How To Season a Wok and Daily Wok Care
Cooking with your carbon steel wok regularly means that the metal will be exposed to lots of oil at high temperatures, and over time, it will continue to season naturally.
When you are seasoning a wok for the first time: Your carbon steel wok will come with some industrial oils and dust on it from the factory, so it’s always best to give it a quick wash with some mild soapy water. A scrub sponge with a green scouring pad on one side is all you need.
After washing, towel dry your wok and transfer it to your stove. Wrap the helper handle and even the lower portion of the long handle with heavy-duty aluminum foil to prevent them from burning.
Set your wok over high heat. Make sure you clear the stove area because things will get quite hot. Keep a dry towel or a heatproof kitchen mitt handy.
Once the wok heats up, it will start to turn a dark brown color and begin to smoke. This indicates that residual oils are burning off. You cannot see much smoke in the photos, because we have our trusty kitchen hood going at full blast.
Next, the wok will begin superheating and the impurities from those industrial oils will burn off. Tilt the wok to superheat one area at a time, and you’ll see it turning black and blue as the carbon steel heats through.
Continue tilting the wok while you systematically heat all areas of the wok. Be diligent at this step to ensure even seasoning. This heating process will take some time, depending on how hot your stove is.
Once your wok has been fully heated, the carbon steel will take on a blue tint.
Turn off the burner and set the wok back on the stove to cool for a few minutes. Carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water into the wok to cool it off. Beware of the hot water splashing! Don’t use cold water to cool off the super-heated wok it may warp your wok.
Once cool, move the wok to your sink, and use some mild detergent and your scrubbing pad to give it a light scrub. Rinse thoroughly with clean water.
You may see some dark spots in the metal from impurities in the carbon steel, but it’s nothing to worry about.
Wipe down the excess water with a paper towel, and place the wok back on the burner to dry it over medium-high heat.
After drying, add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil to the wok over low heat.
Spread the oil around the wok by tilting it until you get an even coating, and heat for about 1 minute.
Turn off the heat and use a folded paper towel to begin wiping down the wok. Use your wok spatula to start, since the wok will be hot. After it cools, you can hold the paper towel with your hands to continue wiping it down.
Reheat the wok again at this point until just smoking. Then turn off the heat and give your wok another light scrub with water only. You can see that the vegetable oil has begun to form a patina already.
Towel off any remaining water, reheat the wok, and oil it again using a folded paper towel.
You will be repeating this process every time after you cook. Reheating the wok to remove any trace moisture that you cannot see with the naked eye is very important to prevent rusting.
Following cooking use, follow the same easy steps to care for your seasoned wok over time:
After your wok is cool enough to handle, move it to your kitchen sink, and use your scrubbing pad and some water to lightly scrub and rinse the wok clean. (You can use dish soap, but it’s not required for light dishes like stir-fry veggies.)
Towel dry, reheat, and after it is cool enough to touch, wipe the entire wok down with a paper towel and a few drops of vegetable oil. Your wok’s ready for storage until your next dish.
When you haven’t used your wok in a long time, you may need to revive it:
Scrub thoroughly with a small amount of mild dish detergent, making sure to get the entire surface area as clean as possible.
Dry with a paper towel and heat the wok over high heat until all the moisture has evaporated. Let it cool.
Rinse and scrub the wok again lightly another time, and dry the wok over the stove.
Heat the wok on low, and pour in 1 tablespoon of oil, swirling the oil evenly. Remove from the heat.
While the wok is still warm, use a paper towel to spread the oil over the entire inner surface of the wok. There should be no standing oil.
Your wok is now again ready to use!
Rust: Sometimes a wok can rust on the bottom. Give the outside a good scrubbing to remove the surface rust and wipe it down with a few drops of oil on a paper towel. Be sure to heat the wok to dry it thoroughly after each use to prevent further rusting.
Regular Wok Care:
After you’ve removed the food from the wok, wash it.
Some people think seasoning a wok means leaving the oil and film from your last meal, but that’s a common misconception. In general, for light cooking, scrub the wok with just water. For heavier oily residue, use dish soap as well.
Use a circular scrubbing motion with a scouring pad.
Clean it thoroughly! You don’t have to scrub it to death, but you do want to clean burnt and crusty bits and any excess oil just like you’d do with any other pan.
This is especially true after cooking dishes with heavy sauces, when some of the sauce may be crusted on.
If needed, scrub the exterior of the wok with the scouring pad. It’s fine if the outside of the wok is a little rough.
