Sautéing & the shallow fry

How to tell it is going right

• Everything sits in a single layer with visible space between the pieces: nothing stacked, nothing touching, or the pan is too small for the quantity.
• The pieces move freely and keep moving, sliding across the pan rather than sticking and tearing when the pan is worked.
• Light even browning arrived at quickly: colour on most faces, not the deep crust of a sear and not grey.
• A thin film of fat with the food glossed by it: no pool left in the pan at the end, and nothing greasy on the fingers or the plate.
• Cooked through but still firm, having spent only a few minutes in the pan: anything that has gone soft has been in there too long.

Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once, the pan cooled, and the food released its water: what was meant to brown in three minutes stews for ten and comes out grey, slack and wet.