Wok Seasoning: Part 1

I got Michael a wok for Christmas.  It’s a nice 14” carbon steel wok with one really long handle and a shorter one.

The wok in question.  Note how new and shiny it looks.

The wok in question. Note how new and shiny it looks.

Between being busy because of the holidays and catching what we’re pretty certain was the flu last week we hadn’t had a chance until last night to try it out.  We picked a recipe out of Grace Young’s Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge (a really beautiful book if you’re interested at all in cooking in a wok), drove to Super H Mart (and then Walmart because pre-cooked ham was a bit too obscurely American for H Mart–no grand surprise there), and headed back to the apartment.

We thought our biggest challenge was going to be peeling and de-veining the shrimp we bought (although, considering I often find H Mart’s fish section to be a bit like a tiny aquarium, I feel really fortunate that the shrimp were already dead when the guy scooped them into the bag for us).  Michael was skeptical despite my optimism; I believe his words were, “We’re agreeing now that if this doesn’t work we’re ordering pizza.”

Oh, fateful, fateful words.

Back in the apartment, we follow Grace Young’s instructions and scour and wash  the wok for the only time ever to remove the factory coating.

Notice how much elbow grease he's using....because that's measurable....I swear.

Notice how much elbow grease he’s using….because that’s measurable….I swear.

That part was easy enough.  Then Grace Young tells us to rinse it off, and then set it on the stove with the stove on low just until the water begins to evaporate from it.  This we do, faithfully following our instructions as best we can.

Now for another sidenote, the oven in the apartment is like the sun.  After an unfortunate incident involving cinnamon buns that looked more like bricks of charcoal we bought a thermometer for it and discovered that when you put it at about 300° that really means something more like 600°.  The stove top isn’t quite as bad, but I wouldn’t call it “good”.  I’d call it “not quite as bad as the oven”.

So we try to heat it on low.  We try and try and try for an unusually long time before we realize low just isn’t cutting it, so we put it on high and turn it down to low.  The water evaporates.  We take the wok off the heat to cool for a little, and I chop up the scallions and ginger that Grace Young suggests using to season the wok with.

So professional looking, I know.

So professional looking, I know.

Eventually we put the wok back on the burner and turn it on to high, as our instructions say to do.  Grace Young instructs us to heat it until a drop of water evaporates within several seconds.  So we try our best and have waaaaaaaay too much fun watching the drops of water dance around the bottom of the pan.

Tiny drop of water.  Also note how the wok was changing color which freaked Michael out.  I remained calm, and referred back to our instructions which said that the wok may start to turn blue or yellowish.  Please don't freak out.  Our wok went with blue ,

Tiny drop of water. Also note how the wok was changing color which freaked Michael out. I remained calm, and referred back to our instructions which said that the wok may start to turn blue or yellowish. Please don’t freak out. Our wok went with blue.

So eventually we gave up on the water evaporating like our instructions said it should because the pan was HOT.  It had turned several other weird shades of blue, and that color seemed to be moving up the sides. (If you see that dark ring in the picture, that was actually the blue, it moved up a bit before we were done.)  We got out the veggie oil ready to pour our two tablespoons into the pan.  Fortunately I let Michael do this part, because I’m pretty sure he has better reflexes.

One tablespoon of oil in and FWOOOSH…our pan was on fire….

“Does the book say that’s supposed to happen?”

Uh…no.

We had the sense to turn the burner off and the oil burnt out in a few seconds.

And then there was smoke.

And then the fire alarm went off.

And then Michael dismantled them and we had to figure out how to re-attach them both….you know, in case at 10 o’clock at night any other idiots in the apartment complex decided to light something on fire that we might want to know about.

Too short.

Too short.

Just right!

Just right!

So…after much climbing and cleaning and trying really freaking hard…

We ordered pizza…

Stupid back up plans.

The pan now looks like this.

The pan now looks like this.

The pan is actually fine.  We did some research and we’re not the first people to ever set our wok on fire.  We’re going to try again tonight at my house, probably using the oven method.  Hopefully having a stove and oven that actually heat like they’re supposed to will help.

So, I’ll add wok seasoning part II tomorrow, hopefully.  And I’ll leave you with some fire safety tips…I’d never dealt with grease fire before, and I’m really glad we handled it pretty calmly and turned off the heat before trying something stupid like water.

  • don’t throw water on it
  • do turn off the heat source
  • do cover the pot with a metal lid (fire can’t burn without oxygen)
  • do pour on baking soda (the article I found at thekitchn.com on kitchen safety says this will work if the fire is relatively small, and that it takes a lot of baking soda to do the job…I hope to never have to know how much “a lot” actually is)
  • don’t try to move the pot (you might splash yourself or catch you/your home etc on fire)
  • do call 911

 

 

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