[Sca-cooks] If you only had one cooking pot

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 27, 2006, at 4:20 PM, marilyn traber 011221 wrote:

> completely. My disagreement comes because I'd prefer a larger wok-  
> you can
> cook for one person in either, but you can also cook for a crowd in  
> a big
> wok. Those little 12 inch woks that seem to be all the rage lately  
> are, to my
> mind, worthless. I prefer my 32" wok.

I've been thinking about getting a larger iron wok, and while most of  
the ones you see for sale retail are mild steel, I think iron ones  
feature in the better restaurants. I know I see broken shards of woks  
in some of the restaurant supply places on the Bowery...  assume  
they're iron in some form.

I like those little ones for small stir-fry jobs, and they make the  
best omelette pan I've ever used, with those thin-steel cheapies from  
Spain, with the blue weld marks on the handle, being my second  
choice. It seems like, with the exception of silly Teflon ones with a  
hinge in the middle, the best omelette pans are the cheapest ones  
(and, I guess, as long as they're not thin aluminum or something).

But yes, a larger wok is incredibly versatile. For me, if I could  
only have one pan, I think my cast-iron Dutch oven would be it, but,  
of course, since I do have more than one, that doesn't mean the Dutch  
oven is the one I use the most -- that would be the cast-iron  
skillet, I suppose.

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04