Review of GSI Outdoors Extreme Wok

Some meals, including stir-fry and fried rice, require an extremely hot and evenly heated pan to prepare. Limitations in the flame diameter on most camp stoves cause uneven heating in traditional camping frying pans; this results in hotspots at the pan’s center and the surface temperature decreases the farther from the center you move. Woks help to alleviate this problem by utilizing a dished cooking surface which draws the flame up and along the side resulting in an even temperature distribution even on a high burner settings.

Specifications:

Major Dimension: 11"
Weight: 1lb 15.4 oz.
Dimensions: 11.7" x 11.3" x 4.3"
Material: Non-Stick Coated, Hard Anodized Aluminum
Product Use: Car Camping

Our Observations: 
We have enjoyed cooking with our GSI Outdoors Extreme 11” Wok. The aluminum construction allows the wok to quickly come to temperature which is a plus when cooking fuel is a precious commodity during extended trips. Aluminum does not retain heat very well, so be careful not to overload the wok with chilled items as it can drive the wok temperature down and increase the cooking time. We limited our cooking to no more than two servings at a time to ensure we didn’t drop the cooking temperature too much. Although this meant cooking in multiple batches, the higher cooking temperatures allowed for a quicker turnaround time.

Conclusion:
We have found the GSI Outdoors Extreme 11” Wok to be a wonderful addition to our camping cookset. Although the diameter may be a bit on the large side for most camp stoves, we feel the simplicity of cooking with a wok outweighs this potential limiting factor. Our only suggestion to GSI Outdoors would be incorporating a more traditional domed lid as it would retain steam better than the provided flat lid.  A domed lid would also nest better as well.  The Extreme 11” Wok does provide a surefire way to prepare a single ‘pan’ meal and would recommend it to anybody who is looking for some diversity in their camping cookset.