When it starts to smoke it's too hot and is breaking down....add your foods before it gets to the smoke point.

A good wok chef, knows "hot wok cold oil"....means you heat your wok blazing hot and then add your oil and then the food.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: smoke point of oils.

Not to worry. The smoke point for typical oils is around 375 degrees. It is perfectly OK to heat your wok to the smoking point....in fact, that is the preferred temperature in the preparation of stirred fried dishes. The oil (smoke) is not in any danger of flashing at this point (temperature). The actual flash point of most cooking oils occurs at around 600 degrees F. This occurs at a higher temperature than most people cook. You can recognize this point by observing that little fires will be jumping off of the surface of the wok. The oil (or smoke mist from the oil) must continue to be heated to 700 degrees F. before the wok surface can sustain an actual blazing fire.

It is perfectly safe (and the preferred technique) to heat your the oil in your wok to the smoke point when preparing stir fried dishes. Of course when using the wok for deep frying.....it is best not to deep fry above the smoke point of the frying oil.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

In chinese cooking, smoking hot oil as well as flaming is very much part of the wok cooking technique.

Of course you can't really do it in a home kitchen burner, but if your wok gets on fire, you are doing the right thing.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: wok cooking

Do you have a lid for your wok? Have it nearby. Any flame, just pop the lid on and the fire will be snuffed out.

I put the wok on the burner at high flame, then leave it to heat for up to 5 minutes, then add oil, leave it to heat for a few more minutes or until the oil is smoking. I don't much care if the oil is starting to break down - usually you wok with tasteless oil anyhow, its function simply is to transmit heat. Don't use sesame, olive, or anything with much of a taste.

Then - for traditional Chinese stir-frying - only cook small batches of food at a time - four ounces or so. You want the wok to be very, very hot and to brown the food very quickly, before the interior gets over-cooked, which won't take long at all. 1 to 2 minutes searing in the wok is about long enough. If you try to cook a too-large batch, the wok will cool and the food will not brown. It will start boiling in its juices, turn gray, and get tough.

Thank you all--very useful! I always use peanut oil, which seems to have one of the lowest smoke temperatures. So it would still have a much higher flash point?

"----So it would still have a much higher flash point?"

In the use of wok for high intensity stir frying, it is generally not the flash point that gets the fire going.

When you splash food with water in it on to a hot wok with very hot oil, the water will cause the oil to splash and atomize into fine mist. The mist is highly combustible. Just like in a circus act of fire blowing.

dcarch

Pat the food as dry as possible, before adding it to the wok. This will help with the searing, and reduce spattering.

Don't be alarmed if you get some flames coming up off the wok. It will usually just flicker up then go out in a second, and if not, by then you have the lid in hand, just clap it on.

The absolute best "wok cooking" actually occurs just below the flash point of the oil. For me that means using my wok on a propane burner outdoors. High pressure propane burners generate a lot more heat than most natural gas burners. Those higher cooking temperature chemical reactions add lots of flavor to the food being cooked. Not enough heat.....is often the reason why home "woked" foods do not taste as good as what is done in a Chinese restaurant. Most Chinese chefs will use high pressure propane burners.

Do not be afraid to put the heat to your high carbon steel wok. It is especially designed for just that purpose and your food will taste much better cooking at a high level of heat. Just be sure to keep ingredients always moving in the wok by constant stirring.....as you do your STIR fry. High temperature is really your friend in this type of cooking.

Dam
Semper Fi-cus

Is there any advantage to one of those hammered woks like you see on infomercials, or are the cheapos just as good? I notice on the dust jacket of 'Breath of a Wok' the wok they use seems to be one of those hammered ones. I read somewhere the slightly irregular cooking surface allows oil to drain downwards to the bottom when you 'park' food up the side of the wok, but I don't know if this had any culinary significance.

I'm redoing my kitchen, and the new stove has 23,000 BTU burners. The kitchen isn't done yet so I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. (It's killing me!)

Here is a link that might be useful: hand hammered wok

That new burner is going to be so nice......
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I have several woks and all are made of high carbon steel except one. My brother in law bought me a very large (28 inch diameter...but very thin walled) "cast iron" wok when he was working in Singapore. To date I have not used that big monster. My other woks were purchased at an Asian store. They are very well made but real cheap in price. I luv them.

My personal preference is for the one with the single long handle. I grab the handle and shake the heck out of the wok too whenever I am cooking over a gas burner.....especially a high pressure propane burner. I love to make Singapore style chili crabs that way.

I have no experience with the hand hammered woks; however, I don't see a need for one with the type dishes that I cook. Others may find this design feature helpful. IMO, high carbon steel over high heat is really what puts that flavor in the food. That combination does not allow moisture to accumulate in the bottom of the wok and then "steam" cook the food. Steam cooked foods do not have the same flavor as those which were stir fried properly at the higher temperature.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus