Maximum BTUs... no MINIMUM BTUs for in home wok cooking!
September 11, 2013 5:22 PM   Subscribe

Getting a new stove, lots of wok cooking, what is the minimum BTU value you folks would recommend?

We Obviously can't buy a commercial grade stove due to coding standards. What is the minimum BTU rating that will give us proper cooking ease?
posted by Max Power to Food & Drink (7 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This largely depends on the type of cooking you'd like to do. If you routinely do stir fry or use a wok, you're going to want/need a LOT more BTUs than softening some onions for risotto.

I've got two ~16k BTU burners that work well for my style of cooking, along with the usual smaller "simmer" style burners on the back two spots. I certainly wouldn't want to go anything less than 12k or so, and even that seems pretty low for most searing needs.
posted by conradjones at 5:32 PM on September 11, 2013


Don't just look for max BTUs. Our new gas stove has one burner with super-mega heat setting, which is great, but the eye is so large in circumference that the flame is spread out about half-way up the wok. It's actually useless for all but my largest pans even for normal cooking.
posted by Eddie Mars at 5:33 PM on September 11, 2013


It'll help to look at not only BTUs, but the shape of the burner you intend to use with your wok. You'll have much better results if you can get a 12k BTU burner specifically for a wok than a 14k BTU burner that's spread out like Eddie Mars's. The "pit" or built-in wok ring and a round-bottom wok will help too.
posted by WasabiFlux at 5:38 PM on September 11, 2013


Response by poster: We have a great wok, and a nice ring, understand the burners and exposure on the pan itself, just not clear on amount of BTUs for decent in home cooking.
posted by Max Power at 5:54 PM on September 11, 2013


Mine is 22,000 BTU. Not so much BTUs but exhaust fans were more important. Because a lower BTU got the job done but all the damn smoke was a problem.
posted by jadepearl at 6:26 PM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


I have a pretty standard gas stove, nothing special at all, I use a very thin cast iron wok (from wokshop.com). My non-special stove is able to heat the wok quickly and maintain a nice temp. I typically have to turn it down a bit.
posted by HuronBob at 6:48 PM on September 11, 2013


You should get as high btus as possible, with open top burners. But know that you're not going to replicate a Chinese restaurant cooking experience. I have 23000 btu open top burners (i don't think you'll find higher for residential purposes) with a wok grate. It's the best wok cooking experience I've had, but restaurant burners for woks are much more powerful, like 80-100k btus. Apparently a good home substitute is the rig one uses for outdoor turkey frying.
posted by odin53 at 7:20 PM on September 11, 2013


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