As I understand it, all of these terms refer to cooking food in a small amount of fat/oil. What exactly is the difference?
What’s the difference between pan frying, sauteing, and shallow frying
fryingsauteing
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Best Answer
Pan frying means letting the food sit in the pan and occasionally stirring or flipping. It tends to be done with larger pieces of food, and at a medium to medium-high heat.
Sautéing means shaking the pan back and forth - making the food "jump", if you're translating directly. It's done at a high heat, for a short time, usually with thinly-sliced or finely-chopped ingredients.
Shallow frying, according to some references, refers to the food being partially (halfway) submerged in hot oil and flipped once, as opposed to deep-frying where the food is fully-submerged the whole time.