Sauté

This term is used often in the book, since it is one of the most common techniques in the world’s repertoire. To sauté anything—whether a bit of chopped garlic or a whole chicken breast—is to cook it in a little fat, such as butter or oil, in a wide, shallow pan over high heat. If you used more fat, we would call it frying. Sauté comes from the French word sauter, which means “to jump,” suggesting that the food jumps when added to the hot pan. There are two schools of thought about whether the fat should be added to a cold pan or a heated one. The only time I think it makes a difference is when you use butter. If the pan is very hot when you add butter, you run the risk of the butter burning before you can get the food you want to sauté into the pan. My advice: warm the pan before adding the fat and then bring it up to sauté temperature. If you’re using butter you can control the tendency to burn by also adding a little oil, such as olive oil, along with the butter. Vegetable oils have a higher smoke or burn point and give that cushion to the butter.