Stir frying

Lore & Background

Dry stirring was used in the Han dynasty to parch grain. Archaeological evidence of woks and the tendency to slice food thinly indicate that the technique was likely used for cooking, though no surviving records of Han dynasty stir frying exist. The term first appears in the sense of 'stir frying' in the Qimin Yaoshu, a sixth-century agricultural manual, including in a recipe for scrambled eggs. The Song period is when the Chinese started to use vegetable oil for frying instead of animal fats.

Reader's Guide

Stir frying became increasingly popular in the late Ming dynasty, in part because wood and charcoal for stoves were becoming expensive near urban centers, and stir-frying could cook food quickly without wasting fuel. The increasingly commercial nature of city life in the late Ming and Qing periods also favored speedy methods. By the late Qing, most Chinese kitchens were equipped with a wok range convenient for stir-frying. In the West, stir frying spread from Chinese family and restaurant kitchens into general use, particularly noted in the health-conscious 1970s. Two primary techniques exist: chao, which adds a liquid and yields softer ingredients, and bao, which uses higher heat and produces crispier results due to the Maillard reaction. Wok hei, the 'breath of the wok,' is a flavor imparted by a hot wok during stir-frying, most encountered in Cantonese cuisine.

Did You Know?

• Wok hei, meaning 'breath of the wok,' is a flavor imparted by a hot wok during stir-frying, most common in Cantonese cuisine.
• The bao technique involves heating the wok to a dull red glow before adding oil and ingredients.
• Stir frying was not as important as boiling or steaming historically, because oil was expensive.