Chinese cooking techniques

Chinese cooking techniques () are a set of methods and techniques traditionally used in 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 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 but also used to describe making of various gelatin desserts

#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 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