Woks are starting to become an increasingly popular appliance in the kitchen. They are bowl-shaped frying pans which are mainly used for Chinese dishes. They are great for preparing soup, deep frying, smoking nuts, roasting nuts, and much more of the sort. All these different great reasons are the reason why woks have become so popular in the first place. If you’re one of the many people that are looking to add one of these to your home, stainless steel and carbon steel woks probably seem like the best option. However, choosing between the two is what most people struggle with.
Carbon Steel vs Stainless Steel Wok
Wherever you go, most people will tell you that stainless steel and carbon steel woks are the two best options for you to cheese from. It must be said that this is true. However, everyone will give you different answers when it comes to choosing between both. This is why we’ve given a fully detailed comparison between both types of woks to help you decide which one you should add to your kitchen.
Preparing Foods
The most common that anyone has with stainless steel woks is the fact that they easily heat up when being used to cook foods at high temperatures. This is due to the fact that stainless steel is relatively thinner, resulting in it being more fragile and developing hot spots with ease. This becomes a nuisance and is a big problem as it can burn your food from specific points. When these hot spots develop, you might have to buy an entirely new wok at times. On top of this, they require a relatively larger amount of oil to prepare foods. This ultimately means that the cost of preparing foods in stainless steel woks is higher than most other types.
This is definitely not a problem that cooks will have to face while preparing foods inside of woks that are made out of carbon steel. This is due to the fact that carbon steel is actually quite durable when it comes to withstanding high temperatures, mainly because they have thicker bottoms than most other woks. You can also prepare foods in high temperatures without having to worry about any sort of hot spots developing on the wok. This comes in particularly handy if you wish to stir fry foods at higher temperatures so that they’ll prepare quicker. Overall, it must obviously be said that the carbon steel wok has an advantage in this aspect.
Ease of Use
It must be said that stainless steel woks are quite comfortable to work with. They are relatively light and can be carried around here and there with ease. On top of this, they also provide a significant advantage when it comes to cleaning up after use. As the materials used for these woks are completely stainless, simply rinsing the wok and wiping it clean is enough to make it look as good as new.
This is where the disadvantages in carbon steel woks begin to show. These types of woks are relatively heavier, which is something that you’ll be able to see for yourself when you hold and compare stainless steel and a carbon steel wok at the same time. This makes it a bit difficult to move them around the kitchen, especially when they have food on them. On top of this, they can also be difficult to clean up after you’re done with them. Food might get stuck on the surface or the wok might get stained. These problems aren’t exactly common in carbon steel woks, but they still occur from time to time. However, this is something that you won’t ever have to worry about while using a stainless-steel wok.
Affordability
Carbon steel woks also have an advantage in this aspect. You can compare prices between similar types of carbon steel woks and stainless-steel woks and you’ll notice that the former is almost always cheaper than the latter. While this aspect varies depending upon the specific product, it must be said that the carbon fiber woks have the upper hand most of the time when it comes to overall affordability.