# Wok performance over "ring of fire"?



## kenner (Mar 5, 2017)

Hello!

I have a commercial grade gas range, 20,000 btu, with a cast iron grated top.  I also have some serious, 30,000 btu burners outdoors, for summer cooking.

I'm reading much and finding that a rounded wok w/ring might be the best for this situation.

Gas burners make a "ring of fire/flame", due to a 4.5" burner/flame distribution cap on the gas range, or the ports on the burner ring of the outdoor cooker.

Does this create a "cold spot" in the bottom of the wok?

If I choose a round bottom wok, I see there are different rings out there:

     Which style of ring should I choose?

     I've seen that the tapered rings can be used either end up; do I want the small, or large end up, in contact with the wok?

     When using the ring, should I take the grate off the range and use the ring only, around the flame source, or should I just put the ring on top of the grate?

Thank you!     Ken/kenner


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

A round wok cooks better for traditional Chinese technique all other things being equal.

But all other things are rarely equal.

Gas stoves aren't particularly efficient at transferring heat into the pan, or wok in this case. They average around 35% efficient. So your 20K stove delivers about 7500K into the pan, the 30K stove about 11K. Which is still quite a bit of heat to feed a family. Consider though that a wok stove in a restaurant is 150K so 50K into the wok more or less. The rest goes out the vent and makes the cook sweat. You can make good Chinese food, but it's a bit different experience at home than in the restaurant.

You shouldn't have much trouble with the wok spreading heat well enough to cook evenly over either heat source to have a cold spot in the middle. You're more likely to see the ring with boiling oil or water, which distribute heat well enough it's not significant to the actual cooking.





  








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This is one of my round bottom woks in a round induction hob, 1800 Watts--about 8000BTU into the pan. You can easily see the location of induction rings. It cooks pretty well considering the ring of heat for regular stir frying. Either of the gas units should produce less of a ring.

I generally prefer the wide side of a tapered ring up. Better stability, and it cooks hotter on my particular gas stoves. I've heard of people who prefer to cook without the grate on the ring, but this is usually problematic on most cooktops. Read your manual, it may even be unsafe according to the manufacturer. I suspect you'll get the better flame using the cooking grate in place. There are enough variables that you should try the ring wide and narrow ways and see what you like. Once you know what you like there is a handy stability trick. Take some metal shears and cut slots in your ring so it locks into position on your cooking grate. You don't want the slots deep at all because then your wok will rest on the grate, not the ring, which would be unstable. The slots make cooking easier for sure.

Because home wok cooking is on a much cooler wok than commercial wok cooking, you need to take care not to overload the wok so the temps stay high. This means cooking in smaller batches and combining them to finish the dish.

Having said all that, and even having dedicated equipment, I cook more often in my flat bottom wok. It's just less hassle to set up. And you should have one for use on other equipment if you're cooking at a friends or such. The biggest hassle of a flat bottom wok is that the bottom tends to "pop". As the wok heats up, the metal expands. In a flat bottom wok, this means the wok tends to take on a slightly rounded shape and not sit flat on the cooktop. Every so often, you'll have to hammer it out a bit so it's stable and heating properly. In my case, that's more that I've hammered the wok into a slightly convex interior to bias the pop in instead of out.


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## kenner (Mar 5, 2017)

Thank you for such a good and lengthy response!

So, you get a quality stir fry with a flat-bottomed wok?

I realize I won't get "restaurant quality", but it'll be better than the "soup" that gets made in the stainless wok my wife uses....


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

You CAN get good quality. Soup is more about overloading the wok in most cases.  You need few enough ingredients in the wok that there is sufficient heat to quickly boil off rendered liquid. So watery vegies such as zuchinni need to be cooked in smaller batches than carrots or green beans which don't give off as much liquid for the same volume of ingredients as an example. 

Other tricks like blanching vegetables and "passing through" oil for meats are helpful tricks too.


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## kenner (Mar 5, 2017)

This is a very different kind of wok ring... it doesn't retain and focus the heat, it stabilizes the wok. Are the trad. wok rings better than this?

http://www.sears.com/dacor-wok-ring...gclid=CPmv0OywwNICFUlNfgod2AQOQw&gclsrc=aw.ds


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

The others don't concentrate heat to any special degree. They were just inexpensive ways to stabilize the wok.


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

I did demo Wok cooking in my Catering business. This worked great. I had it made so when I'm walking to the cooking site from the truck the propane tank could sit on the side. The flame was insane......





  








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chefbillyb


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chefbillyb


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Jan 14, 2016


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Sweet setup.


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## norcalbaker59 (Feb 16, 2017)

Grace Young recommends a flat bottom wok. She's a James Beard cookbook winner. I currently use a carbon steel flat bottom wok. For years I used a round bottom wok; I definitely like the flat bottom better. The shape is not only more stable, but the it makes it easier to spread the meat in a single layer. The shallow bottom of the round woks is a liability when it come to caramelizing

I bought my current wok about three years ago in at a wok store San Francisco Chinatown. The store owner went through the different materials and shapes, and even though the carbon steel flat bottom isn't the most expensive one, he highly recommended it.






http://www.graceyoung.com/videos/

http://www.wokshop.com


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Let's clarify what Grace Young recommends. She recommends a flat bottom wok for the weak stoves in homes in the West. The units discussed here above have higher heat output than common Western stoves


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## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

phatch said:


> ....................Other tricks like blanching vegetables and "passing through" oil for meats are helpful tricks too.


??????????????? Passing through?????????


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Passing through oil is a low temp deep fry for protein. Important part of velveting, but not only for velveting.. For chicken and pork you can water blanch for a similar effect.


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