Knowledge Base > Ken Rubin - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ken Rubin - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, December 13, 2022 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Ken Rubin in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

I have a carbon steel flat bottom wok and use it on a home gas stove. I have read that it is important to get the wok as hot as possible, so I turn the gas up. However, the oil (avocado or canola) immediately smokes. Can it be too hot?

— Mitch Miglis

Answer:

Um, yeah, I mean this is sort of the one of the perils and pitfalls of high temperature cooking like in a walk is that to kind of achieve that cooking method you want to get your pan very very hot. It definitely puts you at risk for having the oil that you put in avocado oil you indicated. Even even an oil like that which has a fairly high smoke point of it, you know immediately getting very very hot and maybe not hitting a Flashpoint, but certainly if you're seeing smoke hitting a smoke point. Um, so, you know not great in terms of the Integrity of the oil the quality of that. Oil is going to suffer if it's heated to that point immediately in particular. I would just say if you're trying to balance the reality of like high heat cooking and what cooking where you get. You know that flavor of the Walk. You know, you just might want to turn down that temperature a little bit. You can also really limit the amount of oil that you're using meaning. You're also limiting the amount of degraded oil that you're eating. You know, those are just be some suggestions, but it's a Tough thing to kind of have to navigate if you're both looking for the culinary and sort of technique based approach to stir frying but also have a concern for the breakdown of the oil the smoking of the oil and those sorts of things. This is just one area where you're just trying to balance and what is the better thing if That's going to be the thing that helps you eat more vegetables than I think by all means do it, but limit the time and temperature of that oil being that hot. Otherwise, you know choosing just a slightly less heat intensive approach something where you're not eclipsing that 450 degree Mark in the case of avocado oil might just be the better option for you Mitch.
Ken Rubin

Ken Rubin

Chief Culinary Officer

rouxbe.com