BOLD 14 Inch Seasoned Cast Iron Wok; Design-Forward Cookware

AMAZING Tool. Period. Finally a wok that the average person can get HOT enough to actually really stir fry. I find this works best with a gas range (why cook on anything but the best, eh?)....but should work well with electric too. Not shown clearly in the pics, on while the inside of the wok from the top is perfectly round like it should be, on the bottom is a nice sized large round metal pedestal disk at the bottom. This is the key to this wonderful wok. This allows the wok to stand upright on its own on the stove top or even a properly equipped grill. No ring required. This large chunk of iron also holds the heat at a long high temperature for you to be able to properly stir fry evenly and properly. I sit mine on my largest gas burner on my stove top. I turn it on high and let it heat for about 12 minutes. As you know to stir fry, the key is to have all your ingredients cut, prepped and ready to go and close at hand...I put everything in its own bowl, and line them up according to which goes in first to last. I mix my sauce up in a measuring cup for the end. When 12 min is up, I pour in my peanut oil (make sure whatever you use has a high smoke point)...it only takes about 5-6 seconds to heat the oil and then I start adding my ingredients and start cooking. This will hold heat long enough to cook a VERY full wok, even with tons of veggies like I like to do....and at the end, still enough heat so when you throw in your sauce and toss to combine, it still is cooking. The only drawback of this, is it is rather heavy. But it needs this to perform well. I have purchased these for myself, and as gifts to my parents in their early 70's. My Mom is certainly no weightlifter, but she can handle this on her own. But be aware this is heavy and hot when you cook with it. I've now had 2-3 friends buy these when they saw mine...it is great. On last thing...I recently have seen grill tops for gas and even the weber kettle charcoal grills. It has a round cut out in the center, and I can imagine this wok would work GREAT in those. I'm gonna try this on my Dad's new Weber gas grill soon. I can't recommend this enough. I've tried wok, after wok after wok, and none could hold the heat on a consumer stovetop like this can.

I had a stainless wok forever, but if you know about wok cooking you know why that was a bad choice. I absolutely did not want a non-stick wok for the obvious reasons. I read endlessly about woks, watched seasoning videos, bought Grace Young's book (she recommends a carbon steel wok and didn't seem to like American cast iron), but it just seemed that this particular Lodge cast iron wok has it all so this is what I decided to get. I had seen it in a local shop and once I'd looked at it, I kept coming back to it as a possibility. It has the traditional rounded bottom inside, which I've found I really like, but there is a square flat platform on the bottom side so you do NOT need a wok ring. It sits quite nicely on my gas burners and would work equally well on electric coils or a flat top stove. On high, it gets to the right heat in about 10 minutes, and once it is hot, it stays nice and hot, just as it's supposed to. The Lodge wok is beautiful and comes pre-seasoned, which I consider a great feature. When considering a new carbon steel wok, I frankly did not relish the task of getting a thick layer of seasoning on it (over time, too). Taking care of this cast iron wok is extremely simple and no trouble at all. It will become increasingly seasoned as you use it over time, but unlike a new carbon steel wok, this one is ready to go out of the box and you build it up from there. Surprisingly, when you turn off the heat, it seems to cool down for cleaning a lot faster than many reviewers implied. Cleaning is a snap: When it's cool, put it in the sink and add water, use a firm brush to scrub bits out, use a paper towel and water to clean as well (no soap, though!!), then dry it well, put on the heat for a few minutes to thoroughly dry it, then wipe some oil inside the bowl, and you're done. It simply is NO trouble at all, and I want to emphasize that because the whole wok care thing worried me before I got one. I think I read that this weighs 14 pounds. Big deal...this weight makes it nice and solid on the burner, and as a previous reviewer said, you can use two hands/two spatulas if you want to mix the food around with no worry of the wok turning over or moving around and I like not having to to hold onto a handle as you would with the light weight carbon steel woks. If I want to hold one of the handles for any reason, I put on an oven mitt, but I'm finding I don't need to hold any handles at all except when putting it on the stove or moving it to the sink to clean, and in both those instances the wok would be cold. No big deal! A reviewer a couple of reviews before this one made some excellent points so I won't repeat what he said, I'll just say I agree completely. This wok will last forever and Amazon's price is fantastic....it was almost double Amazon's price at my local kitchen shop, PLUS tax on top of that! So this is an amazing buy, and with Amazon prime it arrived in just a couple of days.

