A Coleman 500 Speedmaster as it has an unrestricted area for the flame to spread evenly over such a large pan as a Wok and a very large grate as well as being heavy and sturdy as a rock. Very few single burners could do that. Most have a concentrated flame for a small area and a grate and base that would be marginal at best to support a Wok while stirring etc. Mike...
Hopefully I'll be giving a Coleman 500 a test burn some day, flivver - ebay auction permitting - but meanwhile, a few pics of the Primus 735 in use. It wasn't a stir-fry on this occasion, but sealing a joint of meat prior to slow cooking it. The stove and trivet I use The oil getting hot - steel wok - linux_author is right, the Teflon alloy ones disperse the heat too much The meat meets the oil The meat browned (nearly burned in this case because I was distracted by taking the photo)
You don't want your wok to be too heavy. You need to be able to toss the food around in your wok. It's really rather like flipping pancakes. I learned to flip pancakes from learning to toss my veggies around in the wok. I am so looking for a good multi-burner stove to get some more serious outdoor wokking done.
Great suggestion Wyatt and an excellent stove for wok cookery, as I've now discovered Handy Gas Plant as a wok burner I took the opportunity of a look in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant recently to see how it's done professionally. Impressive range of 'turbo' (fan-pressurised forced air draught) gas burners, a water-cooled cooking hob surround and some powerful ducting to extract the cooking fumes The wok burner has a firebrick surround, topped by a cast iron ring that the wok sits in - the rim needs to be tough to take the violent movement of the heavy steel wok during stir-fry sessions. The rectangular duct at the far right of the wok 'pit' is the exhaust port The burner sits low in the wok burner pit but the heat is intense and the 'turbo' air injection imparts a swirl effect to the vertical flame John
Many of these industrial wok burners have a foot pedal or knee activated valve to really blast the heat. Much more than even a HGP, I'm afraid. We must make do with the tools at hand though. Takes a bit more savvy at a constant heat output. Master at work. Mike
Heck, Mike, that yootoob clip makes me want to go back for second helpings! Yes, I think the wok range I stood in awe of this afternoon had a 'loud' pedal. Well, my Primus 85 is getting close to the output of those turbo-burners and the HGP's more of a simmerer! Thanks again for that clip, Mike, brilliant. John
I think that "85" IS right there for power. I was looking at some commercial wok burners and they ranged from 90,000 to 125,000 BTUs. WOW! Maybe that 85 with a pedal actuated simmer plate to deflect some of the heat and you get the same results. How's that for a project, John? Mike
I understand that woks were originally used over open fires. What sort of heat output would that equate to? Also, what do Chinese people living in the west use? I can't imagine that they'd have 9000 to 12500 BTU water cooled professional cooking ranges at home. In fact, what do Chinese people in China use? Cheers
I believe so Ian, fire pits - pretty hot! Well, with several thousand years of culinary history under their belt - so to speak - there are tons of Chinese recipes that aren't stir-fry and don't require that sort of scorching heat, steamed food for example. Other than that, it's a compromise to cook stir-frys at home with a de-tuned wok burner or conventional hob, but by cooking a little of the ingredients at a time (so's not to swamp the heat available) reasonable results are possible. John
My local Asian supermarkets sell the plug in style butane canister burners (see attachment), I'm guessing mostly to the international Asian students as most houses here have electric stovetops. I've been using my Coleman 425 for stir-frying for a while now. As presscall notes, just don't try to sear-fry too much at once.
Trevor, that might just do it! I am awaiting the arrival of a Clayton and Lambert plumbers furnace. Not sure of the BTU rating, but it shows promise. Pretty concentrated flame, but it should spread pretty well on the bottom of the wok. I'll update when it arrives. Mike
I do believe i have just the correct burner for a proper WOK cookery. And it's adjustable though it requires a bit of work. lance
I bought the 10 inch hand hammered wok listed here: http://www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/woks/wok-our-hand-hammered.html It serves me well but may be too small for most people. Somewhere here in CCS land is a post I made about a wok support I made to fit on my Radius 21 specifically to support my wok. I made it out of a coffee can and I get very good use out of it. The 10 inch wok is small enough so that the the single burner on my Radius 21 does not at all create too small of a hot spot on the wok. And yes, Ive strapped my wok to my backpack and hiked it in the woods to take advantage of the fresh wild woods mushrooms that were flushing at the time- oysters, chantrelles, and boletes specifically. Absolute gourmet cooking in the woods. BTW: Ive found that using an open fire is the best way to season a wok. Done right it can take just minutes to do.
What I find interesting is that this thread has over 5,000 views, far in excess of the other recent popular topics here. We must have drawn in wok people!
The butane tabletop stoves are for the communal pot of cooking oil, so you can cook what you like, as you like it right at the table. Seen that at many a Asian resturaunt, along with other tasty things served HOT, and kept HOT as well! The earlier stoves like that had safety problems, but most, if not all, of the current production have more safety interlocks and such, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over them. Darn things are as cheap as dirt - here, I see them for under $20 regularly! Murph
I suppose so Ed. More slow cooking than stir-fry, as a topic it's been simmering away quietly in the two years since I started the thread off ... John
These are almost useless for high heat cooking. Definitely not a wok stove unless we are talking about a tiny 1-2 person wok, like I have for camping. Even then I doubt this stove could handle it. I do use one of these butane stoves to keep stuff warm in my back yard when I am using my big side burner on my BBQ to wok stuff. The side burner works well since it puts out enough gas to have flames come out from under the wok and singe the fuzz off my knuckles. A wok stove has to put out enough gas to singe the fuzz, or all you get is steamed/stewed food. Jim Henderson
