Sautéing
Sautéing
is browning food first on one side and then on the other in a small
quantity of fat or oil. When sautéing, which is a type of frying, the fat
is placed in a shallow pan, and when it is sufficiently hot, the food is
put into it.
Direct heat grilling can expose food to
temperatures often in excess of 500 °F (260 °C). Grilled meat
acquires a distinctive roast aroma from a chemical process called
the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction only occurs when
foods reach temperatures in excess of 310° F (155 °C).
When cooking, the fat should not come up
the sides of the food being cooked, the food basically cooking on a thin
layer of fat. Foods that are to be sautéed are usually sliced thin
or cut into small pieces, and they are turned frequently during the
process of cooking.
Table of Contents
Sauté is French for "jumping", used
to describe the action of the food in the pan as it is
tossed around to prevent burning.
Foods prepared in this
way can be difficult to digest, because they become more
or less hard and can become soaked with fat if too much is
used. Chops and thin cuts of meat, which are intended to
be pan-broiled, are really sautéed if they are allowed to
cook in the fat that renders out of them.
The term pan-frying
is the English equivalent of sautéing (which is a
French word). Some people consider it a different
technique, which uses more fat and takes longer.
stir-frying uses higher temperatures and continual
stirring.
While different ingredients will call
for variations in this technique, there are some general
guidelines to help ensure an ideal outcome.
The first rule is be prepared. If your
recipe calls for chopped ingredients in step 12, make sure
you have them now. While experienced cooks will
successfully chop the next ingredient while the rest are
cooking, this is not a path to follow for the
inexperienced. For one thing, chopping times for the
experienced cook are generally much shorter, so the
cooking food doesn't have a chance to burn. For another,
the experienced cook can quickly assess whether food is
done. A less experienced cook should be much more
attentive to the pan to become more familiar with the
stages of doneness.
Feel free to put a cold pan onto a cold
burner before turning it on, but do not put cold oil into
a cold pan and then try to heat. The reason is subtle:
heat will eventually break down the chemical bonds of the
oil and it will lose its lubricating properties. If that
happens, your ingredients will stick to the hot surface
and one side will blacken and burn, and the other side
will remain raw or underdone.
The pan is hot enough if a few small
drops of water flicked from your fingertips vaporize
immediately, or if a larger drop of water hisses and
floats across the surface of the pan on a cushion of its
own steam. Do NOT add oil to the pan if there is hot water
still there, as it may spatter vigorously. Clouds of oil
droplets can be lit by open flame, and a fireball is never
necessary for this particular cooking technique!
Only after the dry pan is hot should you
add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. The oil
should begin to ripple, and spread quite quickly over the
pan. If your pan was hot enough, this process should only
take a few seconds. If your pan was too hot or if you wait
too long, the oil will start to smoke, then turn brown,
then burst into flame. Along the way you will have ruined
a perfectly good pan, and possibly burned down your house.
After your food item has
been added, do not crowd the pan. If necessary, you should
cook food in batches, removing each batch and reheating
the pan and adding more oil as required. Also, unless the
recipe specifically calls for it, do not cover the pan
while cooking. Trapped steam from the cooking side of the
food will soften the top side. Ideally sautéed item have a
crispy outside, although this depends heavily on the food
item (sautéed steak: crispy; sautéed carrots: not crispy)
Stir the food, don't
shake the pan. Some cooks like the ostentatious technique
of lifting the pan off the range and shaking it in the
air, sometimes using the rounded edge of the sauté pan to
flip the food over. Practice this to impress your
uneducated friends (outside, with a cold pan, using dried
split peas) but you should expect that the cooking time of
your dish will be extended if you continually remove the
pan from the heat source. Also, if the temperature drops
too much, the oil will begin to soak into your food, and
your dish will become greasy. If you feel the need to
shake the pan, keep the pan close to your heating element
if it is safe to do so.
The amount of attention
required will depend on the recipe. For some recipes,
constant stirring is required. Other times, especially
when sautéing single cuts of meat, it is best to cook one
side, then the other side, with no stirring or movement of
the food item in the pan at all. In that case, plan to put
the "skin" side or presentation side (the side facing up
on the plate when served) down into the clean hot oil
first.
When sautéing cuts of
meat, many recipes will call for you to deglaze the pan
with a flavorful liquid (e.g. stock, wine, spirits, or
even fruit juices). The dark brown bits of meat left
behind from the high heat cooking are called "fond" and
are as intensely flavored as pan drippings from roasted
meats. These should generally be scraped off the bottom of
the pan and dissolved into the deglazing liquid. In
especially elegant preparations, the pan sauce created is
strained to remove the solid bits, leaving only the
dissolved flavorings in a smooth sauce.
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