Chinese cooking techniques () are a set of methods and techniques traditionally used in

Chinese cuisine Chinese cuisine comprises cuisines originating from Greater China, China, as well as from Overseas Chinese, Chinese people from other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and the historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine ...

. 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 The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

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 savoury gelatin made with a meat stock (food), 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 ...

but also used to describe making of various

gelatin dessert Gelatin desserts are desserts made with a sweetened and flavoured processed collagen product (gelatin), which makes the dessert "set" from a liquid to a soft elastic solid gel. This kind of dessert was first recorded as "jelly" by Hannah Glas ...

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 Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diet ...

() *#Quick precooking in hot water () *#Finished by stir-frying (, ) and ) *' (): This technique is commonly used for meat and fish. Pre-fried

tofu or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...

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.

References

{{Reflist Chinese cuisine