There’s induction converters – basically metal plates with a handle – which you can use on an induction stove to heat your incompatible cookware. So no need for an electric burner, better get more induction for the added flexibility and lower complexity of the stove.
Better to just buy new cookware. For the most part, the old expensive stuff had enough iron in it that it’s induction compatible. The old cheap stuff isn’t worth continuing to use. (like aluminum pans)
I will admit that for exotic forms of cooking like this, I think home cooking enthusiasts will just get portable propane stoves when they need a flame and special cookware to achieve the results they want.
For the most part, the old expensive stuff had enough iron in it that it’s induction compatible. The old cheap stuff isn’t worth continuing to use. (like aluminum pans)
This is incorrect. For example, Guardian Service brand cast-aluminum cookware is some of the best cookware ever manufactured, and (in my experience) remains unequalled to this day.
I’m not sure how I would use my round-bottom wok on an induction burner, but maybe there’s something that would make it work? And how I would char the skin on a chili pepper?
The converter plate is an interesting idea.
Maybe my ideal stove has three induction burners and one gas. Maybe I would discover that I rarely used the gas burner, and decide all induction works fine, and that I could just use my camp stove or outdoor grill if I actually need a flame. A hybrid stove could be a useful approach to getting people to overcome their hesitancy in switching to electric. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be very practical in most cases, only really feasible in kitchens already built to support both electric and gas. (My kitchen has a gas stove, but actually does have the wiring for an electric stove.)
Hybrid stoves don’t make any practical sense. If you think about it in terms of engineering a product, you have the worst of both worlds: high electrical requirements to support 3 induction burners, and a gas supply is required. It makes installation for a consumer always expensive. Also the product itself is more complex internally, and would cost more, and would sell few units which raises the cost further, and so on..
Calling woks ‘exotic forms of cooking’ when they’re (likely, given the Asian American pop.) the primary daily cooking vessel for millions of Americans, and probably a good fraction of the world population, is really a good reflection of how white-urban-American LW is.
For the record, I think everyone should switch to induction woks. Methane leaks are pretty bad for the climate. I certainly am switching to an induction wok. Still, weird to dismiss the main cooking tool of a huge groups of people as ‘exotic’.
Well there is also the question of which wok recipes specifically need that shape of pan and cannot be adapted to use flat cookware. That subset of recipes that actually require a rounded pan would be the “edge case”.
I don’t know enough about wok cooking to know if that is all of them or some of them. Or if the reason for the rounded pan is to transfer heat from a flame faster and with less fuel, which is irrelevant if you have induction.
As someone who has been forced to use flat bottom pans due to the prevalence of electric coils in rental places in the US, I can say that most stir fries do benefit from a wok, and stir-fries are the bread-and-butter of homestyle cooking in many east and southeast asian cuisines.
It’s not a make-it-or-break-it situation. The closer you get, the better; a carbon steel pan is often halfway there. A key issue in my experience is that woks allow for oil to pool even with very little oil, and stir-frying is often a hybrid sautee/shallow-fry. If you wanted to do that with a flat pan you need a metric ton of oil, which is just not good for the dish. No-one wants food to come with a pool of oil. Heat transfer is often not as important as Western cookbooks focused on wok recipes suggest, primarily because homestyle cooking is often not focused on the high heat “wok-hei” type stuff that Western cookbooks focus on. It’s likely just because people get exposed to wok cooking via restaurants in the West.
Basically, I don’t think it’s an edge case at all. There are also just various things that make me sad when I don’t have a proper wok, such as the inability to make perfectly round sunny-side-up eggs that are also perfectly browned around the edges. This is because eggs also “pool” in a wok, of course, and unlike the egg rings, a wok is quite hot all the way round. I think another crucial aspect is that many cultures care about food more than I’ve seen in the US. (just people I personally know. Not commenting on the US in general, since I am explicitly not American and I am not an expert on American culture.) Add that to the fact that people living in a foreign country are inherently more defensive about their culture, and I think it really explains why woks are a bit of a sticking point. People already have to try to keep their own culture alive, things like that make it harder.
That I have no personal experience with (yet), I haven’t switched because of a planned move. That said, I’ve never heard anything negative about induction woks except for the price. I think they just work.
There’s induction converters – basically metal plates with a handle – which you can use on an induction stove to heat your incompatible cookware. So no need for an electric burner, better get more induction for the added flexibility and lower complexity of the stove.
