Wok

A deep cooking pan with a rounded bottom and sloping sides, used for stir-frying and methods such as steaming, deep-frying, and braising.

Stir-frying: A cooking technique that rapidly fries small pieces of food in a hot pan while stirring or tossing them. The wok’s sloping sides make it easy to toss food and move it between hotter and cooler areas.
Round-bottom wok: A wok with a curved base that traditionally sits in a circular stove opening or wok ring. Its rounded shape concentrates the cooking surface over a central heat source.
Deep-frying: A cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat or oil. The wok’s depth can hold oil while its broad opening allows food to be added and removed.
Han dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 206 BCE to 220 CE. Wok-like vessels appear in archaeological evidence from this period.
Skillet: A flat-bottomed frying pan with low, flared sides. Its broad flat base suits different heat distribution and tossing patterns than a wok.
Wok hei: A complex smoky, seared aroma associated with food cooked rapidly in a very hot wok. It is linked to intense heat, brief cooking, and the motion used in wok cooking.
Flat-bottom wok: A wok with a flattened base designed to stand on a level stovetop. It provides stable contact on domestic burners that cannot support a rounded base.
Steaming: A cooking method that uses vapor from heated water to cook food. A wok can hold water beneath a rack or basket for steaming.
Chinese cuisine: The diverse culinary traditions and regional food cultures of China. The wok became a defining tool across many Chinese cooking traditions.
Sauté pan: A flat-bottomed pan with straight, relatively high sides and a long handle. Its vertical sides and flat base make it better suited to shallow liquid cooking than wok tossing.

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