After the debacle I experienced with the Joyce Chen carbon steel wok and which I reviewed, I was looking forward to a great wok. I found it with this cast iron wok. Although it comes pre-seasoned, I seasoned it in the oven by washing it out first with hot water (NO suds), drying it well, and then coating it with a thin layer of oil. I used grapeseed oil which is perfect for high heat. I then set it upside down in a cold oven and set the oven to 450, for 20 min. I let it cool down. It was cooled down by the time I started our stir fry dinner. I set it on HI on my electric stovetop. After I added about 1-2 TBL of grapeseed oil and brought it up to a heat where I could throw a drop of water in it. This took about 6 min. When the drop sizzled I knew it was ready for cooking. I then threw in chopped bok choy, mushrooms, green onions, peppers and broccoli. After only a few minutes when the veggies were still crispy, I transferred the veggies to a bowl. Then I added a little more oil and threw in a half pound of cleaned and deveined medium shrimp. It didn't take more than 2-3 min. to get the shrimp to a pink color and at that time added back the veggies, tossed all, and added a sauce made of garlic, fresh ginger, rice vinegar, a little sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, chicken broth (or water) and 2 TBLS cornstarch. The sauce was made in advance in its own container which I could shake up to blend all. After the veggies and shrimp were done I was able to add some of the sauce. All was immediately ready to be served directly from wok to a bed of rice which was already prepared in advance. I LOVE THIS WOK! Not once did anything stick. To clean it I washed it out with hot water and used a non-harsh scrubbie to remove anything stuck to the bottom. It was easy to clean. I then made sure it was dry and oiled it very lightly before storage. I store it in my oven which we always check to see if anything is in it before turning it on. What a PLEASURE TO USE THIS WOK after the horrible time I had with the carbon steel Joyce Chen wok I previously purchased here. I thought this wok would be too heavy to handle but it is not. I also purchased 13 or 14" heat resistant tongs to toss the food. I thought my wood spoon would be OK but really needed the tongs. I can't wait to make a stir fry with beef or chicken. What a great way to eat our veggies. The only time consuming part of all of this was washing and chopping the veggies. I did not want to put wet veggies in the wok either, as they would not crisp up but be more like steamed, something I didn't want in a stir fry. If you buy this you will not be disappointed!!

First of all, I readily admit that cast iron is neither traditional nor particularly recommended for wok cookery. If you have a gas range or are cooking over any sort of flame, it's very possible the traditional form will be by far the best option. I, however, have a halogen cooktop...and a traditional wok is clumsy and heats quite poorly by this method. This Lodge cast iron wok and I have been forging a relationship for the past 6 months and I have found it to be an extraordinary tool: the vegetables in my stir fries brown perfectly without becoming overdone, there is no liquid build-up that must be steamed away (making all of the stir fry ingredients soggy and far past done in the meantime), and it is virtually non-stick. It is large enough to handle a dish that could likely serve 10 or more with leftovers, but is just as reliable with a serving for one. Clean up is quite easy, provided you are at least somewhat familiar with the quirks of cast iron. Cons? It is *heavy*. I personally don't mind this, but it may be a factor if lifting is an issue. It is also large, which means that mine lives in the oven when not in use--I simply have no other place where it will fit. Not a con, particularly, but something that is very helpful to know: this pan MUST be preheated--and for a decent chunk of time--in order to perform at its best. I have got in the habit of putting it on a hob set on a mid-heat setting for 15-20 minutes before I start the sauté. Just add the oil next, let the oil heat on high, and start the stir fry. I generally keep it on high until adding the sauce, at which time I turn it off (the heat from the pan will keep everything at temperature until it's ready to be served). If I follow these steps, everything turns out beautifully and the pan itself is a snap to clean. If I miss the preheating? Disaster--everything wants to stick and the veg ends up boiling in rendered liquid. Happily, cast iron is amazingly forgiving and may be easily re-seasoned if need be--just scrub it out, rub it with a light coat of oil, and place it in a 200-degree oven for about an hour. I have got in the habit of doing this as a matter of course whenever I use the pan, as it also prevents any rust should there be residual water from the washing up. The wok is possibly even more gorgeous now than it was when I first made the purchase, and it has become one of my most treasured kitchen pans!

