Possible to Cook with a Wok on an Electric Hot Plate

equipmentwok

My kitchen currently consists of little more than an electric grill/hot plate combo, one wok and one non-stick pot/pan. Woks, it seems to me, were really designed for flame – either wood and coal fires or gas burners. The one time we tried with the wok (a round bottomed one) on the hot plate no heat seemed to be getting through. So my question is, were we just doin' it wrong? Or is it impossible to cook on a flat electric burner with a round bottomed wok?

Best Answer

Impossible is a strong word, but yes its near enough impossible as there is insufficient surface area touching to transfer the heat through, and hot plates do not have good heat .. not sure of the word, but they don't transfer heat well to things which are not touching them.

You can get flat bottomed woks which are more suited to this set up, but even then if you are moving the wok about a lot you still end up with the contact being lost quite a bit, and so not as much heat being transferred as you might want.

I've always found woks to work best on gas. In fact gas is just best, full stop.

Related Solutions

Wok and electric hob – which ring to use

The larger ring will transmit more energy, but spread over the size of the ring; so the density is probably roughly the same.

So using an element bigger than your pot/wok bottom is basically just a waste of heat/energy.

Some supporting evidence added by DMA57361:

I've recently gotten a free energy monitor, which tells me the current power consumption of my entire home. So, with a bit of experimentation, I have worked out the approximate power output of each ring on my hob, and this backs up that they have approximately the same output density.

Position     |  Diameter  |  Area   |  Power  |  Density
             |   cm       |   cm²   |   kW    |   kW/cm²
-------------+------------+---------+---------+-----------
Back-Left    |   18       |  254.5  |  1.90   |  7.46
Back-Right   |   16       |  201.0  |  1.45   |  7.19
Front-Left   |   14       |  154.0  |  1.25   |  8.11
Front-Right  |   18       |  254.5  |  1.84   |  7.24

How to cook using a wok

Um ... just off the top of my head, important things when cooking with a wok:

Make sure all of your items to cook are ready before the first thing goes to the heat; it's quick cooking, and you don't want to be trying to chop something while you're trying to stir things at the same time.
You want to cook over high heat. The oil should be just about to smoking before cook with it, and you want to use an oil with a high smoke point (eg, peanut, canola, soy, corn)
Don't cool off the pan. Add ingredients in stages (harder, longer cooking things first), so you don't drop the temperature too quickly.
It's called a stir fry for a reason -- you need oil to help transfer the heat. You can saute, if you really want to, but it's not quite the same.

... and unfortunately, most residential stoves can't put out enough heat for the wok to work perfectly -- it might be good, but you'll never quite get the same as what you get from a restaurant. If you're cooking for a large number of people, it's sometimes easier to cook the ingredients individually or it batches, then combine it all back together at the end.

Best Answer

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How to cook using a wok

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