Wok Seasoning

Bought a new wok from Jusco when I moved to new place in BU as I will be able to cook again after moving out from the house of notes. Went to Tioman island few days right after moving in.

When I was back from Tioman, house mate complained to me about something was wrong with the wok as she had started using it to cook. Couldn't really comprehend what the problem was as I didn't really have the chance to have a grand opening using it with my own touch as I was away.

Finally, I started using the wok to cook my dinner. To my frustration, it kept blackening around the areas above the concave meniscus which were not in touch with cooking oil whenever I set the wok over high heat. The same blackening incident occured too if I didn't put oil after heating the wok for a very short while over high heat, which never happened before in my previous experience. Thus I could only use low heat to cook to prevent blackening, which was very time consuming and frustrating. After cooking, I got to thoroughly scour the blackened areas to remove the films of black coating that formed on the wok surface. It was really testing my patience.

Puzzled, I asked around and even did research on the internet. To my bewilderment, I found out that certain types new woks need a treatment process called 'wok seasoning' (开镬) before they are ready to be used. From my previous years of cooking experience, I have never really used a new wok to cook. All woks used were used woks that were ready to be use. Thus, I never know of such thing as wok treatment or wok seasoning. It's really an interesting and eye-opening new dicovery for me. This is the first time I am buying a wok by myself, how am I supposed to know? Forgive my ignorance on this. Hehe :)

Here are some simple hints & tips about wok seasoning that I found from the Internet:

Only iron and steel woks need to be seasoned. Stainless steel woks do not need this treatment, as they are far less porous than iron or steel woks. However with stainless steel woks, more oil is required to prevent the food from sticking and burning.

It is very important to season your wok. Seasoning removes the manufacturer's protective coating and coats it with a thin layer of oil, enabling foods to glide smoothly over the cooking surface of the wok. A well-seasoned wok is worth its weight in gold. Not only will food not stick to its blackened surface, flavors are greatly enhanced. Below is a general step-by-step instruction for seasoning a carbon steel wok. However, I'd advise you to adhere to manufacturer's instruction if there is one.

Method 1:

1) Thoroughly scrub it inside and out with soap and a steel wool scouring pad to remove the manufacturer's preservative oil, and rust, if any. Rinse thoroughly with hot water.
2) Fill it with water and boil it for several minutes. This is to dissolve stubborn coating that can't be removed by scouring. Empty the wok and scrub the surface with steel wool and soap again.
3) Set the wok over high heat.
4) When a sprinkle of water sizzles in the wok, wipe some peanut or corn oil on the entire cooking surface of the wok by using paper towels with the help of a long wooden chopsticks or tongs.
5) Reduce heat to low. The wok will start to absorb the oil. Wipe with another thin film of oil if the surface begins to dry off. After 15 minutes, remove wok from the stove and let it cool.
6) Repeat step 1 to 5 and the wok is seasoned!

It is important to properly clean your wok after each use. Run hot water into it and clean the surface using a bamboo brush or plastic scour. Dry it thoroughly. Avoid soap and scouring as these will remove the hard-earned seasoning.

If food sticks or burns, soak the wok well before attempting to clean them with the method mentioned above. Use abrasive material such as steel wool only as the last resort because you will need to re-season the wok if it was scoured this way.

Boiling water in a well-seasoned wok can easily ruin its hard-earned shiny, black patina. Try to avoid this as much as possible.

Method 2:

Another more thorough method of seasoning a wok is to brush polyunsaturted cooking oil on the cooking surface of the wok and then place the wok into an oven at 150'C for 4 hours. The oil in the wok will become pooled while heating in the oven, so about everyhour or so, take your brush and brush the oil up around the sides of the wok and continue heating. Obviously, woks that have plastic or wooden handles should not be put in the oven.

Not entirely sure what type of material that my wok is made of. But from the physical appearance, it looks like a carbon-steel wok. As no prior seasoning was done before the wok was used and suspecting the blackening was due to the heating of the manufacturer's protective coating which had not been removed, I decided to try my luck to do the wok seasoning, hoping that it could be rescued.

Find the second method very complicated. Put in the oven??? How??? What kind of big oven that can accomodate a wok inside??? To make thing simple, I chose method one and tried to salvage my wok. I followed the steps and did it patiently especially the scouring part.

I spent the whole night doing wok seasoning treatment. when I eventually completed the procedures, I was so excited to test if the wok was working fine after the treatment. Guess what? To my dismay, the wok rescue operation failed! The blackening still occured. Aikss! Wasted my time and efforts! It was already 12am! Rounds and rounds of scouring using the dish wash liquid with my bare hands were vain, leaving only dryness, wrinkle and skin peel on my hands. Sigh... I DECIDED to give up and get another new wok.

On the next day, CH brought me to a specialty shop which sells all sorts of cooking untensils and kitchen stuff at PJ Old Town. I ended up buying a new alloy wok which needs no seasoning treatment, hassle free. The new wok cost me RM70. Oppss, forgot to ask that uncle who sold me the wok on the metal combination of the alloy wok. Don't bother much, as long as I don't need to take the trouble to season it, I am perfectly fine with it.

So far, my alloy wok is working fine. Guess what happens to the first wok? It has lost its 'first wok' status and has been put aside or is only used for steaming purpose if the new 'first wok' is to be used concurrently.

What a lesson to learn about wok!