of a wok. But even with a flat stove burner, is cooking with a wok worth a try?
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Those "woks" are just skillets with high sides. Woks are round. Invest in a proper burner.
I respect the America's Test Kitchen comparisons, but this one has me scractching my head. Why would these knowledgeable people compare a carbon steel wok to a nonstick skillet? They are comparing apples and oranges. The better comparison would be a carbon steel wok to a carbon steel skillet which heats faster and hotter than a nonstick skillet. If you have a gas range the wok wins – no contest. Anyone with an electric range would be better off using a carbon steel skillet instead of a wok. Stir-frying is about high heat. High heat is kryptonite to nonstick skillets. They used Joyce Chen as a resource. I believe there is an old Joyce Chen cookbook that says carbon steel skillets are much better than nonstick for stir-frying.
Non stick skillets are trash. Cast iron all the way. Woks are great too but never non stick
Don't set the ring on the grate over your gas burner, take the grate off and use it to hold the wok right over the burner.
You missed my favorite combination of both worlds. Carbon steel skillet.
Watching people crowd pans when they brown meat causes me physical pain
What in the world do you do with all those eggs after the tests ??? I have both a stove top wok and an electric wok (Breville I believe). Interesting about the glass top stoves and woks as that’s what I have. You learn a new thing everyday.
One suggestion, to avoid toxins from a nonstick pan, is to used a large well seasioned (to avoiv sticking) cast iron skillet. I have several cast iron pans that I purchased many years ago, that still perform well.
This video is extremely annoying. Is this supposed to be a comparison of cooking in a skillet to cooking in a woks or cooking on teflon to cooking on metal? You never say the word "skillet" without saying "nonstick." It's as if you've never heard that there's such a thing as a carbon steel or stainless steel or cast iron skillet. And the skillet that you use is way too small for the amount of food that you throw into it.
There are skillets with sides as high as woks, my parents use them all the time and they stir fry a lot (Asians). I'm not saying they're better than woks, I'm just surprised by the choice of the skillet here
What about the wok has little black residue and the black stain even i clean it up pretty good. Would that little black residue will harm me ?
Both pans seriously overfilled
wow the cooking part looked really bad .. I wouldn't eat either of them but nice pans I guess
This video seems very bias to use a wok…
this is way too over crowded .. the wok is not a bowl .. you don't need to fill the thing to brim
Neither of the examples is professional in anyway. I don't think they're tasty, and it could've come out much better. And lady, you're supposed to fry it, not steam it!
Question, how do you care for the bottom of the carbonsteel wok?
I'm not sure when this was videotaped but NuWave Induction Wok uses carbon steel and does not need gas or standard electric stove top. I would like to see America's test kitchen do more with induction cooking because that's the future and gas in the kitchen and in the home for water heaters, stove tops, ovens, gas dryers is last century and we need to clean the air inside and outside our homes for our children and the life on the planet.
It's comparing oranges and apples 😅
I dislike the fact that in order to access recipes or products that are shown in these videos, you have to subscribe. Sure, a “free trial” is offered, but in order to get it you have to provide payment info (credit card number, etc.), so that when you forget that you have to cancel, you are billed for the subscription. There are plenty of recipes on the web that you don’t need a subscription to anything for. I’ll use those, thanx.
Clean yr left burner