How to Saute and Sweat Fruits and Vegetables

Sweating and sautéing are predominantly the same except when sweating a lid is placed on the pan and the ingredients aren’t stirred beyond the intial stage to coat them in the fat. With sauteing, no lid is used and the ingedients are stirred continually during the cooking period. Both methods use a small amount of fat. The length of cooking time for both methods varies as well. Sautéed food is usually cooked for a relatively short period over high heat in order to preserve its colour, moisture, and flavour and is stirred often, while sweated vegetables are cooked for longer over medium heat and untouched.

Oil or clarified butter is commonly used for sautéing, but most fats will do. Regular butter is less well suited for sautéing because it will burn at a lower temperature due to the presence of milk solids. Butter is the fat of choice for sweating because the cooking temperature is lower and the flavour is better.

Sauteing Fruits and Vegetables

1.  Use a hot pan, large enough to hold all of the food in one layer.
2.  Add the fat and heat, then add the evenly sliced or chopped vegetables all at once.
3. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to move the vegetables as they cook.
4. Cook the vegetables according to the stir-frying times in the Vegetable Cooking Timestable on this site.

Sweating Fruits and Vegetables

1. Use a hot pan, large enough to hold all of the food in one layer. Once the pan is hot, reduce the
2. temperature to medium.
3. Add the butter and when it melts, add the evenly sliced or chopped vegetables all at once.
4. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to move the vegetables for the first minute to coat them evenly in the
5. butter.
6. Reduce the heat to low, put a lid on the pan and cook the vegetable till they are soft and tender.