in a Dutch oven, you know that your range gets
splattered with little droplets of oil splashing out
from the sizzling food inside the pot. The sloping
sides of a wok, on the other hand, extend out a
good three inches or so from where the edges of
the oil are, catching those droplets and keeping
your counter neat and clean.
- It’s easier to maneuver. To get the crispest food
possible, it’s important to keep the food moving
(more on that below). Many times, you also need to
flip foods while frying. The flared shape of a wok
makes it easy to reach in with a spider or
chopsticks, and it gives you plenty of room to work
in.
- There is less chance of a spill-over. Having a pot
of hot oil bubble over the rim of a Dutch oven ain’t
fun. It’s dangerous, the oil will probably catch fire,
and, at the very least, it’ll make a huge mess. It
ranks up there with the old hand-in-the-blender or
dog-in-the-dishwasher as worst kitchen nightmare
ever. It happens when you add too much moist or
cold food to a too-full pot of oil. The food rapidly
releases bubbles of water vapor, those bubbles pile
up on top of each other, and over the edges they
go. Since a wok widens out at the top, there is
much more volume for those bubbles to expand
into, so their surface area increases, weakening
their structure, and they pop before they get a
chance to go up and over.
- It’s easier to keep the oil clean, making the