Rinse the wok and dry thoroughly with a kitchen towel or paper towel. Place the wok back on the stove and heat until all the water has completely evaporated.
Let the wok cool and wipe the inside with a few drops of oil and a paper towel. Wipe the oil all over the wok to give the surface a light coating.
It’s perfectly normal to see some brown residue on the paper towel after this wipe-down.
If you do see rust form the next time you use it, it is likely that it was not completely dried or you may not have used enough oil.
TIPS FOR MAINTAINING A SEASONED WOK
Always wash and dry your wok after cooking and wipe it down with vegetable oil, even after a simple steaming.
If you find the wok has a rusty spot, then you probably did not heat it long enough to get rid of all the moisture or did not use enough oil to wipe it down. Pay attention to these two important steps!
If you just cooked an especially strong food (e.g. a fish or a curry dish), you may have to wash and heat the wok twice. Heat helps rid the wok of residual flavors. It’s disappointing to cook a lightly seasoned dish only to taste the fish you cooked last night.
If you haven’t used the wok in a long time, you should wash it before using.
Never put your wok in the dishwasher!
After cooking with vinegar or any other acidic ingredient, promptly wash your wok. Any acid will wear away the patina of the wok.
Sadly, the impulse is often to throw this rusty wok away and buy a new one. But this is an important Woks of Life PSA: Carbon steel and cast iron woks can last a lifetime (or multiple lifetimes—we have woks that are decades old—they can be passed down to the next generation). They CAN be revived if rusty. If you have a carbon steel or cast iron wok that’s rusted, don’t throw it away!
HOW TO REVIVE A RUSTY WOK
There are two parts to the process of bringing a rusty wok back to working order: scrubbing and re-seasoning.
1. Scrubbing: Get some steel wool or other scouring pad, and a little dish soap, and give the wok (inside and outside) a good scrub to remove the surface rust. You’ll want to rinse with hot water as you scrub, until you have removed the visible rust, and the surface of your wok feels nice and smooth. In addition to the rust, you may be removing burnt and caked on oils and bits of food.
Many of you have been instructed not to ever clean your wok with soap, or even wash it very thoroughly, which is incorrect! Not washing your wok properly can lead to burnt bits of crusted on food building up, and little black bits in your cooked dishes. No one wants that. Keep scrubbing and rinsing until you’ve scrubbed off the rust, and the surface of the wok feels nice and smooth.
Place the wok over high heat to dry it, until all the moisture has evaporated. Let your wok cool, and scrub it once more. This extra step ensures that it’s nice and clean before you re-season.
Then dry it again over the heat of your stove, until all the moisture has again evaporated.
2. Re-Seasoning: Heat the wok over medium-low heat, and pour in 1 tablespoon of neutral oil. Swirl the oil evenly around the surface of the wok. Use a paper towel to spread the oil around the entire interior surface. You can use a metal spatula/wok spatula to move the paper towel so your hands don’t need to get close to the heat. There shouldn’t be any standing oil, though you may have a little extra if your wok is on the smaller side. The heat of the pan should bond the oil with the metal to help create a non-stick cooking surface. The wok is now again ready to use.
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TO DISH SOAP, OR NOT TO SOAP?
For “cleaner” dishes like stir-fried veggies, steaming setups, and boiling/simmering, dish soap is usually not necessary. You can probably get a way with a quick scrub and rinse under warm water before drying your wok (over flame to ensure it’s completely dry, of course) for its next use.
However, if cooking a particularly oily or saucy dish that results in some caked-on food residue, there is no harm in using a little bit of dish soap in your wok. We treat cast iron pans the same, without supposedly messing up the seasoning/patina.
Trust us, this is better than not properly washing your pans and ending up with old food residue in your dishes.
WHAT’S THE BEST CLEANING TOOL FOR A WOK?
If your wok is excessively rusty, steel wool or other scouring pad is the thing to reach for. In normal times, you can use just about any kind of sponge to wash your wok. You can read more about it in our guide to washing your wok.
We avoid using stainless steel scrubbers, which can be a bit too harsh on the pan (and on your hands) and are not as effective as steel wool.
IS RUST TOXIC? (WHAT’S THAT BROWN RESIDUE ON THE PAPER TOWEL?!)
If there is still some minor rust residue (e.g., you see a tint of brown or see some rust residue on the wok or on the paper towel), rest assured it is safe to use. As you regularly use the wok, your patina will get better and better and this small amount of rust will go away.
Rust shouldn’t be ingested, but usually, a small amount of rust is not considered toxic, rather the way that it can damage cooking utensils and lead to spoiled food.