Better to just buy new cookware. For the most part, the old expensive stuff had enough iron in it that it’s induction compatible. The old cheap stuff isn’t worth continuing to use. (like aluminum pans)
For the use case of woks—https://www.amazon.com/Induction-14-inch-tempered-precision-temperature/dp/B077GL6BJY . You need a special wok with a special induction heater.
I will admit that for exotic forms of cooking like this, I think home cooking enthusiasts will just get portable propane stoves when they need a flame and special cookware to achieve the results they want.
This is incorrect. For example, Guardian Service brand cast-aluminum cookware is some of the best cookware ever manufactured, and (in my experience) remains unequalled to this day.
I accept your correction. I wasn’t aware this stuff existed.
I’m not sure how I would use my round-bottom wok on an induction burner, but maybe there’s something that would make it work? And how I would char the skin on a chili pepper?
The converter plate is an interesting idea.
Maybe my ideal stove has three induction burners and one gas. Maybe I would discover that I rarely used the gas burner, and decide all induction works fine, and that I could just use my camp stove or outdoor grill if I actually need a flame. A hybrid stove could be a useful approach to getting people to overcome their hesitancy in switching to electric. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be very practical in most cases, only really feasible in kitchens already built to support both electric and gas. (My kitchen has a gas stove, but actually does have the wiring for an electric stove.)
I’m not sure how I would use my round-bottom wok on an induction burner
You can’t. You have to buy special wok/induction setups: https://www.amazon.com/Induction-14-inch-tempered-precision-temperature/dp/B077GL6BJY/, or use your camp stove when you need a flame.
Hybrid stoves don’t make any practical sense. If you think about it in terms of engineering a product, you have the worst of both worlds: high electrical requirements to support 3 induction burners, and a gas supply is required. It makes installation for a consumer always expensive. Also the product itself is more complex internally, and would cost more, and would sell few units which raises the cost further, and so on..
Calling woks ‘exotic forms of cooking’ when they’re (likely, given the Asian American pop.) the primary daily cooking vessel for millions of Americans, and probably a good fraction of the world population, is really a good reflection of how white-urban-American LW is.
For the record, I think everyone should switch to induction woks. Methane leaks are pretty bad for the climate. I certainly am switching to an induction wok. Still, weird to dismiss the main cooking tool of a huge groups of people as ‘exotic’.
Well there is also the question of which wok recipes specifically need that shape of pan and cannot be adapted to use flat cookware. That subset of recipes that actually require a rounded pan would be the “edge case”.
I don’t know enough about wok cooking to know if that is all of them or some of them. Or if the reason for the rounded pan is to transfer heat from a flame faster and with less fuel, which is irrelevant if you have induction.
As someone who has been forced to use flat bottom pans due to the prevalence of electric coils in rental places in the US, I can say that most stir fries do benefit from a wok, and stir-fries are the bread-and-butter of homestyle cooking in many east and southeast asian cuisines.
It’s not a make-it-or-break-it situation. The closer you get, the better; a carbon steel pan is often halfway there. A key issue in my experience is that woks allow for oil to pool even with very little oil, and stir-frying is often a hybrid sautee/shallow-fry. If you wanted to do that with a flat pan you need a metric ton of oil, which is just not good for the dish. No-one wants food to come with a pool of oil. Heat transfer is often not as important as Western cookbooks focused on wok recipes suggest, primarily because homestyle cooking is often not focused on the high heat “wok-hei” type stuff that Western cookbooks focus on. It’s likely just because people get exposed to wok cooking via restaurants in the West.
Basically, I don’t think it’s an edge case at all. There are also just various things that make me sad when I don’t have a proper wok, such as the inability to make perfectly round sunny-side-up eggs that are also perfectly browned around the edges. This is because eggs also “pool” in a wok, of course, and unlike the egg rings, a wok is quite hot all the way round. I think another crucial aspect is that many cultures care about food more than I’ve seen in the US. (just people I personally know. Not commenting on the US in general, since I am explicitly not American and I am not an expert on American culture.) Add that to the fact that people living in a foreign country are inherently more defensive about their culture, and I think it really explains why woks are a bit of a sticking point. People already have to try to keep their own culture alive, things like that make it harder.
Ok. Thanks for letting me know about the “pooling” effect. How well do induction woks work compared to using a flame?
That I have no personal experience with (yet), I haven’t switched because of a planned move. That said, I’ve never heard anything negative about induction woks except for the price. I think they just work.