Chinese cooking techniques

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 zhǔ (煮). In fact, this class of techniques is so common and important that the term zhǔ 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:

• Dòng (凍): The technique is used for making aspic but also used to describe making of various gelatin desserts
  1. Simmering meat for a prolonged period in a broth (滷; Lǔ) or (炖; dùn)
  2. Chilling the resulting meat and broth until the mixture gels
• Hùi (燴): The dishes made using this technique are usually finished by thickening with starch (勾芡; gōuqiàn)
  1. Quick precooking in hot water (燙; tàng)
  2. Finished by stir-frying (爆; bào, 炒; chǎo) and 燒; shāo)
• Liū (溜): This technique is commonly used for meat and fish. Pre-fried tofu is made expressly for this purpose.
  1. Deep frying (炸; zhá) the ingredients until partially cooked
  2. Finishing the ingredients by lightly braising (燒; shāo) them to acquire a soft "skin"
• Mēn (燜):
  1. Stir-frying (爆; bào or 炒; chǎo) the ingredients until partially cooked
  2. Cover and simmer (燒; shāo) with broth until broth is fully reduced and ingredients are fully cooked.