Understand frying

Understand frying. Frying is very similar to sautéing, in that the food is cooked in a hot pan with oil. As with sautéing, it is very important that both the pan and the oil are heated to the correct temperature before cooking. However, there are several differences between frying and sautéing, along with different forms of frying itself, so it is worth noting the differences between each.

• Pan frying is very similar to sautéing. It involves cooking food in a pan, using oil. However, pan frying is typically used for larger pieces of meat - such as chicken breasts, steaks, pork chops and fillets of fish - which have not been cut into pieces. It is also done at a lower heat than sautéing, to ensure that the larger food items do not burn on the outside before they are cooked in the middle.
• Shallow frying is the same as pan frying, except for the amount of oil used. With pan frying the pan is simply coated thinly with oil, whereas with shallow frying the oil typically reaches about halfway up the sides of the food being cooked. This method is used for cooking food such as fried chicken, battered shrimp andeggplant parmigiana.
• Deep frying involves completely immersing the food in hot oil. With this type of frying, the food does not need to be flipped over halfway through cooking, as the coating of oil allows it to cook evenly on all sides. It is used to cook items such as battered foods, french fries and donuts.
• Stir frying, a staple of Chinese cooking, is more or less the same as sautéing - the food is cut into small pieces and cooked in oil in a hot pan. The only difference is the type of pan used; stir frying is done in a wok - which has a deep bowl with gently sloping sides and is made from thin metal.^[3]

Resource: wikihow.com