251—The Sautés

What characterises the process we call “sauté” is that the object treated is cooked dry—that is to say, solely by means of a fatty substance such as butter, oil, or grease.

Sautés are made with cut-up fowl or game, or with butcher’s meat suitably divided up for the purpose.

All products treated in this way must be frizzled—that is to say, they must be put into the fat when it is very hot in order that a hardened coating may form around them which will keep their juices within. This is more particularly desirable for red meats such as beef and mutton.

The cooking of fowl sautés must, after the meats have been frizzled, be completed on the stove or, with lid off, in the oven, where they should be basted with butter after the manner of a roast.

The pieces are withdrawn from the utensil with a view to swilling the latter, after which, if they be put back into the sauce or accompanying garnish, they should only remain therein a few moments or just sufficiently long to become properly warm.

The procedure is the same for game sautés.

Sautés of butcher’s meats (red meats), such as tournedos, kernels, cutlets, fillets, and noisettes, are always effected on the stove; the meats are frizzled and cooked with a small quantity of clarified butter.

The thinner and smaller they are, the more rapidly should the frizzling process be effected.

When blood appears on the surface of their raw side, they should be turned over; when drops of blood begin to bedew their other side, they are known to be cooked.

The swilling of the utensil obtains in all sautés. After having withdrawn the treated product from the saucepan, remove the grease and pour the condimentary liquid (a wine), that forms part of the accompanying sauce, into the saucepan.

Set to boil, so that the solidified gravy lying on the bottom may dissolve, and add the sauce; or simply add the swilling liquid to the prepared sauce or accompanying garnish of the sauté. The utensil used must always be just large enough to hold the objects to be treated. If it be too large, the parts left uncovered by the treated meats burn, and swilling is then impossible, whence there results a loss of the solidified gravy which is an important constituent in the sauce.

Sautés of white, butcher’s meats, such as veal and lamb, must also be frizzled in hot fat, but their cooking must be completed gently on the side of the fire, and in many cases with lid on.

Preparations of a mixed nature, which partly resemble sautés and partly braisings, are also called sautés. Stews, however, is their most suitable name.

These dishes are made from beef, veal, lamb, game, &c., and they are to be found in Part II. under the headings Estouffade; Goulash; Sautés: Chasseur, Marengo, Bourgeoise; Navarin; Civet; &c.

In the first stage of their preparation, the meats are cut up small and fried like those of the sautés; in the second, slow cooking with sauce or garnish makes them akin to braised meats.