Herb & Lime Lab
Purpose: find the biggest batch your wok or skillet can handle without the food steaming instead of searing.
How to use it
- Set your pan’s diameter.
- Pick what you are cooking.
- Cook no more than the suggested batch at once — cook in batches if you need more.
The rule: keep food in a single layer with space between pieces. A crowded wok drops the temperature and traps steam, so food steams instead of searing. Cooking area grows with the square of the diameter, so we scale a 12-inch baseline by the area ratio — a guideline, not a tested rule.
Baselines at 12 inches (guidelines): sliced meat ≈8 oz · stir-fry vegetables ≈12 oz · fried rice ≈16 oz cooked rice. Vegetables shrink and release water; meat needs the most space per ounce.