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Sautéing is a method of cooking food using a small amount of fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Sauter means "to jump," in French, and the food being sautéed is kept moving, not unlike the stir fry technique using a wok.
Food that is sautéed is usually cooked for a relative short period of time over high heat in order to brown the food, while preserving its color, moisture and flavor. This is very common with more tender cuts of meat, e.g. tenderloin and filet mignon. Sautéeing differs from searing in that the sautéed food is thoroughly cooked in the process. One may sear simply to add flavor and improve appearance before another process is used to finish cooking it.
Olive oil or clarified butter are commonly used for sautéeing, but most fats will do. Regular butter is less well suited for sautéeing, because it will burn at a lower temperature due to the presence of milk solids.
Sweating
A related cooking method, called a sweat, starts with the same raw materials as a sauté (a pan and some fat), but uses a low heat. The purpose of the sweat is simply to soften the food, not brown it as in a sauté. The food being sweated is sometimes salted, to allow some of the food's moisture to "sweat" out.
Performing a sauté
To sauté, a hot pan is required, large enough to hold all of the food in one layer. A kind of frying pan known as a sauté pan is ideal; it has straight sides, to maximize the surface area available for the sauté. Only enough fat to lightly coat the bottom of the pan is needed. Using too much fat will cause the food to fry rather than to sauté. The food is spread across the hot fat in the pan, and left to brown, turning occasionally for even cooking. Tossing or stirring the items in the pan by shaking the pan can cause the pan to cool faster, and make the sauté take longer, possibly producing a lower quality result.
The two most important items to watch are that the pan is very hot, and that the food is not crowded into the pan. This ensures that the food browns well without absorbing the fat or stewing in its own juices. Furthermore, the food must be completely dry in order to keep the pan from cooling and to keep the moisture from building up in the pan; moisture will steam or stew the food. This is particularly important in the case of food that has been marinated.
See also
"Sautéing"