Lots of details went into the design. There are lots of cast iron woks for sale out there. Most of them are made overseas and you have no idea what type of metals got melted into their cast iron. Lodge has been making cast iron pots, pans, griddles, and Dutch ovens forever and they make them in Tenessee. A few details distinguish these from others. 1) lies flat upside down. The handles of a lot of woks stick up. This makes them tilt while upside down. They also will not hang nicely on a wall hook [if that's how you want to store it. Also, when you want to cover it with a lid that is perhaps too large, it won't work because of the handles sticking up. The Lodge handles are on the same plane as the top of the wok. They are also big enough to get your fingers around them. [Use heatproof gloves when hot]. They are integrated, i.e. cast in place, not riveted, so they won't break off. 2) Large disc on base to keep wok stable and retain heat at the sweet spot. Most wok cooking is done at the concave bottom portion [about 1 cup of oil's worth]. This area needs to be as hot as possible. The Lodge has a thick plate there to retain heat so that when you put the food inside, it doesn't lower the heat [like what happens with thin carbon-steel woks]. This disc also makes it possble to use this wok on electric stoves. Try to concentrate the gas on this center area. This means you might put the wok over a smaller burner than the large one that has a huge spreader disc [which makes the flames bypass the bottom of the wok and heat only the sides - this is counterproductive]. 3) Preseasoned with vegetable oil and ready to use. Many foreign-made woks are shipped slathered in machine oil to prevent rusting. They've been on a boat for months and this is necessary. Vegetable oil would have gone bad (rancid). This is why they use machine oil. The first thing you need to do with machine-oil preserved woks is to give it a soapy bath to remove all the machine oil. Now it's prone to rust! You will then have to do several "seasoning" rounds of drying, rubbing with thin layer of oil, and baking in an oven 350 for an hour. Repeat until you have a nice patina that won't stick. Much frustration happens when this seasoning is washed off and the wok rusts. Since the Lodge is preseasoned with vegetable oil, a gentle rinsing is all that's needed before using. Still, I washed it mildly, then applied a thin layer [with my fingers] of flaxseed oil or you can use olive oil [don't use a paper towel with flaxseed oil]. It should feel like rubbing in sunscreen in that you are not trying to have any runs or drips. Preheat oven to 350 and bake upside down [good thing it lies flat] on the rack for an hour. 4) Now you're ready to cook! Because the Lodge retains heat, make sure all your ingredients are lined up. You'll have to go fast and remove the food fast. Turning off the flame will not cool it immediately. After scooping out the food, put water inside and let it cool. 5) To preserve the seasoning, don't use soap. Just scrub off any particles and rinse well. Dry it, and apply a very thin layer of olive oil [no dripping]. Set it on the stovetop and heat it up only enough to evaporate any water vapor. Then let it cool naturally before putting it away. 6) If your wok gets rusty, do not throw it away. You can rehabilitate it [watch Lodge video] or if you don't care to do so, donate it so someone else can use it for the next 100 years. Final note: the food I cooked tasted better than with my carbon steel wok. This is because I drizzled the sauce down the hot sides and kept flipping the food until the sauce kind of got dried into the meat and veggies. After scooping it out, I was left with an almost clean wok! It also cooked faster so you get that Wok Hei, or Wok Chi. Because it heats more evenly than a carbon steel wok, I did not get as much oil smoking and burning because I didn't need to wait super long for the oil to heat up in the center [where it would burn on the sides]. This product is full of American ingenuity as it takes a centuries old product and improved it with these design details.

