Seasoning is the most important thing you can do with your wok. Only carbon steel and iron woks need to be cured. The purpose of the seasoning is to remove the protective coating from the manufacturer and coat it with a thin layer of oil. This creates a smooth cooking surface that allows food to move and slide easily, preventing food from sticking, discoloring, and taking on a metallic taste.
The initial step is to scrub it thoroughly. Take a steel wool pad and scrub the inside and outside of the wok with soap. This will remove the anti-rust coating that comes with most woks. If your new wok comes with some rust spots, don’t worry. It’s completely normal for unseasoned woks to develop a little rust. Just be sure to clean up the rust before continuing. Rinse well with hot water. Then to make sure all the coating is removed, place the wok on the stove, fill it with water, and let it boil for 5-10 minutes to dissolve the rest of the coating. Pour in the water and scrub the surface again with a soapy steel wool pad. New woks may cause a slight metallic taste to the first two or three dishes cooked in it, but after that, the metallic taste will disappear.
Reminder: The steel wool pad should only be used in this initial step before seasoning your new wok. NEVER use a steel wool pad in a seasoned wok! It will waste all the effort you have put into seasoning your wok and will require you to re-season it again.
Next, place the wok on the stove over high heat. You’re ready for the next step when you sprinkle a few drops of water on the wok and they start dancing around the bottom. Then roll up a few sheets of paper towels or use a cloth and soak it in cooking oil. Peanut or corn oil is preferred due to its high smoke point, which minimizes smoke fumes when seasoning the wok. Naturally, turning on the stove vent will also help reduce fumes. Using a pair of long wooden toothpicks or tongs, run the soaked paper towel over the entire inside surface of the wok. Reduce heat to low and let wok rest for 15 minutes. This allows the wok to absorb the oil. If the surface begins to dry out, re-clean the wok with the soaked paper towel. You want the wok to get a thin layer of oil when it’s seasoned. The bottom of the wok should be slightly brown. Repeat the above steps two more times and the bottom should darken even more. Over time, the entire wok will turn black (that’s good). Now the wok is ready to go.
But we are not done. Ever wonder why Chinese restaurant dishes produce such a delicious aroma when served at your table? And have you ever wondered why you can’t match that blatant taste when trying to cook Chinese food at home? They come from cooking food on a shiny black almost waterproof coating in a well seasoned wok. That black coating is called “patina,” which is essentially harmless charcoal residue from repeatedly cooking in a wok over high heat. A well-seasoned wok cooked over high heat will impart what Chinese chefs affectionately call “wok hay.” Its literal translation is “wok breath”. Wok hay is so revered in Chinese culinary tradition that in China, especially in the Canton (south) region, when a customer is served a stir-fry dish without wok hay, it is considered an insult or bad luck.
It takes time, care, and regular use before a wok develops a patina. There are no short cuts. But having patina on your wok is still not enough to produce wok hay on your plates. It is imperative that you heat the wok over high heat to the point where you see a little smoke coming out of the bottom before adding cold cooking oil. Cold cooking oil cools the wok a bit and makes the food taste more tender once it’s done. If the wok isn’t hot or cold enough (gasp!) When you pour in the cooking oil, the ingredients will stick to the wok (even with the patina) and inevitably burn, leaving the raw ingredients inside as well. Not to mention, you lose that coveted “wok hay.”
In Part 4, we will talk about cleaning and caring for your wok.