I'm on the list. Forgot to mention it to Leeza. Oops.
-
I'm on the list. Forgot to mention it to Leeza. Oops.-
I understand the stabilizers will help keep the stand from tipping over. However, I am thinking more about how regular flat bottom pots will fit on the edge of that round ring, and how stable they might be. I.e. it doesn't have a regular cooking grid to support a pot, and is really intended for a wok to rest down in the ring. There are only 3 contact points around the edge for a large flat bottomed pot to sit on.Last edited by jfmorris; October 12, 2022, 12:41 PM.
-
Comment
-
hoovarmin I went back to Kenji video and grabbed a top down shot of the Powerburner 160. Too bad the web page selling this doesn't have more info or pictures!
Ok, so what you can see is that there are 4 support points that the wok rests on, along with what I think is a heat shield between the two in the front, so that heat is not blowing out towards the cook, while the wok is in the burner. So all exhaust heat will come out the back and two sides while the work rests on the supports.
The web page says the wok ring diameter is 13 inches. So if you want to use a pot of any sort on this, aside from a wok, you will need a flat bottomed pot 13 inches or larger in diameter. And be absolutely sure you don't bump it and knock it off those 4 support points! Or else you need to have someone make a cooking grid to sit on top of the burner to hold smaller pots.
The legs look like steel/iron pipe, but maybe Old Glory, who has one, can comment on how heavy duty the legs are. And whether he has used a big pot on it.
I brew beer, and have a few outdoor burners for doing that, and am tending to think of the weight of one of my 15 gallon pots full of boiling beer, and worry at the thought of perching a 15-20 pound kettle with 120 pounds of boiling liquid inside it on top of anything that is not rock solid stable. I've used that same equipment on occasion for low country boils.Comment
-
Since this has devolved into a burner discussion, and less a wok discussion, I thought I would show a few options that are cheaper, but not necessarily wok centric, but great for boiling or frying on.
I've got one of these, purchased on Amazon for $39.99 in 2013, for brewing and boiling. Sadly it has doubled in price since then, but I have no fears of it ever tipping or having issues supporting hundreds of pounds.
I've also got a burner that came maybe 20 or more years ago with a cheap turkey fryer kit - aluminum 7.5 gallon stock pot and a 65K btu burner. This is not it, but something like it. Mine has a much taller pot, and also does not have the frame to hold the pot higher up. This is just a sample, and at $69, is not bad. They also sell fish fryers and other kids like this in a similar price range, and it will get cheaper right before Thanksgiving.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Nexgrill...0005/314661797
And lastly, there are other options out there. I bought this used "King Cooker 94/90TKD" from someone local a few years back, for $50. It's got a 105K btu jet burner (the low side) and a 65k btu banjo burner (the tall side). I use this for brewing with two 15.5 gallon "keggles".
There are a lot of 2 burner "high pressure" camp stoves that may do well too, but the above is kinda what I got going on.Comment
-
Attjack my brewing has slowed down compared to where it was 10-12 years ago. Back then, I brewed 14 to 16 5 gallon kegs of beer a year. These days, I brew much less frequently, maybe 5-6 times a year, but almost always am making 10 gallon batches (13 gallon boil, 11 gallons split into two fermenters, and 10 gallons finished in two kegs).
One of my son in laws is thankfully into this and helps with the brewing. The downside is he takes half the kegs home with him, haha.
-
-
I picked up the burner tonight. My plan is to build in these two cookers (finally). So I need to figure out all the dimensions and positioning. Tomorrow I will try it out. Hopefully, I won't burn dinner 😂
Comment
-
hoovarmin No, this is the long leg version that I borrowed from my nephew with the legs removed. I don't know if I can run it on the wood I'm assuming I cannot. I'll put the legs back on tonight to cook on it and check how hot it gets underneath. But I'll be building one in eventually and will use different material and be able to adjust the height.
-
Came in late to the discussion. For those wanting to up their indoor wok game, takes a look at this short video from Kenji Lopez:
Comment
-
Interesting hack!Originally posted by SmokingPat View Post
I just went inside and tested it, and got this:
Unfortunately, I can only maintain the flame with the burner knob set down to 6 (out of 10). Otherwise, the pressure lifts the flame too far off the burner, and it goes out unless I hold my butane lighter there constantly.
So the question will be, maybe use my IR gun or FLIR camera to see what the temp is of the bottom of the wok with this central flame on 6/10 power, versus the diffuser plate in place, and on 10/10 power on the control valve.
I will comment that the diameter of my burners is much less than on the stove in Kenji's video. Not sure what it is, but the flame pattern is probably already smaller and more centralized on the bottom of my flat wok than with the larger diameter burners on Kenji's stove, or other modern cooktops. This is a 20 to 25 year old Kenmore cooktop I bought on clearance at Sears during a kitchen remodel a long time ago.Comment
-
Comment
-
Good to know. I think we need Attjack to run the one he borrowed from his nephew tonight and tell us how hot it gets UNDER the burner. Theoretically, most of the heat should go up and out. At most I bet a metal heat shield or some fire brick might be needed on the surface this lives on without legs.
-
Here's the maiden voyage. Pad Ka-Prao. I loved using this setup! It went super fast. So fast I forgot to check the thermometer but I'll try to remember next time. There's no doubt in my mind that I'll get my own burner now. I still love my EVO but a lot of what I do with it now will move over to the wok.
