Sautéing and Pan-Frying

Appears in
Homestyle Chinese Cooking

By Yan-Kit So

Published 1997

  • About
The Chinese were sautéing and pan-frying by Han times (206 bc-ad 220), even though it may not have been exactly the same as modern sautéing or shallow pan-frying.

Related to deep-frying and stir-frying, panfrying is nevertheless distinctively different from them. In deep-frying, so much oil is used that the pieces of food being deep-fried can actually swim in it, but in sautéing and pan-frying a comparatively small amount of oil is needed to cook the ingredients. True to its name, the motion of stirring is essential to the stir-frying and the ingredients are cut up into fairly small morsels; in sautéing, the ingredients may be kept in large pieces and fried in situ, turning halfway through the cooking time. If speed is called for in stir-frying, then patience is the secret of success in pan-frying. The food is fried slowly over a modest heat until its surface gradually turns the golden brown color it should be.