Chinese cooking techniques () are a set of methods and techniques traditionally used in
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many o ...
. The cooking techniques can either be grouped into ones that use a single cooking method or a combination of wet and dry cooking methods.
Single
Many cooking techniques involve a singular type of heated cooking or action.
Wet
Wet-heat, immersion-based cooking methods are the predominant class of cooking techniques in Chinese cuisine and are usually referred to as ' (). In fact, this class of techniques is so common and important that the term ' is commonly used to denote cooking in general.
Quick immersion
Quick wet-heat based immersion cooking methods include:
Prolonged immersion
Prolonged wet-heat based immersion cooking methods include:
Steaming
Steaming food is a wet cooking technique that has a long history in Chinese cuisine dating back to neolithic times, where additional food was cooked by steaming over a vessel of food being cooked by other wet cooking techniques.
Dry
Air-based
Food preparation in hot dry vessels such as an oven or a heated empty wok include:
Oil-based
Oil-based cooking methods are one of the most common in Chinese cuisine and include:
=Stir frying
=
Kian Lam Kho identifies five distinct techniques of stir frying:
Without heat
Food preparation techniques not involving the heating of ingredients include:
Combination
Several techniques in Chinese involve more than one stage of cooking and have their own terms to describe the process. They include:
*' (): The technique is used for making
aspic
Aspic or meat jelly () is a savory gelatin made with a meat stock or broth, set in a mold to encase other ingredients. These often include pieces of meat, seafood, vegetable, or eggs. Aspic is also sometimes referred to as ''aspic gelée'' or ' ...
but also used to describe making of various
gelatin dessert
Gelatin desserts (also Jelly or Jello) are desserts made with a sweetened and flavoured processed collagen product (gelatin). This kind of dessert was first recorded as jelly by Hannah Glasse in her 18th-century book ''The Art of Cookery'', a ...
s
*#Simmering meat for a prolonged period in a broth () or ()
*#Chilling the resulting meat and broth until the mixture gels
*' (): The dishes made using this technique are usually finished by thickening with
starch ()
*#Quick precooking in hot water ()
*#Finished by stir-frying (, ) and )
*' (): This technique is commonly used for meat and fish. Pre-fried
tofu
Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...
is made expressly for this purpose.
*#Deep frying () the ingredients until partially cooked
*#Finishing the ingredients by lightly braising () them to acquire a soft "skin"
*' ():
*#Stir-frying ( or ) the ingredients until partially cooked
*#Cover and simmer () with broth until broth is fully reduced and ingredients are fully cooked.
See also
*
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many o ...
*
List of cooking techniques
This is a list of cooking techniques commonly used in cooking and food preparation.
Cooking is the art of preparing food for ingestion, commonly with the application of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, refle ...
*
Wok
A wok (; Pinyin: ; Cantonese ) is a deep round-bottomed cooking pan from China. It is believed to be derived from the South Asian karahi. It is common in China and similar pans are found in parts of East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as ...
References
{{Reflist
Chinese cuisine