How to season my wok (铁锅）?

[Angelina]

I have a cast-iron wok and I am not sure how to take care of it. 

 

I have been using it for a few weeks (not every day) and it still smells like metal. I am wiping it dry after washing it because I have been told that it will rust if there is some water left. What else should I do?

 

Is it safe to use it? The Internet says it is actually safer than Teflon because iron can hold high temperatures better. When will it lose the smell though? 

 

Is peanut oil healthy? What is your favourite type of oil? 

 

 

[liuzhou]

There are a dozen or more tutorials on on the internet on how to season a wok.

 

Did you remove the oily coating the wok came  with?

 

Scrub it with soap then dry. Heat the wok. until very hot. Add enough oil to coat the cooking surface, then turn the heat to the lowest setting. Leave it that way for a good while - half an hour or more.

 

Clean without soap. Just running cold water. Dry then repeat.

 

That should do the trick.

Peanut oil is as healthy as most other oils. I recommend rice bran oil for Chinese cooking. Just my preference.

[Angelina]

I did scrub it, but not like that. I will try.

 

What about next time? Should I use soap when washing it after use? 

 

Never heard about rice bran oil. I tried to fry brown rice using olive oil and it tasted  .  Can you make Chinese fried rice with rice bran oil? 

[ChTTay]

I was under the impression Olive Oil shouldn't be used in cooking that requires quite high heat (like Chinese) as it has a lower smoke point (or something?). Best to use peanut oil or something similar for Chinese cooking.

For seasoning a wok, I don't think you are ever supposed to use soap unless perhaps you are re-seasoning it. As liuzhou says though, there are countless walk through guides to this online.

I also think brown rice wouldn't work too well as a Chinese style fried rice. This might have been the main problem, rather than the oil!

[liuzhou]

After the initial scrub, don't use soap unless you burn something, then you have to start from  scratch.

 

You can use rice bran oil in any way you use any other oil. If you fried brown rice in rice bran oil and it wasn't good, it wasn't the oil's fault. I've never come across brown rice in Chinese cooking.

 

(Cross-posted with ChTTay's post)

[Angelina]

Hahaha I don't know anything about Chinese cuisine. I binged rice bran oil and I guess it has all the things white rice loses. 

 

Anyway, lesson learned: never fry brown rice. 

[Shelley]

I have cast iron cookware and I cleaned it very well with soap and water when I first got them. but now I never wash them at all. Just wipe down with dry cloth when it cools enough to handle. if food burns on use your spatula to gently scrape it off,

 

So after washing for the first time, when it is completely dry, coat inside and out in vegetable oil, other oils burn at a high temperature, so for the purpose of seasoning your wok use vegetable, for cooking anything you like. Once coated in vegetable oil heat the wok gently in an oven if possible if not on the stove. Keep adding vegetable oil with kitchen paper BUT be careful it will be hot. do this for an hour or so. then let cool and then put a last coating of oil all over the wok. stand on newspaper and kitchen paper overnight. In the morning wipe the excess oil still left and store it away somewhere dry and on a pad of kitchen paper.

 

Constant use will also help to build up a layer of oil, cast iron is actually porous so it needs to soak in to get a good layer of oil.

 

Finally enjoy all you eat from it

[WindyZhang]

Just wipe it dry after washing.

 

If you fry vegetables, lard will be great. We always use 菜籽油、花生油、豆油、调和油， people bengin to use Olive Oil recent years, but I don't like it. I like 猪油， it make cuisine smell well.

[Angelina]

Can I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil to season it? 

 

Sorry Windy, I don't like the smell of lard and I don't really support the use of it. You are right about olive oil. It is good for salads and I have been using it for that purpose. However, its flavor is too strong when used to cook Chinese-style food. I don't like to use it this way either. 

 

米糠油、菜籽油、花生油、豆油、调和油。I will check each one of them. I will definitely buy 米糠油  since I realized I can't use brown rice. Maybe also 花生油. 调和油 looks suspicious.

[liuzhou]

 

 

Can I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil to season it?

 

 

No.

 

As noted above, olive oil can't take the heat of a wok.

