Here are 3 examples:
Fried egg, fried rice, fried chicken
All these “fry” are different. If you were to use the “fry” in fried rice to fry an egg, you’d get scrambled egg. Fried chicken is done by submerging it in oil, which you won’t do with fried egg or fried rice.
This post is made from the perspective of a Cantonese/Chinese speaker. We have different words for these different types of “fry” (煎, 炒, 炸 respectively)
(Turns out I did post it in the wrong sub and I didn’t realize, and now I feel very stupid. Photon UI has once again screwed me over. Got mad for no reason.)
In your opinion, what’s the difference between pan frying and sautéing?
I think they can be used synonymously; sautéing may imply stirring or shaking the ingredients in the pan similarly to stir-frying.
Ah, thank you! I always found those terms confusing. I learned to cook in Spanish, so when I would describe a recipe that included “sautéing” to Anglophones, I would say that I “fried” it because that’s how it’s said in Spanish, and I guess the context helps if you are familiar with the cuisine. Anglophones would think something like deep frying, which would cause confusion or hesitation. Whereas any Latino would know that no one is deep frying sofrito.
Sautéing doesn’t use anywhere near as much fat as frying does.
To fry something (pan frying) you need at least enough fat to ensure strong contact between the entire surface of the food and the pan. Something like 1/8" (about 5mm).
Now things like pan fried chicken will take more, about half the height of the chicken pieces in the pan.
Deep frying, well, the food should submerge/float.
I thought pan fried was with a lot of oil, like pan fried chicken, and sautéed was with a small amount of oil.
Ok, so they are different??
Let’s say I want use a a small amount of olive oil to lightly fry pressed garlic, chopped onions and green bell pepper enough to make the onion translucent and release the oil from the garlic into the olive oil. The amount of olive oil used is a little more than enough to wet the mix in oil. That would be considered sautéing, not pan frying, correct?
With sautéeing, the heat is being transferred from the pan to the food, with the thin layer of oil serving to increase the contact area and prevent sticking. It’s a low-fat cooking method.
With pan frying, it’s the hot oil that’s doing the cooking, with the pan heating the oil, not the food directly.
Edit: link
https://www.tastingtable.com/1255018/difference-sauteing-frying/
You sauté to soften and pan fry to crispen would be the difference I guess. So starting from a “soft” or “hard” ingredient, but both require same amount of oil and heat. I’ve never thought of them differently, since they’re the same action.
Everything that I have seen called pan frying uses enough oil to partially submerge the food being cooked, while sautéeing is just enough oil to keep things from sticking.
Not the same amount of oil.
They do not require the same amount of oil, by any measure (Metric or ACU).
Nor do they require the same heat. That’s determined by the food and end goal.
Sautéing green beans at the same temp as a fried egg will make for unevenly cooked beans.
Trying to fry an egg at green been temps will make for a nasty, oil-soaked blob where the whites are rubber and the yolk is hard, and you’ll never brown the whites.
Frying requires a moderately high heat. Sautéing can, but usually lower temps work better. With my pans, frying is about 70% heat, sautéing about 45%.
It also depends on the food.
Yes, that is sauteeing because you using a small amount of oil to keep the food from sticking and the oil kid of coats the food.
Pan fried chicken uses multiple cups of oil ao the chicken is partially submerged. If you tried to pan fry onions and green peppers the same way as pan fried chicken the oil will splash out when you put them it in due to the amount of moisture and hot oil.
Note: while I am based in the US and pan frying is probably used to mean the same thing as sauteeing somewhere else, I haven’t stumbled across that usage in a recipe before.
thank you!
English and French terms?