This wok is by far the most beautiful wok being sold on the planet right now. But that's just about it. Beautiful. It is heavy, it requires sanding to remove preseason, lest you'll end up with an upset stomach, and it requires seasoning after every use. I can only use induction cooker in my apartment because gas cookers are prohibited so I looked for woks that could work with induction cooker and I found it. Heat distribution is poor. The heat has to travel about 1 inch from the bottom of the foot to reach the surface of the wok. From there, the heat dissipation is glacial. The heat at the bottom of the pan can exceed 300°C (572°F) but the sides are still cold, which causes the induction cooker to shut off. It takes a good 30 minutes and multiple turning on of cooker before the sides get warm. Not hot, but warm. However, if there is something cooking in it, the heat is transferred to the food, which prevents the cooker from shutting off. The quality is undisputedly top notch. Although Amazon basics also sells a similar wok of this size, the design of the handle on this one is better. Did I mention it's heavy? Yes. Very. I even hurt my wrist while trying to move it to the sink for cleaning. Traditional woks are not supposed to be heavy because it should allow you to toss the food, pour out oil, remove from flame, etc etc. If you are an expert in cooking using woks, this is not for you. Cleaning is also something to be considered when purchasing this wok because it's cast iron and cast iron cookware requires additional taxing care. It would be more advisable to get one of those cast iron mesh cleaners like the fixer. You can definitely use detergent to wash the wok. Forget about what other people are saying about not using detergent. The stuff that remains on the wok, called patina, are just baked-on hardened oils from previous cooking, which, let's be honest here, is disgusting. You can season the wok after washing it but as it is iron, you need to rub some oil on the surfaces that might be susceptible to rusting, which is all of it. Overall, I am happy with this wok because it is the most beautiful and the most solid wok out there. But as a cookware, not so much. It's just mostly for bragging rights like "Yeah, I have the lodge 14 inch cast iron wok". But has very little versatility when it comes to cooking. And of course, the required extra care needed to prevent it from rusting.

Often times, when the arcs of art and functionality intersect, the arch of art wins the day. According to my friends (and some enemies perhaps), I am a chef; (all be it, a self-trained one). I have owned a number of restaurants around the world and know a thing or two about the tools that I like to work with. For me, as a small-time artist, a tool, first and foremost has to be beautiful. I feel that regardless of what it is that I am making, if I relate to the beauty of my tools, that beauty emanates to my creation. A couple of months ago, I decided to purchase yet another Wok. I own a number of them; from the very expensive, to a well-worn one that I bought for less than two dollars from a lady in a Chinese village. It was so beautiful that I felt guilty for having taken it away from her. So, to rid myself from my guilt, I returned the next day and offered the lady a hundred dollars more at which time, she ran to the back into her house, uttered an excited series of words in Chinese and within minutes, she, her husband, and grand children returned to the court yard with all of their pots and pans. Since I did not speak Chinese, and she did not speak English, with great difficulty I conveyed the message that I did not need any pots and pans and just wanted to give her the money and leave. In any case, since then (which was many years ago), I have been looking for a wok that both looked beautiful and did what a Wok should do; sort of like an Arabian horse, it looks beautiful and runs fast. This is when I came across the lodge Pro Logic Cast Iron Wok; and ordered one. I was astonished by its beauty and quality. After using it a few times; I took it to a friend's house where I was going to be the chef for the evening. Well, he and his wife fell in love with it as I had. So, I told them to keep it and I ordered another one. I placed the new one under a beautifully framed etched picture of my beloved dog Mucho Gusto, a 260 pounds Spanish Mastiff, atop a solid walnut cutting block in my office. Simply put, it looks stunning. Every one who comes into my office, comments on that Wok and wants one. Now the Pros and the Cons: Pros: * Aesthetics: It is absolutely beautiful. The lines, the curves, and the organized whole, the Gestalt of this Wok approaches perfection to the nearest possible limit. * Functionality: It is heavy, thus very stable, shallow and marvelously tapered out such that the ingredients are not truncated to the bottom. * Heat Distribution: It distributes heat ever more so evenly than any Wok I have ever owned. * Price: It is worth twice as much as what they are charging for it (I hope this comment will not prompt them to increase their price). * Delivery: It arrived on time and was very well packaged. Cons: * Now I have no choice but to purchase another one for cooking since this one has become part of my art collection. * The corner of one of the handles has a chip on it (it looks as if it may have been dropped). No big deal, I will return it for a replacement.

