For Healthy Wok Cooking, Start with Bacon

Christine Gallary
Christine GallaryFood Editor-at-Large
Christine graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and she has worked at Cook's Illustrated and CHOW.com. She lives in San Francisco and loves teaching cooking classes. Follow her latest culinary escapades on Instagram.
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published Jan 8, 2015
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(Image credit: Christine Gallary)

Healthy cooking starting with bacon? Seems counterintuitive, right? But it’s actually one of the best ways to get your new or old wok seasoned so that you can move on to healthy quick cooking instead.

(Image credit: Christine Gallary)

We love wok cooking here at The Kitchn because you can use it to cook vegetables and proteins quickly with small amounts of oil, just the sort of cooking we like to do in January after the holidays. A few years ago, wok expert Grace Young walked us through buying and seasoning a new wok:

One of Grace’s tips was that woks, especially new ones, love fat during the seasoning or reseasoning process. Frying bacon is an easy way to get that nice coating into your wok and may even be a last treat before you embark on healthier stir-fries. After you fry the bacon, wash the wok with hot water and dry over low heat on the stove.

A well-seasoned wok has developed a great nonstick surface, and nonstick surfaces mean minimal cooking oil is needed for stir-fries. Your wok-cooked dishes are healthier, and who doesn’t love that? So strange as it may seem, throw some bacon into that wok and give it a bacon bath!

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