What is blanching

Popular Recipe Pages. Recipe Search. Seasonal Recipes. Our Newest Recipes. Recipes A to Z. Grilling Cooking Tips and Advice. Grilling and Broiling Chicken. Seasonal Cooking Tips. Put vegetable in blanching basket and lower into vigorously boiling water. Place lid on blancher. The water should return to boiling within 1 minute, or too much vegetable is being used for the amount of boiling water. Change water frequently or use cold running water or ice water.

If ice is used, about one pound of ice for each pound of vegetable is needed. Drain vegetables thoroughly after cooling. Extra moisture can cause loss of quality when vegetables are frozen. Steam blanching is applicable to broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and winter squash; blanching with both steam and boiling water works satisfactorily. The same is true for the orange color of carrots. Freezing can likewise cause the colors of veggies to turn drab, so blanching is a common step as a preliminary to freezing.

Vegetables such as green beans are often blanched in order to enhance their natural green color, as well as softening them. The reason being, high-heat cooking methods involve short cooking times, which isn't always enough to soften firm vegetables like carrots and broccoli. On the other hand, cooking them longer will tend to overcook the other items in the pan.

The solution: blanch the firmer vegetables separately, then add them to the pan with the other items. A similar case is when we're adding raw veggies to a salad. Blanching and shocking is a good technique to use for vegetables that will be featured in salads. They're softened just enough so that you can eat them more or less raw, but they won't be excessively difficult to chew.

And it also brightens the colors, making for a more visually appealing salad. Another use for blanching is to help loosen the skins on tomatoes, peaches, and other foods. If you're making your own marzipan , for instance, you'd need to blanch the almonds to remove their skins first. Blanching also comes into play when preparing white stocks such as chicken or veal stock, with the bones being blanched beforehand in order to rid them of impurities.

Blanching is also an excellent technique for preventing avocados from turning brown. Karen Australian. Hayley Australian. Natasha Australian. Veena Indian. Priya Indian. Neerja Indian. Zira US English. Oliver British. Wendy British. Fred US English. Tessa South African. How to say Blanching in sign language? Popularity rank by frequency of use Blanching