In article
>,
Distorted Vision > wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Many thanks for your reply. The wok I bought is definitely aluminium -
> I checked it with a magnet this morning. I think I'll get the Hancock
> London Wok. My only concern was that its only 1 mm gauge. Will this
> make any difference and lower than the norm? The flat bottomed one on
> Amazon is 2 mm..
>
> Many thanks for your help!

Don't be so sure about aluminium. All right, forget alumium. What you
have is decided stainless, and specifically 300 series stainless. The
iron structure of the metal is cystaline, and thus non-magnetic.
Aluminium cannot get as shiny as the pans in your picures. And for the
price you paid (£22), you aluminium pan would be anodized, and likely
black anodized, which would further dull the finish.

Unlike a carbon steel wok, stainless steel is not seasoned, but for
clean-up, is fully immersible. Since you did try to season it, the
discolouration is not permanent, but does not harm the structure of the
pan since there is no way on your stove to get the pan heated to a point
of annealing (1040 degrees Celsius). If you do wish to restore the
original chrome like appearance, you would need to buff it with a series
of progressively finer grit polishes and a motorised buffing machine or
buffing pad on a drill, a lot of work that really isn't worth the effort
or cost (the compounds will add up to more than the £22 you paid for the
pan).

Now on the Hancock pan at only 1mm, my own wok is the same thickness,
and I think the chinese restaurants in my area tend to use woks of the
same thickness. I would think that thickness is going to be ideal for
heat distribution. In a wok, unlike sautes and skillets, you want hot
and cold spots, and quicker heat dissipation. A thicker metal is going
to be slower to cool and will spread the heat more widely. Also, home
stoves do not have the necessarily BTU's of commercial stoves, so they
can take much longer to heat up that hot spot on the wok to the
temperature you want.

jt