Sweat? Saute? What's the difference?

[bookluvingbabe]

I'm making this receipe for dinner tonight and realized I don't know what the difference is between sweating the onions and mushrooms and sauteing them is.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231145

Any guidelines? Suggestions?

Many thanks~!

Jennifer

[Dryden]

My .02: Sweat is a stop on the road to saute. If you saute them, they are fully cooked when done. If you sweat them, until they have released their juices, they are not yet fully cooked, but are ready to be added to other ingredients to finish their cooking process.

[memesuze]

and doesn't sweating start with vegetables in cold oil whilst sauteeing adds vegetables to hot oil?

[Luckylies]

sweat is to cook a vegtable in fat at a low heat so it may release its juices and flavors. no color.

saute indicates higher heat, and colorisation.

both start in heated oil.

also with mushrooms (to saute) start with very high heat and do not turn or flip them until they begin to color, if you do they'll start to stew and won't brown properly. start with hot oil too. good luck

[slkinsey]

Fundamentally sweating is a low temperature/low movement technique. You can start with a warm pan or a cold pan, never a hot pan. The vegetables are cooked in a limited amount of fat at low heat (often but not always covered with a parchment or wax paper "lid") until fully softened and cooked through but not colored. The vegetables are not moved around much. Sweating is a technique that applies to vegetables and fruits, not meats.

Sautéing is a high temperature/high movement technique. You start with a very hot pan. Food items in "chunk" form are cooked in a limited amount of hot fat at high heat, and the pan is constantly agitated so the ingredients are "jumped around in the pan" (the French verb sauter means "to jump") and browned evenly on all sides. Sautéing is a technique that can be used for any "chunk" shaped food item. "Sauté" is commonly misused by people who mean to say "fry." You cannot really sauté a whole chicken breast, for example. If the ingredients are just sitting there and not bouncing around the pan you are frying, not sautéing.

[chefgy]

I believe that salt is often added to a sweat in order to pull moisture out of the food being cooked.

Edited March 9, 2005 by chefgy (log)

[bentherebfor]

I believe that salt is often added to a sweat in order to pull moisture out of the food being cooked.

←

True...however thats not to say that you can't add salt to a saute. Just that the salt helps the sweating process along.

Edited March 9, 2005 by bentherebfor (log)

[fifi]

I would also add that when I sweat something, mushrooms for instance, I put a lid on it.

[Shalmanese]

I would put the distinction at whether any liquid is expressed. With liquid in your pan, the highest temperature you can get up to is maybe 120 - 130C which means that no browning will occur. With a saute, your heat is high enough such that any liquid expressed turns to steam and the temperature can remain much higher.

Anybody who claims you can't sweat meat hasn't cooked in a thin pan over a wimpy burner :P.

[rgruby]

Made it for the first time tonight. Very simple, very delicious.

Just do the shrooms and onions over lowish heat so they soften up but don't take on colour, and you should do fine.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby