This is how the sauté pans and woks we currently offer differ.

You mainly use a sauté pan to fry and then make a sauce or one‑pot dish. The side is high and stands straight or flares out slightly. For pans of ø 24 to 28 cm the bottom measures 16.5 to 22 cm, where the product page lists it. You pick the pan up by a handle, sometimes with an extra helper handle, or by two side handles, and 9 of the 16 come with a lid.

A wok is mainly for stir‑frying, and its high side slopes outward from the bottom. That bottom measures 13.5 to 18 cm for woks of ø 24 to 36 cm, again where the product page lists it. You usually hold a wok by a long handle, but the Blackwell Wokpan / Wadjan Gietijzer ø 32 cm has two ears. A lid comes with 2 of the 19 individual woks.

How big the difference at the bottom is becomes clear with the SCANPAN Hapjespan Classic Induction ø 24 cm and the SCANPAN Wokpan Classic Induction ø 24 cm. They come from the same line and are both 24 cm, with the same standard non‑stick coating. The sauté pan sits on a bottom of 18.2 cm, the wok on 14.5 cm. So less food fits on the bottom of the wok at once.

You don't only use a wok for stir‑frying: steaming and deep‑frying are also among what you can do with a wok.

Besides a frying pan and a sauté pan, a wok is not our first recommendation in our shop. The reason has a lot to do with your cooktop.

On a regular gas cooker the frying pan often has the edge

Because a frying pan is flatter, it catches more flame over the burner than a wok, according to our pan expert. A sauté pan also has a wide, flat bottom, and can on gas therefore replace a wok for stir‑frying just as well. If you already have a wok with a good non‑stick coating, you can continue cooking in it on gas perfectly fine.

On a flat induction hob a wide bottom has the advantage

An induction hob heats the pan via the part that lies on the glass, and with a wok that is the narrow bottom. For stir‑frying on a flat hob you therefore often choose a sauté pan rather than a wok.

If you still want a wok for a flat hob, our pan expert looks for a non‑stick coating and a flat bottom. With such a bottom the wok sits stable on the glass. The pan also needs to be large enough to fit everything in at once. Those three points help when comparing the woks we recommend for induction.

You can simmer in a wok too, but most woks don't come with a lid. Without a lid a lot of moisture evaporates from your sauce. For a sauce or one‑pot dish that needs to cook gently after frying, a sauté pan is more convenient, because you are much more likely to get a lid with it.

Our pan expert mainly recommends a braiser for a stew, which needs to cook much longer than a sauce. In the comparison of braiser and sauté pan you can see where one pan stops and the other begins.

If you do want to do everything in a wok, there are also woks with a lid, such as the Beka Wokpan met glazen deksel Pro Induc ø 28 cm. In those you stir‑fry on a ceramic coating and then let the dish finish cooking under the glass.