Do you need to heat wok first?

You can give the wok a good scrubbing to remove the surface rust and wipe it down with a few drops of oil on a paper towel. In general, regular use of the wok and heating it to a high temperature will prevent rusting on the outside, but be sure to heat the wok to dry the inside and outside after each use.

Do you add oil to a hot pan or cold pan?

Get your pan hot. Some cooks recommend heating the pan before putting oil in. Others put the oil into a cold pan and heat both together. Either way, you want to get both nice and hot before food goes in. If the oil isn’t hot enough, the food will soak it up instead of sizzling in it, and it won’t taste as good.

How do you heat oil in a wok?

That’s all right — that’s residual oils left from the manufacturing process. Heat all areas of the wok completely, turning and tilting it as you go, then set it aside to cool. Give it another wash, then put it back over a medium heat to dry. Once it’s completely dry, add a dash of vegetable oil and lower the heat.

Can I add more oil to already hot oil?

As soon as food hits the hot oil, the heat from the oil starts to drive off the moisture from the surface causing all sorts of tiny steam bubbles to escape. If you add too much to the pot at once, the volume of bubbles could cause the oil to rise up and over the sides of the pot—THIS IS NOT GOOD.

Do you stir fry with oil?

Oil: Although you can use almost any kind of cooking oil while you master how to make stir-fry, peanut oil is ideal. It can reach a higher temperature than other oils before it starts smoking. (If you have a nut allergy, other high smoke-point oils such as canola or avocado oil are great alternatives.)

Do you need to oil a wok?

Carbon steel woks are usually coated with a layer of factory oil to keep them from rusting before they are sold. It is crucial that you scrub off this layer of factory oil before you use the wok for cooking. You don’t want the factory oil in your food!