[Angelina]

I meant because of this 

 

 

So after washing for the first time, when it is completely dry, coat inside and out in vegetable oil, other oils burn at a high temperature, so for the purpose of seasoning your wok use vegetable, for cooking anything you like

[liuzhou]

 

 

I meant because of this

 

Er, yes that's why you can't use olive oil. It will burn at high temperatures. Unless you want all your food to taste burnt. 

 

And get yourself one of these for cleaning the wok under running water (no soap).

 

[Angelina]

I thought 'burns at a high temperature' = 'has a high smoke point'. My mistake. 

 

Thanks.

[Shelley]

I would only use vegetable oil for seasoning the wok. It has a neutral taste and so won't colour any of your food with unwanted tastes.

 

Personally I only ever use vegetable oil for all my cooking for this very reason. I don't like the taste of the other oils on my food and they have a much lower temperature threshold, this means they burn at the high temperatures that are sometimes needed for good woking.

 

I think lard is not a good choice for the wok, it is good for roasting meat and vegetables but I wouldn't use it for any thing else.

 

I would stick with vegetable oil to start with and as you get more experienced you can experiment with other oils.

[bande]

While it does have a lower hear point, some people do use olive oil for stir frying. My wife and I have wanted to try but haven't gotten around to it. Still, we will probably do the experiment in the next couple of months. There was some quote, I believe, from Ma Yingjiu during the Taiwan gutter oil crisis that he and his wife only use imported olive oil. Of course, I have also never seasoned cast iron with olive oil either.

[ChTTay]

Generally, the consensus would be not to use olive oil for Chinese cooking that involves high heat, in the wok.

 

I would just season it with vegetable oil and see what happens.

 

Good luck.

[Angelina]

Thanks. 

 

Meanwhile: 

 

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5MDMzMTQ1Nw==&mid=201945409&idx=3&sn=6a3ff01a89e36044a87254ce0ba29b9f&scene=1&key=36ab1da3ecadc95f785987df5ddf7e4b60c1ace301ead2c364905628c3b75798576924e32feda73e51792ccc20f7f7b4&ascene=0&uin=MTk1NjAwMjEzOA%3D%3D&devicetype=iMac+MacBookAir6%2C2+OSX+OSX+10.9.5+build(13F34)&version=11020012&pass_ticket=znyZaVUmqUIlHf5nNqywmNll1Fsp8GwfUDtzLR605XFsgDHXyYYoC4PPzEIuoN7H

 

Scary. 

 

I will try to season it with vegetable oil since I don't have much experience cooking Chinese food. A neutral taste is the best. Rice bran oil for cooking later. Olive oil for salads and maybe pasta sauce. 

[liuzhou]

 

I think lard is not a good choice for the wok,

 

Millions of Chinese chefs home cooks would disagree. Rendered pig fat (lard) is commonly used, especially to stir fry vegetables.

[Angelina]

I don't want to kill any pigs.

 

Numbers don't mean much. Many people use gutter oil. Does it mean it's good? 

 

 

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5MDMzMTQ1Nw==&mid=201945409&idx=3&sn=6a3ff01a89e36044a87254ce0ba29b9f&scene=1&key=36ab1da3ecadc95f785987df5ddf7e4b60c1ace301ead2c364905628c3b75798576924e32feda73e51792ccc20f7f7b4&ascene=0&uin=MTk1NjAwMjEzOA%3D%3D&devicetype=iMac+MacBookAir6%2C2+OSX+OSX+10.9.5+build(13F34)&version=11020012&pass_ticket=znyZaVUmqUIlHf5nNqywmNll1Fsp8GwfUDtzLR605XFsgDHXyYYoC4PPzEIuoN7H

 

我们灶台上用的油了，一桶清油配一桶老油，啥叫老油？你懂的

[liuzhou]

Actually very few people use gutter oil.

 

There is a strong belief among Chinese cooks that vegetables taste better stir fried in lard. They have been doing so for millenia. I tend to agree with them.

 

But if you have objections to eating animal, use any of the vegetable oils (but not, I would say, olive oil - the flavour is all wrong in Chinese food).

 

And be careful in restaurants. There is a very good chance you will be served veg cooked in animal.

 

Vegetarian or Vegan in China?