If you have a sweet tooth for Asian especially Chinese cooking then your kitchen without a wok is incomplete. This bowl shaped utensil offers amazing results for satisfying the conditions of Oriental meals. You can use frying pan for some foods but the results with wok is just amazing. Wok makes your cooking job extremely easy. It needs less fat for cooking and the results are perfect. One problem most of the people face is the heating source. This cooking pot comes with round bottom. You can find a flat bottom wok but in most common and traditional form is round bottom. If your kitchen is equipped with glass stove-top then wok based cooking might not be an easy choice for you. You need to get some accessory or buying a flat bottom wok for making the cooking easy and safe for your fragile glass cook-top.This is the reason majority of people face this issue of wok and heat source incompatibility after buying the product. So in this article can a wok be used on glass top stove, we will try to find some solutions to bring these two opposing things into concordance.
The simple and straightforward one line answer is you can’t use traditional round bottom wok on glass stovetop. Some experts recommend flat bottom woks for glass stove-tops. But on checking the users’ experiences and reviews online the satisfaction ratio is 50:50. For more in-depth answer read the entire article.
Flat Bottom or Round Bottom
As far as wok or other cooking pots and pans are concerned with gas stove-top you have lot of options. You can easily harness the wok based cooking process when using gas stove-top with simple adaptations. The traditional and original round bottom wok is used with adapter (wok ring), if your gas burner lacks the ability to cradle the work. These adapters (wok rings) are inexpensive; you get even get a quality ring with spending less than 10 dollars. Before buying a ring for your wok it is important to know the size of your wok. Woks are available in different sizes. This is the reason on Amazon or on other market place your will see this accessory in different sizes. On the packing of this kitchen accessory, the size is clearly mentioned.
Original, round bottom and traditional woks don’t work well with some stove-tops and are not compatible with cook-tops such as glass, electric or induction burners.
If you want your wok finds itself compatible with any cook-top then flat bottom type of this kitchen pot is recommended. It is more flexible and versatile. You can use it on gas, electric, glass and other types of stoves without hassling for some accessory.
One important point you need to consider when you are going to buy a new wok for your kitchen is hand hammered flat bottom woks. It is flat but despite of it you can’t use it on some stove-tops such as induction or glass cook-top because of the uneven hand hammered marking/ divots applied on the flattened bottom of the surface. In most cases these hand hammered markings are approximately 5.5 to 6 inch diameter.
Even the customers’ satisfaction ratings with flat bottom woks on glass stovetop are not encouraging. The users of flat bottom woks are 50 percent satisfied while the rest of the users are not happy with its performance. Some unsatisfied users say the pot is not getting enough heat instead of its flat bottom while some customers say the cookware is dancing around their burner and not stable.
Woks for glass/ ceramic stove-tops
If your kitchen is equipped with glass ceramic stove-top then the flat bottom wok we recommend is Joyce Chen. It is pre-seasoned cast iron wok. The beauty of this Joyce Chen wok is it is totally flat. It is approximately 6 inch diameter and so it will find itself comfortable sitting absolutely flat on your ceramic cook-top which is necessary.
But despite of its flat bottom there is no scarcity of users who are not satisfied with performance of Joyce Chen wok. Some unsatisfied users said in their reviews that the wok “danced” on their cook-top.
One user says, “When the wok is viewed with naked eye it looks totally flat and seems fit for this heat source.” But it does not satisfy the needs of ceramic stove because it is not totally and completely flat to meet its demand. So the results were not as great they love this cooking style for!
The glass stove-tops are not mad for woks.
Woks are not made for glass stove-top. Even the flat bottom woks don’t work perfectly.
Some Additional Information about Wok and Glass Stove-top
The flat bottom wok is considered the best when your kitchen is equipped with an electric stove.
In market there are two types of electric cook-tops – the glass ceramic stove-top and the coil stove. The electric coil cook-tops is the old technology based heat sources and you will find them in apartments. On other hand ceramic glass stoves are high end, more expensive and easier to clean when compared to coil electric cook-tops but they also have some drawbacks such as easy to break and can scratch.
You can use the flat bottom wok on the electric coil stove without any issue; you just need to place the pot right on top of the heating coils. For ceramic glass stove you follow the same by directly placing the pot on the heating source or using a wok ring. But you have to follow some other things as well for using the wok even the flat bottom one on ceramic glass cook-top.
As you know wok based cooking needs intensive heat. So your wok must hot enough for delivering the expected results. For best results and avoiding the warping you need to adequately preheat the wok and bring the pot temperature up gradually. This gradual temperature works best for avoiding of your carbon steel made wok to ensure even distribution of heat and eliminating the chances of warping. This slow and gradual preheating is also recommended for using any non-carbon steel cookware.
What Type of Electric Stove-top to Use?
In market you will come across different brands of this heat source, but the fact is that all flat top cook stoves are not purely made of ceramic or glass but it is the blend of these two substances. The blend of ceramic and glass is important for producing a perfect cooking surface. Different manufacturers sell their product with different brand name even you will find some products made of porcelain.
These smooth ceramic glass stove-tops are formed first as glass and then they are treated with heat. This heat treatment causes the glass to partially crystalize. This process (heat treatment) gives the stove-top the expansion capabilities of ceramic while eliminating porous nature of a pure ceramic. This is the reason these glass ceramic stoves can handle high temperature without issues such as cracking or breaking.
But despite of its endurance for high temperature it is still not a suitable platform for some types of cookware such as wok. If you drop hard object such a pot or pan on the glass ceramic surface there is a great chance it will break. So you can’t use it carelessly as you do with gas stove-top. The surface is so fragile and easy to scratch if your drag the wok across the cooking surface.
Therefore the experts don’t recommend even the flat bottom wok use on glass ceramic stoves because they can easily break or scratch.
You can’t stop the cooking surface from scratching. I personally don’t recommend carbon steel wok on glass ceramic stoves.
Some experts recommend cast iron wok for glass this glass ceramic cook-tops. This material reduces the scratches potential of pot. But you still need to be careful because the surface can break if something hard drops on it. You can try Joyce Chen cast iron wok on this heat surface.
If you use the round bottom wok then you have to use a ring to avoid the pot dancing on stove-top. The wok ring makes the cooking easy and mess free. If you use a round bottom wok on ceramic glass top cook top, it can scratch the cooking surface it the pot is not stabilized and dancing.
If you use a ring for round bottom wok it prevents the contact between the cooking surface and pot. It can drastically lower the heating. High temperature is needed for this style of cooking.
How to Heat Up Your Wok
If you want to get perfect cooking results you need to slowly and gradually heat up your wok when using glass ceramic stoves. You need to gradually increase the level of temperature, it should be 3000 watt or higher. Don’t apply max heat to your cold wok or any cookware made of carbon steel. Sudden application of heat to wok or pan can cause warp.
The gradual heating is also recommended for cast iron wok or other cookware.
Wok Ring and Glass Ceramic Stoves
If you have glass ceramic stoves in your kitchen you can use round bottom wok. We don’t recommend the use of wok ring it can scratch the cooking surface. If possible continue your cooking without using this accessory.