Blanching - Blanch

A cooking technique of briefly plunging food into boiling water. After blanching, immediately plunge your food into very cold water to stop the cooking process.

There are several reasons why you would need to blanch food:

1. Quick blanching (1-3 minutes) of certain foods (such as asparagus, broccoli, green beans and other vegetables) will help it to retain its vibrant color and distinct flavor.

2. Blanching such foods as tomatoes or peaches can help make their skin easy to remove.

3. Blanching vegetables before freezing destroys the enzymes in the vegetables that cause the breakdown of the food.

4. Blanching can remove certain strong flavors (for instance, too much salt in bacon).