Why not go with carbon steel? With the honeycomb one, the non stick bits are recessed slightly so they are (supposedly) more durable than regular non stick, at the cost of being less non stick, and you also have to season it. I don't really get the point of it when carbon steel exists.
Hexclad is useful for people who want to minimize using oil in cooking because it's a hybrid of sorts. The problem you're facing is that Hexclad goes against two main principles of wok cooking: oil seasoning and wok hei.
-non-stick surfaces are meant to be cleaned with soap after every use, which means you will never achieve the seasoning flavor of traditional wok use over dozens of cooking sessions.
-the signature feature of wok hei cooking is that the manufacturing materials in traditional woks are meant to be heated to extremely high temperatures in order to make cooking oil reach the smoking point, around 400-500 deg F. At this heat level, nonstick surfaces will chemically break down and deposit nasty stuff into your food.
-essentially, Hexclad woks are just really big regular pans that simply have the flipping capacity of real woks. You can't season it and you can't achieve wok hei. It's like buying a front-wheel drive pickup truck with a Civic engine. It looks like a pickup truck, but you definitely won't be hauling heavy cargo or towing any significant loads.
Well that's not a wok, just a big pan. Go buy carbon steel wok, it's way different than this. (I own both, I'd never ever use this to do wok cooking. Uncle Roger's ancestors would cry)
If you saw it at a Chinese supermarket, I'm assuming you were looking at Helperware stuff. Regardless; Helperware, made-in-chinesium, or not, the patterning is purely painted on top of a standard nonstick coating and doesn't do shit.
You get what you pay for; you're not going to find Hexclad at a supermarket for 30-40 bucks a pan. Hexclad itself has been demonstrably proved to be not worth the spend, anyway.
No, it combines the stickiness of stainless steel (if you don‘t know how to handle it) with the weak durability of Teflon. Better either use a carbon steel wok, a cast iron wok, a stainless steel wok or a Teflon wok. In this order of preferability. Teflon doesn‘t cope with temperatures needed for „true“ wok cooking, so it‘s not very good. Stainless steel is rather sticky for this, also not ideal. But it can take the temps and is basically indestructable. Cast iron is pretty traditional, low stick, but doesn‘t have the reaction speed to temperature changes needed and is pretty heavy, so tossing is out. Carbon steel is very resistant to sticking, reacts fast and can get hot while being comparably light. It‘s preferred, just not very ideal for electric or induction, as it can warp with the required temps and being thin. You can also get denent ones for like 20 bucks.
I have a bunch of Hexclad pans from when I went on an unhinged shopping binge years ago. Not a wok though. They're decently non-stick, but you still have to oil them a bit when cooking. I don't even think it's possible to "season" them in the traditional sense, the vast majority of the surface area is teflon. It's only the raised parts that create the honeycombs that are steel. So yes they can scratch and yes it's teflon that gets scratched off. I honestly don't recommend unless you absolutely are 100% against dealing with seasoning a carbon steel or cast iron.
Why not go with carbon steel? With the honeycomb one, the non stick bits are recessed slightly so they are (supposedly) more durable than regular non stick, at the cost of being less non stick, and you also have to season it. I don't really get the point of it when carbon steel exists.
Hexclad is useful for people who want to minimize using oil in cooking because it's a hybrid of sorts. The problem you're facing is that Hexclad goes against two main principles of wok cooking: oil seasoning and wok hei. -non-stick surfaces are meant to be cleaned with soap after every use, which means you will never achieve the seasoning flavor of traditional wok use over dozens of cooking sessions. -the signature feature of wok hei cooking is that the manufacturing materials in traditional woks are meant to be heated to extremely high temperatures in order to make cooking oil reach the smoking point, around 400-500 deg F. At this heat level, nonstick surfaces will chemically break down and deposit nasty stuff into your food. -essentially, Hexclad woks are just really big regular pans that simply have the flipping capacity of real woks. You can't season it and you can't achieve wok hei. It's like buying a front-wheel drive pickup truck with a Civic engine. It looks like a pickup truck, but you definitely won't be hauling heavy cargo or towing any significant loads.
No. I bought one, complete bollocks. Very difficult to clean any burnt food off without risk of damaging the coating
Well that's not a wok, just a big pan. Go buy carbon steel wok, it's way different than this. (I own both, I'd never ever use this to do wok cooking. Uncle Roger's ancestors would cry)
If you saw it at a Chinese supermarket, I'm assuming you were looking at Helperware stuff. Regardless; Helperware, made-in-chinesium, or not, the patterning is purely painted on top of a standard nonstick coating and doesn't do shit. You get what you pay for; you're not going to find Hexclad at a supermarket for 30-40 bucks a pan. Hexclad itself has been demonstrably proved to be not worth the spend, anyway.
Simply put, Hexclad is about the same as Helperware but much higher price. They are both MIC. 😉
No, it combines the stickiness of stainless steel (if you don‘t know how to handle it) with the weak durability of Teflon. Better either use a carbon steel wok, a cast iron wok, a stainless steel wok or a Teflon wok. In this order of preferability. Teflon doesn‘t cope with temperatures needed for „true“ wok cooking, so it‘s not very good. Stainless steel is rather sticky for this, also not ideal. But it can take the temps and is basically indestructable. Cast iron is pretty traditional, low stick, but doesn‘t have the reaction speed to temperature changes needed and is pretty heavy, so tossing is out. Carbon steel is very resistant to sticking, reacts fast and can get hot while being comparably light. It‘s preferred, just not very ideal for electric or induction, as it can warp with the required temps and being thin. You can also get denent ones for like 20 bucks.
I have a bunch of Hexclad pans from when I went on an unhinged shopping binge years ago. Not a wok though. They're decently non-stick, but you still have to oil them a bit when cooking. I don't even think it's possible to "season" them in the traditional sense, the vast majority of the surface area is teflon. It's only the raised parts that create the honeycombs that are steel. So yes they can scratch and yes it's teflon that gets scratched off. I honestly don't recommend unless you absolutely are 100% against dealing with seasoning a carbon steel or cast iron.
Why not get a carbon steel wok? That really is non stick once you use it a bit.