The Wok: Recipes and Techniques By Kenji Lopez-Alt Reviewed
W. W. Norton & Company, 2022, 672 pages, more than 1,000 color photos and illustrations, hardbound
Kenji Lopez-Alt is among the most admired food and cooking nerds on earth and the author of the brilliant book, The Food Lab. He also wrote the foreword to my book, “Meathead.” Trained at MIT, in the kitchens of many restaurants, in the lab of Cook’s Illustrated, and as the premier columnist of SeriousEats.com, in this massive and definitive tome, he reveals the mysteries and secrets behind the ancient and venerated art and science of Asian wok cooking.
The book is replete with the recipes you want, Moo Shu Pork, Sweet And Sour Chicken or Pork, Kung Pao Chicken, and all your other Chinese-American restaurant faves, as well as many authentic regional dishes you never heard of, more than 200 in all, but the real meat and noodles of this tome is the science and technique.
He starts by explaining how the unique bowl shape of the wok works, how to select a wok, and how to maintain it, then we get into how stir-frying works, wok hei (the ephemeral aroma caused by the combustion of vaporized oil droplets), and vital techniques like velveting (treating the meat with a mixture of egg white and cornstarch to improve its water retention), how to use baking soda to improve browning and water retention, marinating, steaming, braising, simmering, and so much more.
I have already tried three recipes and they were outstanding. More to come and my wife and I can’t wait.
My only complaint is the photography. As an author and photographer myself, I know that hiring a pro is very expensive, and the need for hundreds of process photos is demanding, but for finished dishes, a pro should have been brought in. At the very least a Photoshop expert could have improved the images significantly.
But please do not let that deter you. The photos are good enough, and the text is superlative and the recipes awesome. It is all written so anyone can understand the chemistry and physics laced with Kenji’s characteristic Dad jokes.
Product Information:
-
Item Price :0.00
*Price Subject To Change -
Where to buy (buying from this supplier supports this website):
-
Made in USA:yes
Published On: 7/5/2022
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators