Why You Need a Wok and How to Buy the Best One

A great wok gives you deliciously seared stir-fries at home&#;but that's just the beginning. Pros know that the pan is also suited to many cooking techniques, from steaming dumplings and pan-frying bacon and steaks to making scrambled eggs or even popcorn. Best of all, a good wok isn't expensive and you'll use it often, so long as you buy one with the right attributes that make it both user-friendly and durable. Ultimately, the material, size, and shape determine how well it performs.

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Interested in adding this pan to your cookware arsenal? We spoke to Grace Young, a Chinese-American food historian and author of many cookbooks including The Breath Of A Wok and Stir-Frying To The Sky's Edge, who explained what to look for in a quality piece.

What to Look for in a Quality Wok

You don't need to invest a lot of money to buy a quality wok. In fact, the pan Young recommends to most American home cooks costs just $35. You can find it at K. K. Discount, either in their store in New York City's Chinatown or via their website.

As for what makes this iteration the best for home cooks? It has all the right specs. It's made of heavy-gauge unseasoned carbon steel, measures 14 inches across by 4 inches high, and has a flat bottom. Here, we explain exactly why those qualities matter.

The Best Wok Material

High-quality woks are made of either carbon steel or cast iron. Carbon steel is best&#;it's resilient and lightweight, and it heats up and cools down faster than cast iron does.

Carbon Steel

Hammered carbon steel is more expensive, but it's even stronger and more durable. Some say hammering also makes ingredients cling to the sides of the wok better, which can be helpful when stir-frying, says Young. Today, hammered woks are typically made by machine in a factory, but some makers, such as Erik Newquist of Newquist Forge, continue to make special hand-hammered carbon steel woks the old-fashioned way.

Cast Iron

Traditionally, woks have been made with cast iron, which develops a wonderful patina over time&#;but cast-iron woks only work for people who have experience using one on a high-heat semi-professional gas range, such as a Wolf or Viking range, Young says. Cast-iron woks cool down more slowly than carbon steel iterations; that means you have to plate food immediately once it's finished cooking to ensure it doesn't overcook.

If you want to go the cast-iron route, Young suggests Chinese-made cast iron&#;the American-made kind is too heavy to be practical for stir-frying. A Chinese-made cast iron wok is lighter in weight, but that also makes it more delicate and prone to cracking if not handled carefully. However, "it really does get an incredible sear," Young says. For a traditional round-bottom Chinese cast-iron wok, turn to this one from The Wok Shop in San Francisco's Chinatown, Young adds.

Avoid Nonstick and Stainless Steel Woks

As for what to steer clear of? Don't buy a wok with a nonstick coating. Stir-frying calls for very high heat, which can degrade these coatings, including some ceramic ones. A stainless steel wok is also not the best choice; it only useful for steaming, boiling, or poaching (it is not practical for stir-frying).

Skip Preseasoned Woks

Don't bother buying a preseasoned wok&#;it isn't necessary. "It's really easy to season it yourself, and food cooked in a naturally seasoned carbon steel wok tastes far superior," says Young. "You get a better sear."

What Size Wok to Buy

This is very straightforward: The ideal wok for home use measures 14 inches in diameter. Anything bigger won't get hot enough and is too heavy, and anything smaller crowds food so that it doesn't cook properly. "It'll turn a stir-fry into a soggy braise," says Young. As for height, most woks are a standard 4 inches.

Flat-Bottomed vs. Round-Bottomed Woks

Flat-Bottomed Woks

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Most home cooks should choose a flat-bottomed wok&#;specifically, a flat-bottomed wok made of carbon steel with one long handle and one short helper handle (both made of wood). This is the wok type Young uses at home; she always skips using her stovetop's wok ring (which doesn't put out enough heat, regardless of the pan type you have, she says).

These pans (which are also essential for induction) work best on the cooktops the majority of people have in their kitchen, including electric and gas. If you have an electric or induction stovetop, note that your wok's perfectly flat bottom may warp ever so slightly the first time you heat it. "If it develops a slight wobble, you may need to hold the handle at a certain angle to get full, even contact with the heat," Young says.

To avoid this, choose a flat-bottomed cast-iron wok. Some have enameled bottoms to help disperse heat more evenly, like this one from The Wok Shop. But remember: Any cast iron wok is heavy and clumsy to use and are best reserved for experienced cooks.

Round-Bottomed Woks

If you have a semi-professional gas range, you might want to consider a round-bottomed wok&#;but you need to be experienced at cooking on high heat. Your burners can put out enough (15,000 to 18,000 BTUs), but you probably don't use them at maximum output very often. That's why Young only recommends a round bottom wok to more experienced cooks. (And if you're one of them, remember to wrap the wood handles with aluminum foil to avoid burning them.)

Wok Accessories

Lid

Buy the lid when you buy your wok, says Young. It should fit snugly on top, so you want it to be smaller in diameter (roughly 1 inch smaller). You might need to try several lids with your wok to find the one that has the tightest fit. Young recommends a domed lid over a flat one, since the former won't drip as much condensation onto your food, which is an important consideration if you're using your pan for steaming&#;a flat lid can make steamed dumplings soggy.

