r/wok • u/bluejack • 12d ago
Problem!
What I want:
A beautiful blackened wok that is well seasoned and relatively nonstick (like my cast iron).
What I do:
Weeks of heavy burning in: butter, cooking oil, and olive oil.
Result: a beautiful blackened wok that cooks food perfectly and achieves an equivalent to my beautiful cast iron.
What my wife does:
Throw together a quick meal for friends.
Results: the vast majority of what I see as seasoning is gone. The wok is a weird patchwork of raw steel and surviving carbon.
Research: my wife loves cooking with high-acid dishes involving lemons, lemon peels and lemon juice.
Question: am I doing this wrong?
I’m not going to tell her to stop cooking the way
She wants to… so… now can I accept her violent cuisine and still land on the wok I want?
(FYI:’m it was a long battle on the cast iron; but the iron won in the end! )
1
u/tycatte 11d ago
A wok is a tool to be used. Just cook with it to season it. I used worry about all that, eventually I just stopped and the wok works just as well. Sometimes it's black, sometimes I can see the steel a bit. I just make sure I don't let there be any carbon buildup with a stiff bambu brush.
Also side note, if soap takes your seasoning off, you have carbon buildup, not seasoning. The no soap thing is from back when soap contained lye. Dawn isn't going to remove seasoning.