Comment
-
Trying the Kenji stove hack. since my stove will do it (10,000 BTU burners, 2.5" diameter).
After a 3 minute preheat on 3 on my dial and then 5 mins on max/
With the burner diffuser on:
Dead center, with diffuser
Right in between the bottom & sidewall, w/diffuser.
Halfway up the sidewall w/diffuser
I let the wok cool down, took the diffuser plate off the burner and...
Corner between the base & sidewall:
Dead Center
So, the stove hack doesn't really result in more heat, but it evens it out. It's a very different flame with & without the burner diffuser. It does result in more heat on the sidewalls. Now I need to test heating & recovery times.Comment
-
Were you able to run full blast on the burner with the diffuser off? If I do that, the flame lifts off and goes out. I had to dial down to 6/10 on the gas to keep it lit without the diffuser, which makes me think the heat will end up less...
I will do these same tests, but may try with my FLIR thermal camera to get some interesting pictures to share...
-
-
Soo.... I got a little crazy on Monday night, and got the FLIR thermal camera that attaches to my iPhone out, and played with the 14" carbon steel wok on the stove top some. The camera only has a top end of 302F, as it was purchased mainly for working with circuit boards, to look for thermal issues there, but I think it still does a good job of showing the heat distribution pattern on the wok. So, ignore the center spot reading - I should have turned that off in the menus. Just look at the color pattern of heat.
This is on a standard 10,000 to 12,000 BTU (not sure which) gas cooktop burner, with the heat diffuser in place, and the control set to "10" (max output).
Front view just after turning on the flame.
First shot as it is heating up is VERY interesting. You can SEE the burner pattern through the wok, including where the metal supports are that the wok is sitting on! Note that the orange on the front side of the wok is simply a reflection. I found that unless I did a strait down shot, I would see a reflection of the central heat in the side closest to the camera.
Here we are at max heat, after running for a few minutes. As you can seem, there is a bright/hot ring around the flat bottom of the wok, which the IR splot thermometer told me was about 500 degrees. There was an orange spot in the center and around the bottom of the sloped sides that is 350ish, then it cools to about 250 up the sides.
NOW, I did the "hack" where I removed the diffuser plate from the top of the burner. I had to limit my control output to "6" out of 10 to avoid blowing the flame out. Note that I didn't really let the wok cool down for long - I just slid it over to the burner with the diffuser removed, which was a 8-10 inch tall jet of flame. The jet of flame is hitting the center of the wok, and flaring out to the side in all directions.
Here is heating back up on the "jet" burner.
And here is about where it topped out using the hack.
So, from what I could tell, using that hack on the burner let to a more uniform central spot of heat, without a cool spot in the center. However... because the overall burner output was down, the overall hot zone in the bottom and center of the wok was a little smaller. All in all, unless you can come up with a way to run that jet at full output, its probably to enough difference to warrant doing it.
All this does inspire me to drop the wok on my 105,000 btu jet burner next time I am setting up for beer brewing, and seeing what it looks like there. I'll bet that I can get the entire wok white hot in the thermal picture!Comment
-
FWIW, Jim ... you don't want your wok to be heated evenly all over. You want the bottom/center to be thermonuclear hot ... and the sides to be relatively cooler so you have a place to move the smokin' hot bits before they burn ... but after they have contributed to the smoky wok hei aroma.Comment
-
Yes - I understand that. That last bit about it being white hot all over on the 105K burner was just guessing what would happen with that many BTU's. Then again, Attjack was cooking recently on a 165K btu burner, and I assume he still had cooler sides than bottom... -
With the chicken I was cooking the other night, even though the center was over 500F when the oil and chicken hit the wok, it quickly cooled, and I feel "stewed" more than "fried", even doing smaller batches. I kept pulling the meat out to the perimeter of the center to get it out of the juices.
-
Looks like my Powerburner 160 is arriving today
Comment
-
I've been experimenting with my wok and outdoor burner, also:
My wok will fit in the gap between the four metal bars but its base sits a little too close to the burner and I'm not too thrilled about the fact that it will get scratched pretty badly where it rubs against those four sharp edges.
As a result, I picked up a stainless wok ring:
My plan is to mod it slightly by cutting four notches around its base so that it will sit on the four burner bars without sliding around and it will support the wok at a more comfortable height above the burner.
With luck ... and if life ever quits interfering ... I'll get the mod done "soon" and will report back.Last edited by MBMorgan; October 27, 2022, 05:45 PM.Comment
-
Attjack I guess that implies that your nephew liked the performance of the wok on an outdoor burner (versus indoors) enough to go look for the best wok outdoor burner.
I'm not ready to spend $250 on yet another outdoor burner when I already have several, but I will test wok cooking on one of them at some point for sure.
-
Got mine Friday. Zero instructions on assembly, though it isn't really complicated. They have some YouTube videos, but Dong talks so softly I can barely make out what he is saying with the volume full blast. There was a hole in the bottom of the box and a bolt and nut from the stabilizer bars is missing. No biggie, I can grab a replacement at ACE. Glad I took Attjack suggestion to get on the list cause now they are saying they won't be able to fill anymore orders til 2023.
Comment
Comment