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There's a misconception that Chinese food requires a 50,000 BTU burner causing "wok hei" to be right. The truth is that Chinese cuisine is huge and varied. Some
by eudamoniac 7mo ago
There's a misconception that Chinese food requires a 50,000 BTU burner causing "wok hei" to be right. The truth is that Chinese cuisine is huge and varied. Some regional dishes do actually require that. Most do not and can be cooked at home.
An equivalent induction stove would be around 5000W, which I think exists. The problem with inductioning a wok is the tossing motion removes the wok from the heat, unlike over a big flame. It probably doesn't matter, but maybe it does.
The main difference is that the gas instantly turns off, whereas with induction, the stove surface the pan sits on is just as hot as the pan, because the pan heats it up via contact, so it's almost like electric in that way. I kind of doubt this matters except in certain specialty things like candy making. I'd consider myself a very proficient chef at the level of a new culinary school graduate (minus the restauranteering modules), and in practice any stove type is just fine. I'm not going to rip out my gas stove though; it came with the house and adds resale value.
- Hikikomori 7mo agoThere are wok shaped induction cookers.
- chongli 7mo agoWoks aren't the only shape of cookware with a non-flat bottom and/or a non-ferrous construction. There are clay pots with many different shapes [1], Korean stone bowls [2], Indian copper cookware [3], Moroccan tagines [4], and many others. [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=clay+pot+cooking&t=osx&ia=images&iax=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=clay+pot+cooking&t=osx&ia=images&i... [2] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=korean+stone+bowl&t=osx&ia=images&iax=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=korean+stone+bowl&t=osx&ia=images&... [3] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=indian+copper+cookware&t=osx&ia=images&iax=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=indian+copper+cookware&t=osx&ia=im... [4] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=moroccan+tagine+clay&iar=images&t=osx https://duckduckgo.com/?q=moroccan+tagine+clay&iar=images&t=...
- Hikikomori 7mo agoMy caveman traditional cooking requires a fire on the floor, or I do bbq and bury my food with coals. Modern cities are bad because I can't do that in my apartment.
- chongli 7mo agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- eudamoniac 7mo agoModern cities are bad because people like yourself agitate for legislation to infringe on my personal home life that has essentially zero externalities. We don't need to make cooking a political issue; it's such a stupid thing to create a wedge about. Just leave the gas stove owners alone for God's sake. Natural gas tax already exists for this purpose and some choose to pay the premium.
- Hikikomori 7mo agoI wasn't making that argument. But portable gas stoves exist, I use one for my wok needs.
- girvo 7mo agoNo one made that argument here. If you’re okay with the trade offs to air quality, go for it. I used to be, then I switched and realised induction really just is better at home
- girvo 7mo ago> The truth is that Chinese cuisine is huge and varied Which is what makes it so great!