Trade Offs - Black Iron Wok
Recently I had bought a black iron (Carbon Steel) wok which I was excited to learn how to cook in. In many different reviews, it seems to be given higher recognition by professional chefs. However, there are trade-offs.
- Good points:
- Black iron traps heat for a long time (like cast iron), thus if you are cooking something which requires a crust, e.g. steak, the texture would be amazing.
- The wok is not easily damaged, you can use any type of utensils on it (metal etc) which cannot be used on a non-stick pan (e.g. Teflon)
- Works well with Induction (magnetic) cooker.
- Bad points:
- You have to first season (putting some oil and baked into the black iron to create a non-stick surface) prior to cooking.
- In terms of daily use, you must wash, dry and oil it immediately to prevent it from rusting. This is not like the Teflon coated wok where you can put your food on the wok, and wait for ages to clean up, and it should be fine.
- The biggest bugbear for me is the inability to cook with acidic food (such as my favourite tomatoes) as it would peel off the initial seasoning (removing the non-stick). Both efforts and change of habit seem to be a lot for just a simple wok.
However, this is more of a trade-off where what is more important to you – the taste of the food or the work you must maintain it.
Ancillary Data
Flesch Reading Ease : 69.5
Word Count : 243