Spatula

"I haven't found any good Chinese spatulas for years," Young says. "The ones I have are over 10 years old!" She finds that either an old-fashioned metal pancake spatula or a fish spatula works best; the thin metal edge allows you to slide along the sides and bottom of the wok and flip food efficiently.

The best wok is a superhero. Hit it with high heat and it stir-fries veggies and proteins with ease, propels steam through a stack of bamboo steamer baskets like it&#;s nothing, deep-fries, braises, and makes fried eggs with crispy, lacy edges that cry for a drizzle of soy sauce&#;and a piece of bread to sop up the golden, briny yolk. (If you know, you know.)

The best woks

Buy the right wok, take care of it, and it will serve you well. But which one to buy? It can be confusing, because there are so many choices that, to the uninitiated, may seem way too similar to parse. Let me save you some churn. Find the top picks below and scroll further down for more information on how I tested, the woks that didn&#;t make the cut and the essential tools to use when wok cooking.

The best wok overall: Yosukata carbon steel 14-inch flat-bottom wok

What gives wok cooking its signature is what&#;s called &#;wok hei&#; or &#;guo chi,&#; the so-called breath of a wok that comes from the magic of carbon steel, searing temperatures, and fast cooking. To achieve that you want a wok that heats quickly, and the Yosukata delivers. It reached 440&#; within 30 seconds and 614&#; in 60 seconds. Made of black carbon steel, this wok has a beautiful handle, and weighs just under four pounds. While it takes a period of time to build a naturally nonstick patina on the surface of any wok, we didn&#;t have any trouble with sticking when we made fried eggs in this one. Even though it&#;s a flat-bottomed wok, the gentle slope of the sides and the 5.5-inch center made it feel like a more traditional round-bottomed wok. The rivetless design meant there weren&#;t any obstructions to the shoveling motion of a wok spatula.

What we didn&#;t love about the Yosukata carbon steel flat-bottom wok

Of our top picks, this is the most expensive at $60 at the time of writing. It also doesn&#;t include a lid, but you can buy a matching dome lid for about $40. (You can buy a generic dome lid for half the price.) Also, the angle of the handle may make it awkward for those who are shorter to use.

The best affordable carbon steel wok: Joyce Chen 14-inch carbon steel flat-bottom wok

You can&#;t go wrong with the Joyce Chen carbon steel wok. It&#;s a classic and consistently tops &#;best of&#; lists. It does what a wok is supposed to do and does it well (just not quite as well as the Yosukata). It passed all our tests, and with respect to its ability to develop a nonstick surface, we made fried rice with no stickiness issues at all. The price, $36 with the dome lid at the time of writing, is a steal. The wok is spun steel, which is why it has ridges on the side. Those ridges come in handy, providing friction that allows you to hold ingredients that need a moment away from direct heat.

This wok heats quickly, though not as quickly as the Yosukata: It hit 341&#; after 30 seconds and 517&#; after 60 seconds. It was also the lightest of the well-performing at just 3 pounds 3 ounces. If you struggle with lifting heavy pans you should be able to handle this one.

What we didn&#;t love about the Joyce Chen carbon steel flat-bottom wok

If you have a gas stove, the helper handle&#;a wooden handle&#;will char. Over time, the grip will degrade as a result. But, if you don&#;t cook over flames, it&#;s not an issue and this wok, as all carbon steel cookware is, works with an induction cooktop. The spun-steel construction, while helpful for keeping ingredients from sliding down the sides, isn&#;t as aesthetically pleasing as, say, hand-hammered surfaces.

What kind of wok should you get?

Carbon steel vs. stainless steel vs. cast iron vs. nonstick

Get a carbon steel wok. Just say no to stainless steel, heavy-gauge cast iron, and nonstick. These other materials aren&#;t ideal for proper stir-frying technique. Stainless steel woks are often heavy, food tends to stick to them, and they don&#;t take on a patina like carbon steel does. Cast iron is even heavier, takes a while to heat and retains that heat for too long. That heat retention, which is often a plus for cast iron skillets or Dutch ovens, makes cast iron woks less responsive. The nonstick coating on nonstick woks (like the coating on nonstick pans) degrades from high temperatures and the constant spatula contact of stir-frying, so it&#;s not ideal.

Choose a wood handle

A wood handle that has a little girth is helpful for safe maneuvering of the wok. It allows you to steady the wok while you actively stir-fry and offers enough balance for lifting, tilting, tossing, or pouring. A wood handle is also less likely to burn your hand. Some artisan woks come with thin round or flat, curved metal handles that resemble ones you might find on a skillet or fry pan. This style of handle doesn&#;t match the physics of wok cooking and can be awkward to use. Woks also come with a loop-style helper handle that can be all metal or have a wood grip. If you have a gas stove, the wood grip likely will get charred, so opt for a metal helper handle if you can. (The Wok Shop allows you to choose your wok configuration to include a metal or wood handle.)

Don&#;t spend more than $75

While you can easily drop more than $75 for a wok, you don&#;t need to. Woks are not cooking tools where a higher price equates to better quality. In fact, you can get a great wok for $40. If you&#;re paying $100 or more it is likely for a brand name&#;your Made Ins or your Smitheys&#;or because the piece is an exclusive status symbol. It&#;s your prerogative to get a wok like that, but it&#;s not necessary to pay big bucks to get a good wok.

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