We live in a rental home, the kind that comes with a very cheap, very finicky electric coil stove that can and will burn anything while somehow leaving other things uncooked. It's a painful stove, and if you're familiar with the kind of stove I mean, you know exactly how painful. Especially for high temperature stir fry and sautee purposes! But this heavy construction wok makes up for every fault in our underwhelming stove, beautifully. Because it is enormous (and it is HUGE), it does take a while to heat up. I usually leave it on the medium heat setting for 5 minutes, then move the stove setting to whatever temperature I need for cooking, to ensure that it is heated through. But once the heat is there, it is a magnificent pan. It works perfectly for stir frying vegetables and fried rice, but it also works great for any pan frying and sauteeing situation that requires constant stirring. The curved shape makes it easier to fall into a stirring rhythm, and the high walls prevent any of your food from jumping out of the pan and onto the stove. Storage can be something of a concern, given it's large size, but we keep it in the oven, since it is safe to accidentally leave in there during a preheat cycle, because of the full iron construction. As with all modern cast iron surfaces, it is not truly nonstick, because of the rough sand casting techniques and lack of in-house machining. However, for most of the high temperature, high speed applications you would use it for, it works fine right out of the box. If you do have issues with its finish, creating a smooth nonstick surface in your modern cast iron is relatively simple, but does take several hours of work: strip the factory provided seasoning (the black finish) by running the pan through your oven's self cleaning cycle, or by leaving it in an active fire, covered/filled with coals, for about three hours. When the pan is cooled, you can wipe the ashes off and it should have a more iron appearance: grey rather than black. The sandy cast of the iron will still be present. At this point, it's time for sandpaper. If you have an electric sander that can fit in your pan, that will make the process a lot faster, but most won't fit a pan with the kind of curve this wok has. A better choice is a wire wheel (bronze or brass) on an electric drill. But if you don't have either of these, regular sand paper will do just as well, it just takes longer. Start with a 60 grit, and work your way up through 100 and 150. The pan doesn't need to be perfectly smooth, it just needs to be smooth enough that re-seasoning it will take care of the rest. To reseason, coat the pan in a thin layer of edible oil (flaxseed is best) and bake it at 500F or as high as your oven can reach for baking purposes. It will smoke heavily. Leave it baking for an hour, then let it cool for an hour. Repeat this seasoning process as many times as you can stand (the smoke gets annoying after a while), or 8 times. If you can't make it the full eight, just remember to oil your wok very liberally the first few times you use it (always oil a pan when it's cold!!), and it'll develop some additional coating on its own.

Sometimes you buy something where you wonder, 'why did I not get one of these sooner' This is the third Wok I have owned(in 40 years of cooking), that last two being pretty decent non-stick coated types. When the last one started to lose it's non-stick properties after about 16 years (yes...quite impressive) I had a look online and noticed that if you get a very good cast iron wok and treat it well, then you can basically buy a heirloom WOK that will last for a lifetime, regardless of how much it is used. This LODGE cast iron WOK is one of those lifetime purchases! I have cooked Chile, many stir fry dishes, curries, even special fried rice, and NONE have stuck to this wok. The one tip I would give is to get a very rigid 'stirring stick' to make sure you remove as much food as it starts to stick without giving it a chance to glue itself. The quality of this wok gives a decent margin of error to minimise the chances of this happening. Do not expect miracles if you leave it for any more that 30 seconds if the ingredients are dry. The point is, you do not have to worry about damage caused by the possible rigorous stirring and scraping as it is made of cast iron, and not non-stick coating that has been getting a bad reputation in the last few years. There was some sticking of sauces, higher up the sides, but simply rinsing it or soaking depending on the dish, and this wok continues to impress. I have wiped it with vegetable oil after every use, and it amazes me every time how all the sticking just disappears whilst cooking, as long as there is moisture either coming out of the veggies or the meat. If it starts sticking, just look to add some moisture or oil, it is as simple as that. A class act that is getting more used the longer I cook with it. OUTSTANDING!

Heavy weight so heat distributed equally. Good quality. One time investment for those who looking for a great wok

Excelente wok, la difusión del calor es idonea para mis preparaciones

Works great on induction as the flat bottom provided a firm and stable base. It also heats up quite fast with induction. Only thing is it's too heavy to do hand toss

compra 100% acertada, el wok es perfecto, tiene capacidad suficiente para poder saltear la comida. Hay que secarlo siempre después de lavarlo tal como dice en el libro de cuidados para evitar el óxido. El wok es grande, robusto y pesado. Lo aconsejo sin lugar a dudas porque la verdad es que una vez que lo tienes solo te apetece cocinar en el todo el tiempo, y es que da muchísimo juego. Hay muchos más? Sí, pero como este de Lodge; ninguno!!!