Stir frying
cooking technique
Stir frying (Chinese: 炒; pinyin: chǎo; Wade–Giles: ch'ao3; Cantonese Yale: cháau) is a cooking technique in which ingredients are fried in a small amount of very hot oil while being stirred or tossed in a wok. The technique originated in China and in recent centuries has spread into other parts of Asia and the West. It is similar to sautéing in Western cooking technique.
Wok frying may have been used as early as the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), although initially for drying grain, not for cooking. It was not until the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) that the wok reached its modern shape and allowed quick cooking in hot oil. However, research indicates that metal woks and stir-frying of dishes were already popular in the Song dynasty (960–1279), and stir-frying as a cooking technique is mentioned in the 6th-century AD Qimin Yaoshu. Stir-frying has been recommended as a healthy and appealing method of preparing vegetables, meats, and fish, provided calories are kept at a reasonable level.
The English-language term "stir fry" was coined and introduced in Buwei Yang Chao's How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, first published in 1945, as her translation of the Chinese word chǎo 炒. Although using "stir-fry" as a noun is commonplace in English, in Chinese, chǎo is used as a verb or adjective only.
Technique
Broadly speaking, there are two primary techniques: chao and bao.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stir frying” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.