Sautéing in the context of Skillet

A frying pan or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It typically ranges from 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 in) in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle. A pan of similar dimensions, but with less flared, more vertical sides and often with a lid, is called a sauté pan. While a sauté pan can be used as a frying pan, it is designed for lower-heat cooking.

Sofrito (Spanish: [soˈfɾito]), sofregit (Catalan: [sufɾəˈʒit]), soffritto (Italian: [sofˈfritto]), sofrit (French: [sofʁi]), refogado (Portuguese: [ʁɨfuˈɣaðu]) or sueztitze (Basque: [s̺ues̻ˈtits̻e]) typically consists of aromatic ingredients cut into small pieces and sautéed or braised in cooking oil for a long period of time over a low heat, then used as a foundation for a variety of dishes. It is a basic preparation in Mediterranean and Latin American cooking.

In modern Spanish cuisine, sofrito consists of garlic, onion and peppers cooked in olive oil, and optionally tomatoes or carrots. This is known as refogado, sufrito, or sometimes as estrugido in Portuguese-speaking nations, where only garlic, onions, and olive oil are considered essential, tomato and bay laurel leaves being the other most common ingredients. In Italian cuisine, chopped onions, carrots and celery is battuto, and then, slowly cooked in olive oil, becomes soffritto. It may also contain garlic, shallot, or leek.

Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat. Similar to sautéing, pan-fried foods are generally turned over once or twice during cooking to ensure that the food is evenly cooked, using tongs or a spatula, whereas sautéed foods are cooked by "tossing in the pan". A large variety of foods may be fried.

Searing or pan searing is a technique used in grilling, baking, braising, roasting, sautéing, and the like, in which the surface of the food (usually meat such as beef, poultry, pork, or seafood) is cooked at high temperature until a browned crust forms. Similar techniques, such as browning and blackening, are typically used to sear all sides of a particular piece of meat, fish, poultry, etc. before finishing it in the oven. To obtain the desired brown or black crust, the meat surface must exceed 150 °C (300 °F), so searing requires the meat surface be free of water, which boils at around 100 °C (212 °F).

Although often said to "lock in the moisture" or "seal in the juices", in fact, searing results in a greater loss of moisture than cooking to the same internal temperature without searing. Nonetheless, it remains an essential technique in cooking meat for several reasons: