焼く vs 炒める – The Difference between Yaku and Itameru

stir-frying meat and vegetables

and いためる are two Japanese words used in cooking. They are similar but not the same. Let’s take a look to see what the difference between 焼く and 炒める are.

What does 焼く mean?

焼く does not only refer to cooking. It is a fairly diverse verb which you use to talk about heating up all sorts of things with fire such as ceramics. 焼く also can mean tanning your skin in the sun.
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Originally 焼く meant to cook something directly in the fire. Now though it can mean to bake something in an oven, grill, or cook in a frying pan.

What does 炒める mean?

炒める is a word that is more specific to cooking. The word means to saute or pan-fry something in a frying pan with some oil. So, for example, that could be vegetables, fish, meat or whatever.

What is the Difference between 焼くand 炒める?

First, 焼く is a verb whose range of usage extends beyond food as mentioned above. If we look specifically at only these two words when related to food though 炒める and 焼く do overlap and can be used interchangeably sometimes. That is only though when talking about cooking in a frying pan since 炒める only refers to fry pan cooking. 焼く on the other hand can refer to baking, grilling, cooking in fire, etc.

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If we are talking about cooking something in a frying pan then 炒める would suggest we are stirring and mixing the ingredient in the pan. 焼く has more of a nuance of leaving something in the pan to let it cook. That can be extended to cooking something to brown it or slightly burn it.

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