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Carbon steel wok seasoning issue

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  • 03-09-2019 3:24pm
    #1
    barrymanilow
    Registered Users Posts: 548 ✭✭✭


    Hi ,


    Just thought I would try asking here if anyone has experience using a carbon steel wok ?, one of those woks that you have to season with a layer of burned on oil before you use it.


    The thing is I have seasoned it correctly watching you tube videos so that it is gunmetal black all over , but most times when I cook anything with a sauce in it ir a fried rice dish the black oil coating comes off in the food and I end up having to re-season.


    Is this normal or are sauces and fried rice/egg dishes not supposed to be used in a wok like this ? It does veg great but anything at all sticky seems to pull off the seasoned layer .Am I using too high a heat maybe ?


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    #2
    B0jangles
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,951 ✭✭✭B0jangles


    It's unlikely to be too much heat, they are made to be used at very very high temperatures after all.

    I'm guessing maybe there was too much oil on the surface when you were seasoning, I think there is only supposed to be an extremely thin layer, -like, only the amount that is left after wiping it out with kitchen paper and that's what you want to cook on at the seasoning stage. Anything more than that and it ends up forming a sticky layer. I only clean mine with hot water + a scrubbing brush, no detergent. If your seasoning is perfect apparently detergent isn't a problem but I'd rather not take the chance :)

    Also - probably a silly question, but did you clean it really really well right at the start? Steel woks tend to come with a protective oil coating that you have to burn off or scrub off before you even start seasoning.


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    #3
    barrymanilow
    Registered Users Posts: 548 ✭✭✭barrymanilow


    Hi Bo ,


    I gave it a good cleaning with a wire brush at the start . I though I had seasoned it well but I after reading your post I think I will steel wool it back down to bare steel and go through the re-seasoning again. I was working off a you tube clip where they suggested you put 3 layers of oil down in succession one after the other after the last layer has stopped smoking to season.


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    #4
    B0jangles
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,951 ✭✭✭B0jangles


    Good luck! Another way I saw done was to do the seasoning in the oven - you get a more even overall temperature than you do on the stovetop and you don't have to stand there watching it the whole time. Obviously this is only an option if the wok fits in and if you take take off any wooden handles etc first.

    I'm absolutely no sort of expert in this sort of thing; I just have my one steel wok that I got in an asian supermarket years ago that I guard like a bulldog to stop people wrecking my precious seasoning - Feckers all coming after it with jif or mr muscle 'to give it a really good scrub' :D


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