Original post from 2024-08-20.
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
232 points (97.9% liked)
Centurii chan
228 readers
9 users here now
Posts and discussion about comics (and, sometimes, associated media) by the artist centurii-chan.
They have a history of edge-posting - nothing that the current mod considers outright racist, sexist, or otherwise hateful, but problematic enough that you may want to look elsewhere for horny comics.
While you're here, abide by the following rules or face a ban :
- Don't be dicks to each other.
- No hate speech, racism, sexism.
- Posts should be related to centuriichan comics.
- Mark NSFW posts as NSFW.
founded 1 month ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I am Chinese, family from the Canton province, whose cuisine forms the basis of many popular overseas Chinese-inspired dishes, I can explain the "why" on this.
In Cantonese cuisine there is a concept called "锅气" or "wokhei". It translates to "breath of the wok". It refers to the distinct flavours and textures that come with an extremely hot flame, because as soon as the food touches the surface of a wok which has been heated to nearly (or past) the smoke point of oil, it cauterises it and causes some interesting chemical reactions. That really means food cooks extremely quickly in that wok and by the time the outside of meat is beginning to overcook, the inside is barely done. That's also why many Cantonese dishes cooked in this manner have thin-sliced meat and not large slabs, because it would be impossible to have good wokhei and also fully cook the meat.
While it is theoretically possible to get good wokhei on an induction or electric burner, in practice it's quite difficult to do so because the cooking technique requires smacking the wok around the stove (which would damage induction and electric stoves) and it also requires the entire wok be hot which is difficult to do on induction and electric burners. That's why they have insane gas burners.
The amount of heat required to sustain the temperature needed for good wokhei is higher than what is commonly possible on home cooking ranges. While typical home methane ranges can output a respectable 5 kW or so of heat output, restaurant-grade wok burners can hit 10-12 kW easily.
Thank you for teaching me what "wokhei" means, "cauterized" is a fantastic description of how I like my sear!
I like to cook steak Sous-Vide for that very reason, so I only have to worry about cooking the outermost layer on a screaming hot cast iron.
I'll have to look more into wokhei to properly apply it it, but this sounds genuinely beyond delicious, thanks again for sharing :)
Yeah the restaurant burners can hit 30KW (100,000 BTU).
But reminder gas appliances are generously only ~50% efficient, so this performance is matched with a 10-15kW induction wok, which is a hefty electrical load, but doable.
Induction isn’t 100% efficient either.
In any case, 15kw > 60 amps on a 240V circuit. That means you need a 75-80 amp breaker. It’s pretty rare to find that in a residential setting. Even hefty car chargers use a 60 amp breaker.
Apple, meet orange.
While they're still not ideal, I have seen countertop induction burners designed for use with a wok.
I'm not saying that those don't work, but I haven't seen any models (even in China) that would survive several hours a day with a Cantonese chef armed with a 2 kg carbon steel wok for more than a week or so.
Yeah no, they might be okay for a home cook who can't use gas for whatever reason, but I absolutely wouldn't use it in a commercial kitchen. I mostly mean to say the technology exists, if not yet in a form that makes it competitive with gas.
The workaround is heavy flat pans. Something with the thermal inertia to impart all that energy across a wide surface area, at least long enough to do ingredients separately.
Problem is, woks are usually rounded and deep to allow better temperature control. The closer the food is to the middle, the hotter it gets. That allows chefs to move cooked food to the outside while still cooking any underdone ingredients in the center.
Great explanation! Thanks for that. I have tried replicating it, but I don't want to smash my ceramic stove top. But this really does explain a lot. Perhaps I can still replicate it by putting the heat to an ungodly temperature (well, as high as it will go anyway) and cooking small quantities at a time. Might try it next time I make a wok.
The cheapest way to replicate the type of burners used in restaurants is to buy a standalone outdoor propane wok burner. These may or may not be widely available in your country but in America they can be had for less than a hundred dollars and they put out an ungodly amount of heat.
This explanation is making me hungry :L