Got a stove with induction burners on top a couple of years ago. It’s great, the only downside is you can’t stir-fry in a wok.

This product looks great, has lots of good reviews, and has been out-of-stock for the last two years: https://www.nuwavenow.com/shop/mosaic

Anybody know any alternatives?

@timbray related, have you found a good non stick pan for eggs? (for induction) eggs are an ordeal right now with our steel pans.

@timbray I have one of those and it's ... decent. It isn't quite as good as a hot burner on a wok, but it does the trick. I haven't gotten the hang of tossing food in it yet, since you have to lift it off the induction surface to do that, and the heat source in it is limited to a smaller portion of the wok than I'd like.

I'm also interested in alternatives, so ... share any you learn about!

@timbray My picture of things is that people with induction tops who want to use a wok select carbon-steel woks with flat bottoms and the experience is good. But you likely tried that and found it somehow lacking.

@offby1 @timbray

These say they work on induction cooktops. Looked at them a while back but didn’t purchase.

YOSUKATA Carbon Steel Wok Pan – 13,5 “ Woks and Stir Fry Pans - Chinese Wok with Flat Bottom Pow Wok - Traditional Chinese Japanese Woks - Black Steel Wok https://a.co/d/6tUUfQi

@timbray I've got one of these, and haven't used it in a couple of years. I still have a resistive coil stove top so I bought a 6$ stainless steel ring that the wok can rest in and cook with that a couple of times a week instead.

the problem with the nuwave is that it can really only deliver heat well in one place: two or three inches above the bottom of the wok. so it's slow to heat the wok itself, it maintains heat worse than contacting the resistive coil, and due to the bowl-shaped design of the base you can't really be dynamic with your wok. it sits there and you work the ingredients with a spatula because if you lift it out to do a flip the base stops delivering heat temporarily, and it's too small of a bowl to do a flip or even really agitate ingredients inside of it.

I might use it to make a braise or a soup but for a fry it just didn't cut it. no wok hei, no crisp from the hot wok after the first ingredients went in... the reheat would take like 3-5 minutes between stir fry stages.

my plan for when I get to buy my own appliances and get induction is to build a little free standing propane burner out in a backyard or patio for frying.

@pamelafox @timbray Personally, I've come to really like cast iron for eggs

@lmorchard @timbray dya use coconut oil or butter on your cast iron? ill hafta ask my partner why he doesnt use the cast iron (he does the cooking)

@lmorchard @pamelafox @timbray I use a Misen flat bottom, carbon steel wok on our induction and it works really well. I've always liked cast iron, but there's arthritis in the household, so we've been playing with carbon steel instead, and honestly, I love it. Same maintenance as cast iron, but half the weight. Our are honestly more non stick than our non stick pans at this point.

@lmorchard @pamelafox @timbray funny that this comes up right now, I just threw some pans into the oven to refresh their seasoning.

@cinja @lmorchard @timbray Ooo carbon steel. Yeah the cast iron is really heavy, sometimes I worry about it scratching the surface when it gets moved. Good thinking.

@pamelafox @timbray We got this Ballarini (owned by Zwilling I think?) frying pan that works really well on our induction (it doesn't heat up quite as fast as other pans but we use it to fry eggs in and for that it's *perfect*.)

@cdmicacc @timbray Ooo nice! Just purchased the 10-inch ballarini. I smell eggs in my future!

@pamelafox We have a standard black cast-iron frying pan and we use it a whole lot. Once it gets seasoned, not much sticks to it, and re-seasoning when necessary is easy.

@timbray I suspect we haven't re-seasoned it properly, my partner says the eggs stick to it.

@timbray @pamelafox Was going to chime in suggesting that this would also be a good solution to your original wok question, but several beat me to it upthread! So +1 to the Lodge cast iron flat bottom wok, we’re huge fans of ours

@pamelafox @timbray if the surface isn’t very smooth (as is typical of most Lodge and similar cast iron), it will require a lot of heavy seasoning to be nonstick. Very smooth cast iron and wrought iron pans are much more nonstick (but also more expensive). https://youtu.be/g43bwFTm0k8

@fields oooh yeah our pan is pretty rough! that makes sense.

@pamelafox @timbray for fried eggs we’ve had good success with cast iron, for scrambled eggs i use either this 8 or 10” all clad which are heavy and a bit awkward around the handle but fine for what they are (the handle was really designed for a much lighter pan) https://a.co/d/25oCtRh