Sauteeing is a technique in which you cook food very quickly in a small amount of fat, in a skillet or saute pan, over very high heat. The word sautee in French means “to jump.” This refers to the sauteeing motion of flipping the contents in your pan from front to back, causing them to “jump” out of the pan.
When “sauteeing” a larger item such as veal scallopine, you are simply cooking the piece of veal very quickly on both sides and finishing it on the stove top.
Some Things to Keep In Mind When Sauteeing
- Always use a heavy bottom sautee pan with low, flared edges. The heavy bottom will allow your pan to heat more evenly, and the flared edges will aid you in the sauteeing motion.
- When choosing which kind of fat you will be sauteeing with, take into consideration the flavor and smoke point of each fat. When sauteeing, I prefer canola oil for it’s neutral flavor and high smoke point. Clarified butter also works well.
- Always sautee over high heat.
How To Make The Sauteeing Motion
- Place your elbow against your ribcage and touch your thumb to your shoulder; we will call this the 90 degree position.
- Drop your hand directly in front of you at a 45 degree angle (half of 90) so that your forearm and bicep are forming an “L”.
- Lift the sautee pan off of the burner and in one fluid motion with your wrist, dip the pan down to a 40 degree angle while pushing it forward. As the contents of the pan start sliding up the front rim, pull the pan back and up at a 50 degree angle.
- You should be doing the above step in one, seamless and continuous motion. If you don’t get it on your first try, don’t be discouraged. It’s one of those things that you’ll need to practice to master.
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Funny how the FCS logo was designed for this post lol
I think you mean dip down to a -5 degree angle and up to a 5 degree angle, 45 degrees sounds like you would get burnt!
@ Dave,
The entire explanation of this post is based upon the the reference point of 90 degrees being your hand straight up by your shoulder, with your elbow as the fulcrum point held tight next to your side. Maybe I should just shoot a video on this since its definitely more of a visual.
First, allow me to commend you on a great site. Back in the 80’s when at the CCA I had a great chef from Lyon France who would lambaste anyone actually lifting their saute pan off the burner as you loose too much heat. You can perform the technique barely lifting the back edge of the pan and sliding it back and forth across the burner grate with a quick saute motion, using the natural curve of the pan to do much of te work. If you are working on an home stove, the limited BTU’s make this technique a must to maintain heat and not end up boiling your ingredients.