Wok hei on the way

Seems like so many folks here have the cute 900 degree pizza ovens that I am just mildly envious of. What I’ve been lusting after though is a hotter-than-hell wok burner for that “wok hei” aroma and flavor that I am glad has a name these days. Kenji Lopez-Alt has done some videos on approximating it in the kitchen with a blow torch. But the heck with an approximation, I wanted the jet-engine flame and fire three feet over the wok, without burning down my house and nullifying my insurance. I recently saw that he did a review of The Best Outdoor Wok Burners for Restaurant-Style Stir Fries, and that these cost less than one good bottle of Burgundy, so I said what the heck…even if the look is “industrial chic” as he says, to put it nicely, with a name to match (“Powerflamer 160”, as in 160,000 BTUH). I just got an unexpected UPS notice that it’s due to arrive tomorrow, even though it was advertised as months out. Very much looking forward to my very hot-looking new toy, will report back if it does what it is supposed to do, although I’ll have to scramble and order a proper carbon steel wok today!

I got the Big Kahuna…I like it for frying too

That is cool - I went back and forth on that, something that would work for frying too vs the narrow concentrated flame. And the Kahuna looks built better.

Way to go, Stan! There’s nothing - NOTHING - that compares to a real wok burner. Not even the hottest conventional stove comes close.

We had ours custom made by a guy in San Francisco who builds woks and other equipment for high end Asian restaurants. It puts out 250,000 BTUs officially, but is effectively more than that because of the configuration of he jets. We use it for all sorts of things, but love it most for vegetables.


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Wow, that is totally legit Sarah! You have that much firepower indoors???

There’s a commercial-strength hood. It was a hurdle with inspection, but we got there. It only runs for seconds at a time, minutes at most, once a week or so. Not like a restaurant where they are using it all through an hours long service daily.

Well done Stan and Sarah! I had a girl friend a long time ago whose dad had a commercial wok burner in his kitchen. As memorable as his food was, the roar of the burner left a more lasting impression on me

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Not trying to hijack your thread, as those specialty burners all look fun. We just couldn’t get enough use out of one. I do use another Kenji “hack” by removing the diffuser & plate from our hottest 17,5k burner in order to concentrate the flame. It’s really concentrates the jet, so no more than 2-3" across. Does a much better job than with the diffuser and can create a bit of Wok hei if your active while using a steel or carbon steel wok. I tend to lose hand hair those nights (hair hai?), just by shaking the wok back & forth over the flame.

I already joked with my wife about losing my eyebrows to this!

That’s one of the reasons we usually use a Cantonese wok, like in the picture, except when the dish demands a northern wok or when we want to show off the flipping. It’s safer!

Nothing over 12% abv in a 2 meter radius?

It’s a wise precaution. :wink:

Looking forward to seeing it in action. I use your basic 50,000btu outdoor propane burner and it does very well. My indoor 25,000btu burner does ok but it is very limited in the amount of time it can produce hei once food is in the wok. To maximize you have to do smaller portions. Also I think important to point out that a well seasoned carbon steel wok is a big part of the hei.

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